3.13.1 Warfighter Needs
Just as in the case of the Ocean Battlespace Environment, the Warfighter needs knowledge of his/her environment, its dynamics, and its impact on his/her sensor and weapon systems. As a consequence, 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. Forces conducting warfighting operations must camouflage personnel, weapons systems, aircraft, ground vehicles, equipment, supplies, logistic sites, installations and command, control and communications facilities while continuing to perform their designated mission (low, mid, high conflicts). Forces must be able to confuse, mislead, or evade the threat by reducing the probability of detection, recognition, or identification from threat sensors. Forces must be able to prevent lock or break lock of threat terminal guidance sensors on guided munitions.
As was demonstrated in the Desert Storm operation, weather was the major cause of aborted strike missions, causing 40% of ordnance to be unused over targets and greatly compromised 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 the requirement to provide 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 Lower Atmosphere Environment Overview
3.13.2.1 Goals and Timeframes. Lower Atmosphere Environment emphasis is to provide tactical-scale atmospheric specification 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. In the concealment area, the emphasis is to develop materials, coatings and thin films which will selectively alter or control reflection and emission of energy which would block or defeat enemy assets across the electromagnetic spectrum. The application of these technologies in smoke, obscurants and camouflage will result in signature management systems that will be truly multispectral, controlling signatures across the electromagnetic spectrum.
| FY97 | Demonstrate prototype night vision goggles software with performance
capable of 70% prediction accuracy. Deliver automated weather analysis system for shipboard andbattlefield applications, reducing forecast time by a factorof 5. Develop EM/EO propagation model capable of accuratepredictions of communication loss 70% of the time. |
| FY00 | Deliver AI capability for first in weather prediction that exceeds climatology.
Integrate infrared target signature models into Decision Aids, reducing, by 50%, the need for flight test hours. Develop passive/reactive signature management system to reduce the detection range of moving vehicles by 50%. |
| FY03 | Develop 3-5 day global ocean-atmosphere coupled prediction model. Develop fully active multispectral signature management and deception system. |
Better understanding of the lower atmosphere and its dynamics is critical to Radar (3.1), EO Sensors (3.2), ATR (3.4) and command and control for mission planning.
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, battlescale analysis and prediction capability and artificial intelligence technology for atmospheric product management. The ultimate challenge is to obtain all the required data via remote sensing techniques at the time and spatial resolution required to drive atmospheric specification and prediction models as well as tailored decision aid software. This requirement is based on the need to provide operational support anywhere in the world, including regions of data paucity and data denial.
3.13.2.3 Related Federal and Private Sector Efforts. NSF, NOAA, NASA and FAA participate in lower atmosphere environment S&T. There is a clear distinction between the work described here 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
In executing the Lower Atmosphere Environment Subarea, focus is maintained on joint-Service weather requirements and capabilities. Key elements of the investment strategy include the development of new sensor capabilities to support battlefield and global requirements, data fusion and prediction models capable of functioning in a battlefield, data starved or data-denied environment.
3.13.3.1.1 Combat Weather Support. DTO SE.33.01.ANF. The objectives of this program are to demonstrate the ability to fuse battlefield weather information from in-situ and remote observations on land and at sea and validate its utility through participation in operational tests and to demonstrate an artificial intelligence-based "first-in" weather support capability when the availability of on-site data is negligible or non-existent.
3.13.3.1.2 Smoke, Obscurants, and Camouflage. DTO SE.34.01.A. The objectives of this program are to demonstrate the capability to conceal friendly force assets from threat sensors and acquire enemy low observable targets. Planned demonstrations include obscurant materials to defeat enemy sensor assets and coatings that reduce or eliminate thermal signatures.
3.13.3.1.3 Electro-Magnetic & EO Propagation in Lower Atmosphere. DTO SE.35.01.ANF. The objectives of this program are to demonstrate the accuracy of modeling the electromagnetic propagation environment in support of communications, weapon delivery, surveillance and reconnaissance. A refractivity model will be demonstrated which takes into account the horizontal inhomogeniety of atmospheric conditions in the littoral region; a model will be developed, demonstrated and validated to account for propagation effects resulting from the man-made "haze of war"; and a satellite-based remote sensing capability will be demonstrated for evaluation of propagation effects in data denied areas.
3.13.3.2 Technology Development. 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 battlefield anthropotenic effects for effective EM/EO materials leading to signature suppression coatings across the spectrum from visible to microwave. The focus in this program is on atmospheric measurements, prediction, simulation and the development of system-specific, tailored weather decision aids.
3.13.3.3 Basic Research. Advances in basic research critical
to the technology developments in this Subarea include extended
forecasting models to directly diagnose critical meteorological
parameters for battle regions (cloud ceiling, bases and tops;
precipitation intensities; visibility; icing and turbulence);
developing improved algorithms to exploit new satellite multi-spectral
sounders and imagers for cloud, water vapor and temperature retrieval
providing greater vertical resolution than currently available;
developing microphysical models to characterize cloud properties
that impact DoD systems and operations; utilization of new physics
theory, lattice boltzmann techniques, to perform 3D (multiple
scattering) radiative transfer in clouds for sensor design and
testing; understanding of how energy is exchanged between the
surface of the earth and the lowest layers of the atmosphere;
investigating the micro millimeter wave properties of metallic
films near percolation; and measuring the rough and non-continuous
material electro-optic properties.