TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Air Platform, Sensors, Battlespace

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: SPAWAR PMW-180 Operational Effects Program (OEP)

OBJECTIVE: Develop software to fast and efficiently process particle images from modern 2-D or 3-D atmospheric hydrometeor imaging systems and determine their size and concentration, and automatically classify them into conventional meteorological groups according to shape and phase.

DESCRIPTION: Recent advances in electronics have been implemented in 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional aerosol and cloud particle detection and imaging instruments to enhance their accuracy, speed, and resolution. The data throughput and signal processing effort from these instruments, however, is enormous and requires much time and manpower for data reduction and analysis. The various user groups individually develop their software analysis packages, often making it difficult to verify result or compare the results from different instrument users. The signal processing and data reduction techniques clearly need be standardized so measurements obtained by using the imagining probes may be of value. The software package envisioned here is to automate this signal interpretation and data reduction process, reduce processing time, increase confidence in the results, and through image recognition techniques (similar to those currently used by oceanographers to classify and identify biological microbes in the water) automatically group particles such as ice crystals into the basic meteorological groups of say spheres, plates, columns, needles. This however is recognized as not being a simple task, because "no two ice crystals are alike". Nevertheless, attempting to systematically recognizing and classifying "classes" of particle shapes, and generating measured class descriptors The package must be user friendly, and be able to run by non-experts on common desktop computers to produce graphic displays of size distributions, shape histograms and such. A desirable feature would be that the package were not probe or sensor specific, but had the capability of processing data from various commonly available sensors.

PHASE I: Proof-of-concept effort should result in a skeletal design structure with some crudely operable components (data read interface, some form of a shape recognition scheme, summary display graphics), and analysis of the feasibility of commercializing the final product.

PHASE II: Finalize the various software components, combine them into a comprehensive, user friendly, menu driven, package. Integrate the package to real data and generate presentable graphical displays of results. Thoroughly test the system, and successfully demonstrate its functionality. Develop a plan for transitioning the package to commercial use.

PHASE III: Transition the system into operational cloud physics instrument to include documentation, calibration and other tools and spare parts. Support the cloud physics instrument integration for government customer-specified platforms. Finalize requirements for a cloud physics instrument system that would allow its utilization by various research facilities on a variety of platforms, including aircraft, ships or ground based operations.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: The 2-D and 3-D particle imaging systems have be rapidly evolving and improving in recent years. Their use is both in research and in monitoring aerosol, cloud, precipitation events. Generally the individual users develop their own crude data reduction and analysis tools. Availability of a successful, professional, software package for that purpose will replace much such effort. Along with simplification of measurement and data handling technologies has been an increasing trend for private companies to provide science support, both with airplanes and with measurements. Although presently cloud and precipitation research is mostly supported by air vehicles and instrumentation in the hands of government agencies and universities, private businesses already are beginning to provide such services.

REFERENCES:
1. Lawson, P., D. O’Connor, P. Smartly, K. Weaver, B. Baker, Q. Mo, and H. Jonsson, The 2-D stereo Probe: Design and preliminary tests of a new airborne, high-speed, high-resolution, particle imaging probe, J. of Atmos, and Ocean., Tech., Vol 23, 1462-1477, 2006.

2. Baumgardner, D., H. Jonsson, W. Dawson, D. O’Connor, and R. Newton, 2001: The cloud, aerosol, and precipitation spectrometer (CAPS): A new instrument for cloud investigations, Atmos. Research, 59-60, 251-264.

KEYWORDS: Aerosol, Cloud, Precipitation, Software, Data Analysis

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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