Report on TNT 05-3 Atmospheric Effects Support
Abstract
Optimizing situational awareness on the battlefield requires knowledge of the radar, communication and optical detection ranges for both friendly and enemy units. One of the goals of TNT 05-3 was to demonstrate the capability of providing this information in real time to forces in the field and command centers. This report discusses the efforts and accomplishments that were made to achieve this goal. All of the planned measurements, data transmission systems, real-time modeling and displays operated successfully for the entire TNT05-3 period (17-18 May, 2005). There were no periods when the radar and visibility predictions were not available to the command center. This demonstrates that providing special operations personnel with information on radar, communications and target detection ranges in real time is feasible, as long as basic information (temperature, humidity, wind speed) is available near the surface in the area of operations. This was the first time for the TNT project that the radar and optical models were quantitatively compared and analyzed using actual field tests. Not surprisingly, the model predictions were not accurate to the high degree needed for an operational special forces situation. The radar ranges were under-predicted. The visibility predictions were greatly improved from the previous TNT projects, due to the inclusion of human eye factors in addition to atmospheric effects. However, the ranges were still over-predicted by a factor of two.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 14, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA445099
Entities
People
- Jeffrey Knorr
- Karl Gutekunst
- Kenneth Davidson
- Peter Guest
- Richard J. Lind
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School