Forecasting Atmospheric Sensing Transceiver (FAST)

MZA Associates Corporation has teamed with the University of Central Florida (UCF) to design and develop a new integrated sensor called the Forecasting Atmospheric Sensing Transceiver (FAST). The FAST terminal is designed to measure in-situ sub-second turbulence profiles.  The high temporal resolution of the turbulence and weather data enables a machine learning approach for predicting the atmospheric conditions along the path the next few seconds in the future.  The phase I effort is focused on developing the FAST sensing methodology, enabling and interfacing sub-second reporting weather instrumentation, developing a machine learning approach for sub-second prediction, and preforming preliminary field validation experiments.    The analysis and testing will determine the feasibility and effectiveness for providing sub-second forecasting.  The proposed 9 month effort will result in a preliminary design and prepare MZA for building a full FAST prototype in Phase II.