Global Weather Awareness,
Abstract
The meteorological needs of the military include but go well beyond the civilian scope because of a requirement to operate globally - anywhere and anytime - and over very specific sites, often in poor visibility conditions. To complicate matters, areas of interest to the military are often access-denied, thus emphasizing remote sensing (satellite-, aircraft-, and ground-based). The Air Force, by the very nature of its mission, needs to know weather information in areas where such information is the most difficult to obtain. Despite the added difficulties, the need for global three-dimensional observations is common to both the military and civilian worlds of meteorology; thus the Defense and Commerce Departments have started collaborating to converge the Air Force's DMSP (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) and NOAA's Polar Satellites into one satellite system for the future. The first NPOESS satellite is slated for launch in 2008, but many technologies needed to meet the baseline requirements are not yet here (Example: active sensing technology, using lasers to provide better information on winds and aerosols, and microwave sources to provide better information on dense aerosols, including clouds).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 11, 1996
- Accession Number
- ADA320663
Entities
People
- Darryl P. Greenwood
- Robert A. Mcclatchey
Organizations
- Phillips Laboratory