Weather Encounter Software Modeling Environment using Climatological and High-Resolution Weather Data

We propose to develop a practical tool to construct missile weather encounter system requirements definitions and perform system performance evaluations using gridded, regional, high-resolution climatological data produced from the Climate-based Four-Dimensional Data Assimilation system (CFDDA). The CFDDA is a climatological version of the MM5-based Real-Time Four-Dimensional Data Assimilation (RT-FDDA), run in “hind-cast” mode to downscale the NCEP/NCAR Reanalyses (NNRP) data to 10 km resolution by assimilating observations and using a detailed treatment of cloud microphysics. As demonstrated during Phase I, a statistical description of Environmental Severity Indices (ESIs) derived from climatological data contained in CFDDA databases may be used to construct statistically representative three-dimensional atmospheres, defined by the probability of encounter, Pe. We have shown how these may be used to construct hydrometeor descriptions for system requirements definitions and to provide weather encounter erosion estimates using the Aeroheating and Thermal Analysis Code (ATAC). During Phase II we will refine the CFDDA hydrometeor models, improve the CFDDA database format and provide direct database access for the ATAC model. A graphical user interface will be developed to drive the systems requirements definition and system performance studies. CFDDA regional databases will be constructed for areas of the world critical to the KEI program.