4. FY03 technology transfer accomplishments in 4DWX program
Since 1995, a team of RAP engineers and scientists have developed and implemented a fourdimensional weather (4DWX) system for the US Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC),
and recently, for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). As the system consists of latebreaking engineering technologies, and scientific advancements in numerical weather prediction and furthermore must operate reliably in live, mission-critical situations - RAP has been faced
with a substantial technology transfer challenge, which includes the regular training of DOD staff
at seven locations around the US on systems that are frequently updated. Furthermore, the
sponsor base for 4DWX has expanded to include the Army’s Virtual Proving Ground, a new and
expanded role with DTRA, the Department of Water Resource Studies (DWRS) in the United
Arab Emirates (UAE), and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). For both
the new DTRA and DARPA programs, the products and systems developed for these agencies
will have considerable significance for national security, and must therefore be implemented with
the highest standards and practices that have emerged from RAP in recent years.
4DWX technologies provide the ATEC meteorology groups with their primary source of weather
data, analyses and forecasts. It also provides DTRA with real-time coupled atmospheric and
transport model products that are being actively monitored and utilized by a number of
organizations charged with homeland security, including the National Guard in Washington, D.C.;
provides the Army’s Virtual Proving Ground (VPG) program with regime-specific high-resolution
model data sets and 3-D visualization tools with which virtual testing exercises are conducted,
and; provides DARPA with advanced 3-D boundary layer wind retrieval capabilities that are likely
to be applied for force protection for the Pentagon. These systems and products are increasingly
using applications and advanced instrumentation techniques developed by other groups within
NCAR, and by universities (for example, a C.U. developed tethersonde system that uses a hotcold wire technology for measuring turbulence in the boundary layer, is being proposed as part of
the recent proposal to DARPA for protecting the Pentagon; a 3-D windfield retrieval algorithm
developed in the 1990’s by MMM’s Jenny Sun and Andrew Crook is now being adapted for use
with a Doppler Lidar for homeland security applications). Thus, the challenge of technology
transfer for 4DWX systems is expanding across NCAR divisions and to outside institutions.
For the Army test ranges, forecasting decisions are routinely based on the 4DWX tools that
provide high-resolution, range-specific information and forecasts of low-level winds, expected
dispersion patterns of biochemical simulant agents, noise propagation patterns from highexplosives detonation, deviations in missile ballistic trajectories due to winds from the surface up
to 100,000’ in altitude, accurate thunderstorm locations, and model-derived climatological
information. In addition, capabilities provide worldwide weather information and model output are
available for support of international missions. The system consists of a suite of modeling,
algorithm and data handling modules designed to provide advanced meteorological analyses,
forecasts and displays for meteorological units at Army test ranges and proving grounds
throughout the United States. System modules include: 1) a data management, ingest, archival,
and display system; 2) a product distribution system employing the WWW; 3) high-resolution (1.1
km) MM5 modeling capabilities (currently converting operations to the WRF); 4) advanced 3-D
and stereo visualization systems for operational and research usage; 5) a system for extracting
high-resolution, observation- and model-based climatology from the database; and 6) fuzzy-logic
techniques for short-term thunderstorm forecasting. To date, 4DWX systems have been fielded at
seven ATEC facilities around the country, and are continuously monitored and improved by the
4DWX development team. Within the last year, 4DWX systems were transferred to another
branch of the Army to support live operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to DTRA, in support of
live exercises to mitigate the effect of weapons of mass destruction for the 2002 Salt Lake City
Olympics.
One of the substantial challenges in technology transfer has been creating and deploying stable
linux clusters for running the high-resolution numerical weather prediction (NWP) component of
the systems. While traditional, single-image, shared memory platforms like SGI and Fujitsu are
very suitable for NWP applications, the 4DWX clients require a number of platforms to be
deployed. However, the hardware budget does not allow for the purchase of these mainframe
class machines. As a result of this, RAP has had to develop the forecast systems on distributed
memory, parallel processing clusters, running the Linux operating system and using commodity
hardware components. The challenge to produce stable platforms is particularly acute in that the
4DWX NWP systems run continuously around the clock, and are usually located in remote
facilities where the power source tends to be unstable and generally unreliable. Extensive codes
have been written to monitor these systems, and to gracefully recover from cluster node failures
during operations. A rapidly relocatable modeling system has been developed, in order to allow
users to rapidly deploy model runs on backup clusters (in a matter of seconds). This tool, called
Global Meteorology On Demand (GMOD), can be used to provide a backup system for highprofile tests and operations, or can be used to setup runs anywhere on the globe, for homeland
defense purposes, for collecting climatological information, or simply for research.
Since September 11, 2001, there has been a distinct and rapid trend towards tailoring 4DWX
products for homeland security applications. Each Army test range is expected to be able to
demonstrate the ability to forecast the transport and dispersion of hazardous airborne agents,
either in support of international DOD or domestic DHS operations; for supporting local and
regional civic organizations involved in homeland security; or for responding to industrial
accidents. As such the focus of 4DWX product and system development is increasingly focusing
on these needs, which include providing the means to control modeling systems, or to view
system output, on wireless, handheld devices. The following provides a condensed description of
these emerging capabilities, where technology transfer to agencies with highly-specialized
operational protocols will provide the 4DWX team, and other groups within RAP and NCAR, with
considerable challenges.
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