Missile Flight Weather Encounter Software for System Requirements Development

If flight through real weather environments is to be realized, there are two very important problem areas that have to be addressed: the true nature of the weather environments of interest has to be understood and characterized, and the metrics established for these environments have to reflect to a reasonable extent the significant features of these environments. Both of these problem areas are in desperate need of re-examination which is the goal for the proposed work. When the hydrometeor environments are considered from what is known from meteorology, it quickly becomes evident that the prevailing focus on rain requirements raises questions about the relevance of such requirements. Knowledge of the details of hydrometeor environments is increasing with advanced meteorological measurement techniques. Computational methods based on current meteorological results and field measurements will be used to establish the types and characteristics of the hydrometeors an aerospace vehicle will encounter along a particular flight trajectory through adverse weather. These are important calculations because they indicate the specific hydrometeors that have to be considered in qualification testing and in establishing performance estimates. How well this can be accomplished determines the fidelity of subsequent computational models: hydrometeor/aerodynamic interactions and material damage.