AFRL predicts space weather

Published Dec. 9, 2011
By Michael P. Kleiman
377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

Kirtland Air Force Base, NM -- Similar to forecasting the weather on Earth, predicting the space environment, especially its effects on Air Force operations and systems, can be challenging.

Developing accurate physics-based models to support technology exploiting the space environment can also be a daunting endeavor.

For personnel serving with the Battlespace Environment Division of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate, their around-the-clock research and application of cosmos-based weather information and the physics of space technologies has lead to an enhanced knowledge of when and where the heavens will impact the warfighter.

Nevertheless, proactively foretelling space weather and its consequences remains a robust work in progress for the organization.

"Our interest in space weather comes from the fact that the space environment does impact Air Force systems or systems that use space in some way and that the environment is generally hostile, sssssssso it usually degrades our systems or the ability for our systems to function," said Dr. Dwight Decker, chief, Space Weather Center of Excellence, Battlespace Environment Division. "While the division has been in the geophysics and space business for a long time, the focus, for the last 15 years, has been more on space weather and that's because we would like to be able to forecast when space will have an impact on a particular system at a particular location."

Comprised of two distinct branches, the Space Weather Center of Excellence and the Battlespace Surveillance Innovation Center, the division began more 66 years ago as the U.S. Army Air Force's Cambridge Field Station, Cambridge, Mass. Since then, the name of the organization may have changed over the six decades, but its mission focus on researching technology to assist the warfighter has not changed. For example, a predecessor of the Battlespace Environment Division identified and advocated the need for a dual-frequency global positioning system. By transmitting on both frequencies, a GPS satellite can account for the radiation effects of the ionosphere, located 31 to 621 miles above the Earth's surface.

"Although we kind of have narrowed our mission in some ways and broadened it in others over the years, we are really focused on the space aspects of geophysics. That really involves whether you are in space looking down at the Earth or just trying to operate in space or operate through space," said Dr. Joel Mozer, acting chief, Battlespace Environment Division. "We are providing research in technology that will eventually go to making warfighter decisions on when and where to do operations."

Speaking of research, the Space Weather Center of Excellence performs basic studies on how the hostile cosmos environment degrades functioning systems such as spacecraft, as well as compiles forecasting models and simulations to improve impact predictions. Launched in April 2008, the Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System satellite continues to obtain ionospheric information to help foretell when and where transmission difficulties will occur through employment of both onboard and ground-based sensors. Branch personnel staff the C/NOFS data center, which provides products to various operational users. With its operations likely to cease after 2014, C/NOFS has successfully served as the inaugural pioneering effort to forecast space weather. In addition, the branch operates several Scintillation Network Decision Aid sites at low latitudes across the globe that tie into the information generated by C/NOFS.

Located in Gakona, Alaska, the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, co-managed by the branch and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, serves as another tool to examine the impact of the ionosphere on warfighter communication. Comprised of 180 antenna elements, the site performs several research campaigns annually involving disseminating radio waves into the ionosphere to investigate its reaction to the energy. The active experiments at HAARP enable the Space Weather Center of Excellence to validate their understanding of the physics of the ionosphere to improve space weather forecasting. Similar to the worldwide SCINDA facilities, the branch maintains more than 30 ground stations on Earth. Generated information is collected and analyzed by the branch at the Battlespace Environment Division's building, which was opened in April.

"We have several optical instruments up at high latitudes such as in Greenland that tend to be mostly for ionospheric work. We also have a large presence in the ionosphere simply because that is where many of the Air Force systems that we are concerned with operate or operate through," Dr. Decker said.

For the Battlespace Surveillance Innovation Center, in-house research directly supporting the warfighter comprises the heart and soul of the organization. As an example, its Cold Atom Program employing a magnetically-confined cloud of rubidium atoms cooled down to Microkelvin temperature seeks to develop an onboard, autonomous inertial guidance system that could be utilized in the absence of GPS. This basic physics research project remains in the laboratory stage, but another branch program has been applied to directly supporting military personnel.

In June 2010, after completing a successful year as a demonstration, the Space Vehicles Directorate-led Tactical Satellite-3 program, transitioned to Air Force Space Command for operational use. The spacecraft's primary payload utilizes hyperspectral imaging to obtain data. HSI consists of two spatial dimensions and one spectral. Unlike a photograph, HSI gathers information from different wavelengths or spectral bands to examine the characteristics of the area of interest. Branch members continue to provide HSI data analysis for the mission.

"Our branch's theme is focused around surveillance and detection. We have a number of different programs that thread those issues from different angles," said Dr. James Dodd, acting chief, Battlespace Surveillance Innovation Center. "In particular, we take the extra step to develop active systems that exploit our increased understanding of the space environment."

Another branch research effort includes the Space Objects Surveillance Technology program, which uses ground-based instruments to characterize resident space objects. One of the two domes residing on the roof of the Battlespace Environment Division's building houses a Raven-class telescope that uses experimental sensors and imagers to collect information. The other, a Light Detection and Ranging edifice, accommodates 12-inch and 36-inch telescopes utilized for atmospheric effects characterization. Similar to radar, LIDAR operates with light waves, which have a shorter wavelength than radio waves.

Finally, the Battlespace Surveillance Innovation Center works with numerous universities to investigate enhancements in the detection and characterization of nuclear explosions occurring both underground and under water at short and at long distances. Branch scientists are studying how different materials such as rock and water transmit sound waves to better characterize the event.

Ultimately, the research in the heavens and on the planet accomplished by the Battlespace Environment Division and its two branches has benefitted its most important customer -- the warfighter -- in saving lives.

"Fundamentally, the division and both branches conduct very early basic research, so we receive a lot of support from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and do some work for NASA and other customers," said Dr. Mozer. "Although it is largely basic research, we do have programs that go all the way to delivering finished products to the warfighter."