3.13 Lower Atmosphere Environment
The nature of conflict has evolved to highly localized, intense but short-lived battles involving the use of high-tech weaponry. This, in turn, has shifted the focus of lower atmosphere environment support to the warfighter. This shift emphasizes the need for battlespace awareness products in greater detail, spatially and temporally, than were ever required in the strategically driven cold war. The increasing use of weapons, intelligence, and surveillance systems operating at EO and microwave frequencies places greater dependence on information on the radiative and physical characteristics of the lower atmosphere.
As a result, the warfighter needs knowledge of the lower atmosphere environment, its dynamics, and its impact on sensor and weapon systems. Therefore, lower atmosphere environment emphasis is on specifying and forecasting atmospheric conditions such as temperature, pressure, rainfall, humidity, wind direction and velocity, cloud cover, acoustic and electromagnetic transmission, and visibility—all of which directly affect the warfighter's ability to see and operate ships, aircraft, ground vehicles, and most weapons and surveillance systems. This drives the need for weather sensing, analysis, prediction, and tailored application approaches that represent more completely the physical processes unfolding in the Earth's sensible atmosphere. Achieving this requirement demands a capability to continuously observe or monitor the battlespace in 3D using remote and in situ sensors operating on space, ground, and air (manned and unmanned) platforms. The changing role of U.S. forces toward a reactive force available for deployment to small-scale conflicts anywhere on the globe requires that this monitoring capability be available around the world on extremely short notice.
As was demonstrated in Operation Desert Storm, weather was the major cause of aborted strike missions, causing 40% of ordnance to be unused over targets and greatly compromising battle damage assessment. Increased knowledge and quality/timeframe of forecasts are needed to ensure that operations occur successfully, with reduced casualties and decreased costs, in system development and asset utilization. A unique DoD need is provision of operational support in data-sparse and data-denied areas. Emphasis must be placed on the development of tailored weather decision aids and on the simulation of weather elements in support of system acquisition, training, and wargaming.
3.13.2.1 Goals and Timeframes. Lower atmosphere environment emphasis is to provide tactical-scale atmospheric specifications and forecasts on a global basis; develop the real-time tools to assess the environment and its effects on system performance and operations; and develop the techniques of atmospheric measurement, analysis, and prediction with seamless, global, continuous coverage. The application of these technologies in the natural environment will result in measurement, monitoring, and prediction systems that will be truly full spectrum, providing the real-time capability to support air, land and sea operations across the battlespace. Better understanding of the lower atmosphere and its dynamics is critical to radar (3.1), EO sensors (3.2), ATR (3.4), electro-optics technology (3.7), and command and control for mission planning. The goals of this area are shown in Table VII-14.
3.13.2.2 Major Technical Challenges. The challenges are to develop revolutionary new on-scene and remote sensors; data acquisition, data integration, and quality control systems; battle- scale analysis and prediction capability; and artificial intelligence (AI) technology for atmospheric product management.
| Fiscal Year | Goal |
|---|---|
| FY98 | Demonstrate software prototype of night vision goggles with performance capable of 75% prediction accuracy. Deliver automated weather analysis system for shipboard and battlefield applications, reducing forecast time by a factor of 5. |
| FY01 | Integrate infrared target signature models into decision aids, reducing by 50% the need for flight test hours. Enhance regional and global prediction systems to provide, for the first time, explicit forecasts of visibility and clouds. |
| FY04 | Extend global ocean-atmosphere-coupled prediction model's forecast range to 4-6 days. Fully exploit theater battlespace weather data through the use of 4D data assimilation techniques. |
3.13.2.3 Related Federal and Private Sector Efforts. NSF, NOAA, NASA, and FAA participate in lower atmosphere environment S&T. Their efforts are coordinated with those of DoD through the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology. There is a clear distinction between the work described here that focuses on battlespace application and the R&D in the broader civilian meteorological community. There is only a very small industrial base in this area.
3.13.3 S&T Investment Strategy
The long-term goal of this subarea is to evolve a theater-level battlespace weather awareness system that can be activated on short notice anywhere worldwide anytime warfighter requirements dictate.
In executing the lower atmosphere environment subarea, focus is maintained on joint service weather requirements and capabilities. The challenges are to provide current battlespace weather information (natural and manmade) on a global basis, predict battlespace weather information out to 2 weeks, and provide tailored tactical decision aids for all weather-sensitive systems. Meeting these challenges will require the development of revolutionary new on-scene and remote sensors; data acquisition, data integration, and quality control systems; battlescale analysis and prediction capability; and AI technology for atmospheric product management. Specifically, DTO SE.52.01 is providing technology support (weather impact decision aids) to JWSTP Information Superiority DTO A.07, Battlefield Awareness and Data Dissemination.
Technology advances in all constituent areas of atmospheric science and target signatures are required to achieve the lower atmosphere environment goals. Key thrusts include new ways to observe and predict atmospheric parameters on theater space and time scales, data fusion techniques, improved knowledge of boundary layer physics and explicit cloud processes leading to improved numerical weather prediction models, and tailored application methods in support of specific weapon systems. The focus in this program is on atmospheric measurements, prediction, simulation, and development of system-specific, tailored weather decision aids.
3.13.3.1 Technology Demonstrations.
None.
3.13.3.2 Technology Development.
Weather/Atmospheric Impacts on Sensor Systems (DTO SE. 52.01). The objectives of this program are to develop and validate the models that translate the measured or forecasted state of the atmosphere into terms that define the impact of the atmosphere on specific combat systems and operations. A common requirement for all these systems is a knowledge of the propagation characteristics at the required wavelengths (from the visible to microwave regions).
On-Scene Weather Sensing and Prediction Capability (DTO SE.53.01). The objectives of this program are to develop local, regional, and global prediction systems that sense, describe, and forecast battlespace environment parameters in support of mission planning; ship, aircraft, and ground vehicle movement; logistics; and strategic and tactical operations that degrade gracefully as communications and weather observational systems degrade.
3.13.3.3 Basic Research. Advances in basic research critical to the technology developments in this subarea are detailed in Section 4.10 of the Basic Research Plan. It is directed toward understanding the basic physical processes relevant to extended forecasting models for:
