NICOP - Aerosol impacts on High Energy laser (HEL) performance
Abstract
This project focuses on the effects of atmospheric aerosols on the performance of high-energy lasers(HEL), in particular the scatte"ring and absorption of optical energy out of the laser beam. In a typicaldirected energy engagement scenario at multi-kilometer ran"ges, approximately half of the laser powercan be lost to aerosol scattering.The Advanced Navy Aerosol Model (ANAM) has been develo""ped as the Navy~s engineering tool to assessaerosol impacts on propagation, and allows translating the effects of aerosols in the m""aritimeatmosphere into the effective engagement range of HEL-systems, as function of the environment. Thisproposal aims at optimiz""ing the current ANAM for assessing HEL-propagation in the coastal maritimeboundary layer.Specifically, the following activities ar"e foreseen:WP1/ Specific aerosol effects on the propagation of HEL-radiationWP2/ Vertical structure of the aerosol concentration in the maritime boundary layerWP3/ Contributions of non-sea-spray aerosolsWP1 consists primarily of theoretical studies towards the non-linear phenomena that occur when a HELpropagates through an aerosol-filled atmosphere: these phenomena reduce the energy transfer to thetarget and significantly reduce the beam quality. The WP also aims at acquiring new or historical datathat can be used f"or validation purposes.WP2 contains two separate, but strongly coupled activities. The first activity aims at providing aparametri"zation of the atmosphere in terms that can be used to model the (vertical) dispersion ofaerosols in that atmosphere. This will be a"ccomplished by the exploitation of existing data, and/or theparameterization of numerical weather data. The second activity aims at"" providing an aerosol dispersionalgorithm. Here, numerical aerosol transport models will be exploited, and if possible, parameteriz""ed.Machine learning may be applied to handle the significant data flow of these models.Finally, WP3 aims at characterizing the con""centration and composition of the atmospheric aerosols in acomplex coastal environment, where a multitude of (localized) aerosol so"urces gives rise to an aerosolmixture that is highly variable in space and time. The most important numerical tool in WP3 is thech"emical transport model that predicts the aerosol mixture on the basis of the larger-scale air flowcharacteristics. Again, machine l""earning may be exploit the large quantity of data generated. Finally, theadded value of an in-situ sensor that partially captures t""he characteristics of the aerosol mixture isinvestigated.The P.I. of the proposal resides with TNO, which has a long track record" in the field of electro-opticalpropagation in the maritime environment. TNO has also been the main developer of the ANAM since1996. The project team further includes several universities that guarantee access to state-of-the-arttheories and numerical modeling" tools, notably the Ecole Centrale de Nantes and the University ofToulon (both in France). Links further exist with the Fraunhofer"" IOSB in Germany, and the University ofOklahoma. Transitioning of results to the Navy is ensured by a strong co-operation with SPAW""ARSystems Center in San Diego, co-developer of the ANAM and leading the Atmospheric Characterizationteam for the US Navy in suppor"t of the Solid State Laser ~ Technical Maturation (SSL-TM) Program.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Dec 20, 2017
- Source ID
- N629091812019
Entities
People
- Alexander Van Eijk
Organizations
- Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy