Mesoscale Forecast Analysis of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Structure and Electromagnetic Signal Attenuation During the Terrain-Induced Rotor Experiment (T-REX)
Abstract
With the increased importance of high bandwidth microwave communication and remote sensing capabilities in Army battlefield operations, the need arises in being able to quantify the impact of microwave signal attenuation sources such as turbulence-driven fluctuations in the atmospheric refractive index and gaseous absorption. An assessment of attenuation effects in the atmospheric boundary layer was afforded by the Terrain-Induced Rotor Experiment (T-REX), which was a large-scale, observational study involving participants from several research agencies and academic institutions with the goal of examining the structure and evolution of atmospheric rotors and waves that develop over regions of complex terrain. A statistical analysis is presented in which the forecast accuracy of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Advance Research WRF (ARW) model employed by the Army Research Laboratory's Battlefield Environment Division is quantified using data collected from the Integrated Sounding System (ISS) Multiple Antenna Profiler Radar (MAPR) during T-REX Intensive Observation Periods (IOPs). It was found that vertical profiles of attenuation fields obtained from both model and observational sources were strongly correlated for gaseous absorption contributions but only a weak statistical relationship exists for scintillation contributions. This outcome suggests that mesoscale numerical weather prediction (NWP) models that are run at high spatial resolutions may potentially be used to generate forecasts that are tailored towards predicting EM attenuation effects over battlefield environments.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA481618
Entities
People
- E. Colon
- R. E. Dumais
- R. Flanigan
- T. Henmi