DEVELOPMENT OF A MODERN STANDARD ATMOSPHERE MODEL FOR KWAJALEIN ATOLL ENVIRONS

PRA PROPOSES TO DEVELOP AN EFFICIENT, FLEXIBLE SOFTWARE PACKAGE FOR DESCRIBING A MODERN STANDARD ATMOSPHERE MODEL FOR THE ENVIRONS SURROUNDING THE KWAJALEIN ATOLL. THE PRIMARY EMPHASIS OF THIS MODEL WILL BE TO PROVIDE PROPAGATION PARAMETERS TO CORRECT RADAR MEASUREMENTS, BOTH IN A REAL TIME MODE AND FOR POST-MISSION ANALYSIS. PRIMARY EMPHASIS WILL BE PLACED ON TROPOSPHERIC EFFECTS ON RADAR PROPAGATION, ALTHOUGH THE MODEL WILL BE ROBUST ENOUGH FOR GROWTH INTO THE MILLIMETER WAVE AND INFRARED. THE MODEL WILL BE BASED UPON A COMBINATION OF HISTORICAL METEROLOGICAL DATA, AS WELL AS REAL (OR NEAR-REAL) TIME METEOROLOGICAL DATA AVAILABLE FROM A VARIETY OF METEOROLOGICAL SYSTEMS, INCLUDING THE METEOROLOGICAL SOUNDING SYSTEM (MSS) SONDE, SATELLITE OBSERVATIONS, AND MMW SPACE-AVERAGED SURFACE MEASUREMENTS AVAILABLE AT THE KWAJALEIN ATOLL.