SIREN: Seismic artificial-Intelligence for Rocket-launch Event Notification

Global Technology Connection, Inc. proposes to adapt its AI-Seismic Analytics tools to detect and characterize direct ascent anti-satellite (DA ASAT) weapon launches within seconds, which is a critical need at 18th Space Defense Squadron Det 1 and Joint Task Force-Space Defense (JTF-SD) Commercial Operations (JCO). These tools have received R&D funding from US AFRL and SBIR programs and are currently being utilized for earthquake and nuclear explosion monitoring-related commercial and defense applications. China and Russia have tested DA ASAT weapons against satellites in orbit, posing a military threat and creating safety hazards from debris fields. In order for the USSF to protect satellites in geosynchronous orbit from an ASAT attack, threats must be detected, and decisions made quickly. Launch detection, its location, and ascent trajectory predictions are to be sent to a Space Domain Awareness (SDA) sensor as a “cue” to reacquire and track the launch vehicle within seconds to minutes. Investment in this technology is warranted as the commercial SDA enterprise has no launch detection or early “cueing” capability. Such a capability would enable rapid target acquisition, ID, and threat assessment of launches. Poor or slow decisions could mean the loss of strategic space capabilities, severely impacting civil, commercial, and military operations. Seismic waves, which carry event signatures and travel at greater than 6km/sec have been observed at several nearby seismic stations. Several factors such as the vast network of global seismic stations with open data access, fast wave travel velocity, and mature AI-seismic analytics tools make Seismic-signatures-based launch detection probably the best solution to detect rocket launches within seconds and with high accuracy. GTC has been developing AI-Seismic analytics tools for USAF and commercial customers for the past 5 years and a suite of capabilities to leverage. GTC also has access to a vast resource of academic and industry collaborators. These tools developed and deployed by GTC are undergoing pilot studies and evaluation by commercial and defense customers. We have received a customer memorandum from SDA Tools Applications and Processing (TAP) lab set up to support the rapid deployment and evaluation of these solutions in iterative steps. With TAP lab’s access to their cloud servers and technical support, we wish to rapidly adapt and deploy these solutions in test environments, followed by transition to operational environments with the necessary authorizations.