Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
October 3, 2008
Pg. 21
NOAA Team Honored for Its Work to Improve Payload Accuracy
By Holly Watt, Washington Post Staff Writer
The best way to get crucial supplies to areas of crisis is often by dropping them from the air -- whether it is food to the starving, water on a wildfire or equipment into a war zone.
For pilots and aircraft, however, supply drops are risky and can be inefficient. If planes fly high, cargo can be blown miles off course. Flying low brings a range of dangers.
A team from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is being recognized for pioneering work to develop weather forecasting for specific areas, thereby reducing distances from drop zone targets by up to 70 percent.
"The problem was identified in the late '90s," said John McGinley, one of the four scientists to receive an award for their work from NOAA. "The terrain in Bosnia meant that instead of landing in one valley, the cargo could drift into another valley that was held by the enemy. Wind drift was causing all the problems." Wind drift also means that water dropped on a wildfire could miss altogether.
Mountainous terrain made the problem particularly acute in the war in Afghanistan. Swooping low over a war zone meant that aircraft and crews were vulnerable to small-arms fire and other weapons.
Richard Benney, a civilian engineer for the Army in Natick, Mass., said the impetus for developing the technology came when several planes returned from airdrops in Afghanistan with damage from small-arms fire.
"The wind is your enemy when you are doing airdrops," he said. "They used to go in at about 500 feet for the drops in Afghanistan, and that meant going right down into the valleys. In some cases, the planes were actually shot from above" by enemy fighters on surrounding mountains.
Now, according to Benney, it is possible to drop supplies accurately from 25,000 feet, high above danger, as a result of the collaboration between the Pentagon and NOAA launched in 1998.
"A little instrument is dropped out of the plane," McGinley said, "and as it falls, it measures the wind. The information is analyzed by our software, and it tells the navigator exactly where the cargo should be dropped.
Along with the instruments dropped out of the airplane, the Local Analysis and Prediction System (LAPS) creates an appraisal of the weather, using data from ground instruments, balloons, satellites and probes from aircraft. Wind velocity, altitude, air pressure and temperature are evaluated, along with topographical information.
"The technology can be used for lots of situations," McGinley said. "I think Indonesia is interested because they need to do airdrops onto small islands, for example."
By improving weather forecasts in such regions as Afghanistan and Iraq, the average error distance between the center of the target zone and the actual landing position was reduced from 5,000 feet to 1,300 feet. Both the Army and the Air Force use the technology.
The four scientists based at NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. -- McGinley, John Smart, Linda Wharton and Daniel Birkenheuer -- will be presented with the award at a ceremony Oct. 22 at NOAA's Silver Spring campus.
October 3, 2008
Pg. 21
NOAA Team Honored for Its Work to Improve Payload Accuracy
By Holly Watt, Washington Post Staff Writer
The best way to get crucial supplies to areas of crisis is often by dropping them from the air -- whether it is food to the starving, water on a wildfire or equipment into a war zone.
For pilots and aircraft, however, supply drops are risky and can be inefficient. If planes fly high, cargo can be blown miles off course. Flying low brings a range of dangers.
A team from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is being recognized for pioneering work to develop weather forecasting for specific areas, thereby reducing distances from drop zone targets by up to 70 percent.
"The problem was identified in the late '90s," said John McGinley, one of the four scientists to receive an award for their work from NOAA. "The terrain in Bosnia meant that instead of landing in one valley, the cargo could drift into another valley that was held by the enemy. Wind drift was causing all the problems." Wind drift also means that water dropped on a wildfire could miss altogether.
Mountainous terrain made the problem particularly acute in the war in Afghanistan. Swooping low over a war zone meant that aircraft and crews were vulnerable to small-arms fire and other weapons.
Richard Benney, a civilian engineer for the Army in Natick, Mass., said the impetus for developing the technology came when several planes returned from airdrops in Afghanistan with damage from small-arms fire.
"The wind is your enemy when you are doing airdrops," he said. "They used to go in at about 500 feet for the drops in Afghanistan, and that meant going right down into the valleys. In some cases, the planes were actually shot from above" by enemy fighters on surrounding mountains.
Now, according to Benney, it is possible to drop supplies accurately from 25,000 feet, high above danger, as a result of the collaboration between the Pentagon and NOAA launched in 1998.
"A little instrument is dropped out of the plane," McGinley said, "and as it falls, it measures the wind. The information is analyzed by our software, and it tells the navigator exactly where the cargo should be dropped.
Along with the instruments dropped out of the airplane, the Local Analysis and Prediction System (LAPS) creates an appraisal of the weather, using data from ground instruments, balloons, satellites and probes from aircraft. Wind velocity, altitude, air pressure and temperature are evaluated, along with topographical information.
"The technology can be used for lots of situations," McGinley said. "I think Indonesia is interested because they need to do airdrops onto small islands, for example."
By improving weather forecasts in such regions as Afghanistan and Iraq, the average error distance between the center of the target zone and the actual landing position was reduced from 5,000 feet to 1,300 feet. Both the Army and the Air Force use the technology.
The four scientists based at NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. -- McGinley, John Smart, Linda Wharton and Daniel Birkenheuer -- will be presented with the award at a ceremony Oct. 22 at NOAA's Silver Spring campus.