P 1 . 23 the Response Filter

Accurate analyses and short-term forecasts of weather conditions can greatly assist the Army in its battlespace operations. Such information can be used to predict impact areas of a chemical or biological attack, to diagnose atmospheric effects on electromagnetic surveillance, and in general to manage personnel and materiel in a battlefield. Because of the complexity of atmospheric processes and because of a lack of observations, producing highly accurate analyses and short term forecasts of atmospheric conditions is very challenging. The latter problem of a lack of observations is a particularly difficult one, as regions in which battlefield operations are ongoing are less likely to have routine weather observations available. To address this problem and, thus, to enhance the Army’s ability to diagnose and predict atmospheric conditions, research has been directed towards developing an improved analysis technique. This technique, termed the response filter, has shown significant improvements relative to simpler techniques that are oftentimes applied to this problem.