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

Weather encounter models for missile and flight vehicle system requirements are presently based upon simplistic and often misrepresentative conditions, particularly with respect to the spatial and probabilistic depictions of rain, ice, snow, dust and other particulates. We propose to address this deficiency by incorporating regional, three-dimensional climatological weather databases within a script-based weather encounter modeling environment. The modeling environment will produce operational statistics through Monte-Carlo simulations by virtually “flying” the flight vehicle model through the synthetic atmosphere, accounting for encounters with weather events such as rain, ice, snow and dust. The weather model is based upon the Global Climatological Analysis Tool (GCAT) that has been developed for the National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). We will evaluate the use of the GCAT model to produce statistically consistent weather realizations, stored in a gridded three-dimensional weather database and accessed during the missile trajectory fly-through. The AeroThermal Analysis Code (ATAC) will be used to demonstrate the coupling of this weather database through the use of the Python scripting language. The Python-based framework provides the construction of operational statistics through hundreds of model runs, flying the missile model through geographically, climatologically and statistically consistent synthetic atmospheres.