Meteorological Research for Battle Command
Abstract
This program element (PE) investigates, evaluates, and matures military engineering technologies. The objective of this project is to perform applied research and development of tactical weather and atmospheric effects/impacts algorithms and for their integration into battlefield information products. The Army requires capabilities to enhance battlefield commanders and Soldiers decision making based on knowledge of tactical weather data and other environmental impacts. The weather intelligence data must not only be accurate and timely, but also be distributed down to the lowest levels of command, (e.g., individual Soldier). Technologies include high-resolution, local assessments and forecasts of meteorological conditions in near real time including effects of urban and mountainous terrain; analytical tools to assess the impact of the atmosphere to optimize system performance and operations planning; and advanced atmospheric sensing applications to characterize and mitigate wind and turbulence in complex terrain. It provides detailed model applications for various effects of the atmosphere on electro-optical and acoustic target detection, location, and identification. This project develops both physics-based decision aids and rule-based decision support systems for assessing the impacts of weather/atmosphere across a spectrum of friendly and threat weapons systems, sensors, platforms, and operations. The technology can be applied to mission planning and execution, battlefield visualization, reconnaissance surveillance and target acquisition, route planning to maximize stealth and efficiency, web enabled tactical decision aids, and also modeling of environmental impacts for combat simulations and war games. This project supports the future Army through research and development of novel environmental methods and applications that support echelons at Brigade and below (down to the individual Soldier). Products include atmospheric impacts on Army systems and personnel, an Army scale on-scene weather sensing and prediction capability, optical imaging and acoustic tools for automatic target recognition, optical imaging tools for improvised explosive device (IED)/anomaly detection, and physics-based acoustic tools for helicopter collision avoidance and improved source localization. The cited work is consistent with the Director, Defense Research and Engineering Strategic Plan, the Army Modernization Strategy, and the Army Science and Technology Master Plan. This work transitions technologies to the Project Manager for Target Identification and Meteorological Systems for field artillery systems, and to the Department of Defense weather and operations modeling community, and the Program Manager, Distributed Common Ground System-Army (DCGS-A), the Joint Improvised Explosive Device (IED) Defeat Organization, the Program Executive Office Aviation, the Product Manager, Tactical Airspace Integration System, and Project Manager for Robotics and Unmanned Sensors. Work in this project is performed by the Army Research Laboratory located at Adelphi, MD/White Sands Missile Range, NM.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Project
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2012
- Source ID
- H71_0602784A_2_2040_PB_2012
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