Royalty Awards Nominations / Recipients

Last Updated: Tuesday, 15-Jul-2008 11:04:59 PDT

2004 Royalty Award Nomination - Code 7500

The following Division scientist received an Royalty Award Nomination from NRL headquarters
for the following Technology Transfer Project for 2004:

1. Title for Award Citation: Development of Helicopter Environmental Measurement Capability
2. Specifics of Achievement: The Navy has a continuing requirement for measurement of vertical profiles of temperature, moisture and wind for atmospheric analysis and prediction. Project Lead recognized that current helicopter instrumentation could be improved by simply fitting an updated thermo/hygrometer in current mountings, connecting to avionics, and providing substantially improved in-situ pilot information as well as meteorological measurements vital for weather forecasting and tactical decision aids. In collaboration with Johns Hopkins University-Applied Physics Laboratory, Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, and Space and Naval Warfare Command, PMW 135, a new structure was designed to be physically installed in the current SH-60/H-3 aircraft with minor physical modifications. The system was connected to the aircraft data bus to provide real-time temperature, humidity and wind for use on the aircraft and for transmission to the ground.
3. Impact: The new system has been POMmed for installation in all the Navy SH-60 aircraft in FY 2006. The aircraft will provide vertical profile information in areas where such were unavailable because of radiosonde operating limitations due to cost, manpower, or operational limitations. The system will provide vital environmental information to assist in TDA predictions and weather forecast development
   

Royalty Awards Recipients 2003

In Sept 2003, the following Division scientists received Royalty Awards from NRL headquarters for the following Technology Transfer Projects:

ROYALTY FUNDING SUPPORTED AWARDS
Submitted by NRL Code 7500, May 2003

1. Title for Award Citation: Real-time Dust Forecasting for Operation Iraqi Freedom
   
   
2. Specifics of Achievement: NRL responded quickly to the situation in Iraq by accelerating its dust modeling program to specifically produce dust storm forecasts for the Southwest Asia region during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). The achievement has five parts: 1) developed the first-ever high-resolution dust source database for Iraq; 2) carried out the first-ever real-time, high-resolution dust forecasts, using COAMPS™ and the new database; 3) customized the existing product suite from the global NRL Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System (NAAPS); 4) developed and implemented a SIPRNET web site for distributing the COAMPS and NAAPS dust forecast products to Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) and the fleet; and 5) played a lead role in the development of a daily "Dust Discussion" produced by the watch floor of FNMOC, including training them in the interpretation of the dust model forecasts and satellite imagery.
   
   
3. Impact:
   Dust storms occur frequently in and over many of the strategically important regions of the world: the Mid-East, Southwest Asia, East Asia, the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. These dust storms can have a negative impact on the strategic and tactical goals and operations of the U.S armed forces. In fact, the U.S. Air Force suspended all operations in late March of 2003 due to an Iraqi dust storm. Code 7500 has recognized the importance of dust storms for several years and has been developing a multi-scale forecasting capability for dust storms. The models developed and implemented by Code 7500 now provide 5-day large-scale forecasts and 3-day high-resolution forecasts. During most of OIF, CENTCOM relied on a large-scale, 3-day forecast model run by AFWA. The NRL models now provide longer forecasts and higher-resolution forecasts. The training activities on the watch floor at FNMOC have provided the Navy forecasters a new awareness of the causes, nature, and impact of dust storms. They are now able to analyze the satellite imagery and surface observations and compare the different dust forecast models.
   
   COAMPS™ is a trademark of the Naval Research Laboratory
   

ROYALTY FUNDED AWARDS
Submitted by NRL Code 7500, May 2003

1. Title: Transition of Environmental Scenario Generator (ESG) Capability to Operational Prototype at the Air Force Combat Climatology Center
   
   
2. Specifics of Achievement:
   The Project Lead and a tri-service/federal/contractor team (especially, NRL Monterey, SAIC, NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center, Russian Academy of Science visitors, Argonne National Laboratory, and Air Force Combat Climatology Center) have initiated and developed a flexible software system, funded mostly by the Defense Modeling and Simulation Office (DMSO), to meet advanced environmental requirements for modeling and simulation (M&S) to support training, analysis, and acquisition. The key piece of this infrastructure development is the Environmental Scenario Generator (ESG), which greatly simplifies the process of providing the right environmental scenario, logically integrated and physically consistent across all environmental domains, to meet a given simulation's requirements in a timely, cost effective, and reusable fashion.
   
   ESG uses fuzzy logic and interactive data mining of reference data sets to translate user requirements, without a subject matter expert, into a form that can utilize basic distributed data discovery and access services, or, if necessary, initiate a just-in-time run of a computer model or suite of distributed models to generate the desired data set. The user can also input effects-based requirements, e.g., from a rules database, instead of environmental requirements, which is highly desirable for military planning purposes. The final product is transmitted to the user in a standard format, which facilitates ingest of the data into the user's applications.
   
   As the DoD M&S Executive Agent (MSEA) for authoritative representation of the atmosphere and space, the Air Force has designated the Air Force Combat Climatology Center (AFCCC) as the Air Force production center for atmospheric and space data supporting use of M&S technology, with ESG as the infrastructure integrating a suite of warfighter weather and climate support applications for DoD customers. A primary customer for these products is the Joint Warfare System (JWARS) Program Office, which already gets its weather scenarios, 18 months in length, from ESG and has a stated future requirement for global any-time cross-domain environmental support.
   
   
3. Impact:
   The DoD transformation vision includes an increasing reliance on M&S to serve many purposes, such as training, analysis, and acquisition. In order to be fully effective, M&S requires appropriate environmental scenarios across all environmental domains. These physically consistent integrated scenarios must also be readily available on demand, cost-effective, and reusable. ESG is the first DoD project with the scope and capability to reach these goals. A significant endorsement of this claim is the fact that the Air Force has based fulfillment of its MSEA responsibilities on an ESG network at AFCCC, and the JWARS program under OSD/PA&E has based its environmental data needs support on ESG.
   
   Early in its program development (1998) ESG received a strong endorsement from MG M.R. Berndt, USMC, Director of Joint Training at USACOM, who wrote in a memorandum to USD(A&T): "…I request you give consideration to continuing support of DMSO's efforts in bringing Weather Scenario Generator (earlier version of ESG) and Master Environmental Library to fruition. USACOM needs these tools to effectively conduct joint force training into the next century. …"
   
   In a later memorandum of Nov. 8, 1999, to the Director of DMSO, regarding ESG, the Director of JWARS, wrote, "…On behalf of the JWARS Office, I want to express appreciation for delivery in early October of the second installment of environmental data from the Environmental Scenario Generator (ESG). These data apply to Northeast Asia (NEA), cover 18 months of data in 6-hour increments, and are the minimum needed for JWARS to be used in a NEA scenario in the upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). A job well done. …"
   
   More recently, the Deputy Director, Theater Assessments and Planning (OSD/PA&E), wrote in a memorandum of June 30, 2002 to the Director of DMSO, "…Since 1999, JWARS has been using the DMSO-developed Environmental Scenario Generator (ESG) as its sole source of atmospheric data for all development and JWARS software releases. … Today, we use the ESG to obtain atmosphere data, but must use two other processes to obtain the required ocean and terrain data. As a result, the data are only minimally integrated and physically consistent. Completion of the ESG and other ongoing development of the INEARP (Integrated Natural Environment Authoritative Representation Process) enabling technology along with MSEA efforts to identify the appropriate data providers will eliminate this JWARS shortfall. …"
   
   

ROYALTY FUNDING SUPPORTED AWARDS
Submitted by NRL Code 7500, May 2003

1. Title for Award Citation:
   "Critical Satellite Product Support During Operation Iraqi Freedom"
   
   
2. Specifics of Achievement:
   While continuing to improve and expand the utility of the Satellite Focus [1,2] project, the team completed a major and very timely transition of this resource to the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) in support of recent conflicts. Featuring several new state-of-the-art products (including marked advances in dust detection [3,4], cloud/snow discriminators, convective cloud tops, nocturnal low clouds [5], model/satellite fusion, and blended satellite applications) and functional utilities (including a comprehensive collection of online product tutorials and a satellite pass predictor), Satellite Focus proved its operational merit time and again during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) by reaching forward-deployed assets with accelerated timeliness and critical guidance to operations throughout the campaign. Over this period, the NRL team extended itself in providing pseudo-operational support in terms of system maintenance and interaction with users.
   
   
   
3. Impact
   Operations during OIF faced considerable challenges posed by convective weather and intense sand/dust storm outbreaks. Throughout the conflict, assets in theater (including three aircraft carriers and their supporting cast, NCMOC Bahrain, Prince Sultan Air Base, and various others) used Satellite Focus extensively in these harsh conditions for support of strike briefs, weapons selection, and navigation. The following testimonials come from METOC Officers deployed during OIF:
   
   "We used the products in 85% of strike briefs and 100% of forecasting when products were available… strike plans were altered and set using some NRL products. I can not thank you folks enough for the products provided for this deployment."
   -AG2, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN-72)
   
   "Navy ships are taking over all operations in support of ground troops and bomb runs. The Air Force has stopped operations. All ships are receiving aircraft from others as well. We are currently using the [Satellite Focus] products to determine the Abe's track to safely support the mission."
   -AG2, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN-72)
   
   "Dust has prevented the use of laser guided munitions, and I have been depicting this [MODIS dust products] in my slides to the embarked AirWing."
   -AGC, USS KITTY HAWK (CV-63)
   
   Additional feedback illustrated that military users relied upon many of the new and improved Satellite Focus products during OIF. For example, pilots used tailored fire/smoke products, overlaid with COAMPS™ wind fields, to avoid smoke hazards. Nighttime low cloud images and convective cloud height products, based on algorithms that were greatly improved over the past year, drew plaudits from sailors for ease of use under tense conditions. These and other products became mainstays of weather briefs presented to pilots and commanding officers. Online tutorials effectively "brought the experts to the ships" with product use guidelines at a level appropriate for inexperienced troops.
   
   Compared to the earlier Satellite Focus prototype, product delivery timeliness improved dramatically. Through close and persistent coordination with NOAA/NASA, average delays for Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data improved from 5.5-7 hours to 1.5-3 hours. In some cases timeliness was so good that updated guidance based upon near real-time satellite images from Satellite Focus was relayed directly to pilots en route. Adopting a development environment mirroring those in place operationally at the Navy Regional METOC Centers (e.g., adhering to a common data format and processing capabilities) has accelerated transition of mature applications. Several Satellite Focus applications identified as particularly vital and time-critical were thereby rapidly forward deployed to NCMOC Bahrain just prior to OIF in order to take advantage of their recently acquired X-band direct broadcast receiving station.
   
   Successfully transitioned to FNMOC from NRL in 2003, Satellite Focus fundamentally altered the latter's standard operating procedure for support of coalition forces (Navy, Air Force, and international participants) throughout the Southwest Asian theater. Members of the NRL team interacted extensively with FNMOC forecasters to design a new up-to-the minute dust guidance bulletin to forward military users. This bulletin is based on model, satellite and surface observations; the NRL-developed dust enhancements have assumed a central role. Satellite Focus is also crucial to dust forecasting operations conducted at the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) in Omaha and Shaw AFB (the weather hub for OIF forecast support). Internally, the Satellite Focus dust products have served to improve NRL dust transport modeling through identification of additional dust sources.
   

ROYALTY FUNDING SUPPORTED AWARDS
Submitted by NRL Code 7500, May 2003

1. Title for Award Citation:
   Development of a Stable Platform for Airborne Radiometric Measurements
   
   
2. Specifics of Achievement: NRL formed a collaboration with the Naval Postgraduate School's Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS) to develop a state-of-the-art stable platform for airborne radiometric measurements. Funded through the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, a small company, Sonoma Design Group (SDG), built the stable platform with NRL serving as the technical monitor of the project. The achievement has five parts: 1) developed the specification requirements for the platform; 2) oversaw the development of the platform and the integration onto the CIRPAS aircraft; 3) served as the technical point-of-contact between CIRPAS, SDG, and sub-contractors; 4) conducted test flights and evaluations of the stabilized platform and involved in trouble-shooting the instrument; and 5) continue as the technical and scientific leader of the project with overall responsibility for the operation and utilization of the platform on the CIRPAS aircraft.
   
   
3. Impact:
   This stabilized platform represents a leap forward in airborne radiometric measurements. To characterize the radiative balance of the atmosphere and to assess the impact of clouds or particles in the air on that balance, measurements of the amount of sunlight and infrared energy downwelling through the atmosphere at multiple altitude levels are typically carried out using instruments on aircraft. In the past, these instruments, called radiometers, have been fixed to the top of the airplane. However, being fixed to the aircraft, the radiometers pitch and roll along with the airplane as it turns, climbs, and descends. Even in straight and level flight the airplane is rarely perfectly level due to turbulence, pilot control, etc. This non-level, and changing, orientation of the instruments introduces one of the biggest sources of error in radiometric measurements from aircraft, and the process of correcting the data to account for non-level radiometers has been the most time-consuming and complicated step in the data reduction process. The newly developed stabilized platform is designed to keep the radiometers level as the airplane pitches and rolls, thereby eliminating the error due to non-level instruments and greatly increasing the accuracy of the measurements. Reduction of the data will also be much simpler and faster. In fact, for the first time, physically meaningful measurements of the amount of downwelling solar and infrared radiation at the aircraft will be available in real-time. The increased accuracy and flexibility afforded by this stabilized platform will greatly extend the usefulness of aircraft radiometer measurements to the scientific community. This technology is now a CIRPAS facility instrument that will be made available to the research community at large, and can be installed on other aircraft of opportunity.
   

ROYALTY FUNDING SUPPORTED AWARDS
Submitted by NRL Code 7500, May 2003

1. Title: The Operational Transition of an Enhanced METOC Database
   
   
2. Achievement: NRL's Project Leads, in a combined effort with the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) and Anteon Corp., have successfully transitioned a significantly enhanced meteorology and oceanography (METOC) database to operations. The Tactical Environmental Database System (TEDS) was originally developed by NRL during the mid/late-1990s. Versions of TEDS were initially fielded operationally with the NRL Tactical Atmospheric Modeling System -Real Time (TAMS-RT) and the NRL Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecast (ATCF) system, and in 2000 a version of TEDS was transitioned to operations within the Navy Integrated Tactical Environmental System (NITES), a component of Global Command and Control System - Maritime (GCCS-M) by SPAWAR PMW 155. Unfortunately, modifications made by SPAWAR for transition within NITES precluded use of the NITES TEDS by ATCF and TAMS-RT (and the subsequent follow-on capability developed at NRL called COAMPS-OS™). The project to develop an enhanced database that provided increased functionality and performance and that supported all three systems (NITES, ATCF, and COAMPS-OS™) was started in 2002 and named Single TEDS. The Single TEDS project started with NRL and Anteon Corp. and grew to include FNMOC to ensure support for their operational METCAST product as well. Development, testing and documentation were completed in Feb. 2003 and the software transitioned to SPAWAR PMW 155 for NITES integration, with operational delivery scheduled for late May 2003. However, to meet the delivery schedule for ATCF and COAMPS-OS™, an early version of Single TEDS was transitioned in March 2003 to the Naval Pacific METOC Center at Pearl Harbor.
   
   
3. Impact: The successful transition by NRL and partners has resulted in a single database supporting all METOC applications that can be operationally installed and maintained by SPAWAR. The reduction of two or three databases to one at each of the seven METOC Centers worldwide reduces hardware and software maintenance and licensing costs, improves system maintainability, and the elimination of multiple data feeds (one to each legacy database) significantly decreases the network loading and improves network and web response times.