Improvement of Aerosol Prediction Capability

This work unit is part of a coupled 6.2-6.4 development effort to implement rapid transition of aerosol prediction and EO tactical decision aid capability to the Fleet and is carried out by NRL-Montery and SPAWAR-SSC. The coupled program will improve the components of the Target Acquisition Weather Software (TAWS) and couple operational EO tactical decision aids (TDA's) to numerical weather prediction and aerosol models. Specific elements of this approach (and the responsible person) include: A: Develop and validate operational, diagnostic, and prognostic versions of the Navy Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System (NAAPS) for analysis of airborne dust loads (Westphal/NRL). B: Modify existing radiative transfer codes to ingest NAAPS forecasts. Produce practical products that depict the state of the atmosphere in terms of visibility and range (Reid/SSC; Tsay/GSFC; Westphal/NRL). C: Improve the current marine target radiance models by developing new surface wake models and adding improved ship target models that include wake production (Doss-Hammel/SSC). D: Develop and improve operation of TAWS in maritime scenarios by utilizing numerical weather analyses and forecasts and surface and satellite observations (Goroch/NRL).