Ocean Warfighting Environment Applied Research

This activity focuses on Navy investments in the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP). NOPP, established by the US Congress (Public Law 104-201) in FY97, is a unique collaboration among U.S. federal agencies involved in conducting, funding, or utilizing results of ocean research. NOPP's value to the Navy derives from the capacity of the partnership to enable and ensure multi-agency efforts where such collaboration enhances efficiency or effectiveness, reduces costs, or both. NOPP topics address scientific problems that cross agency missions, fall in gaps between agencies or are too large for any single agency to fund.

The Marine Meteorology and Space Weather activities develop observing technologies, predictive models, Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) systems and Tactical Decision Aids (TDA) that describe the atmospheric and near space environments and their impacts on naval sensors and operations. This activity focuses on uniquely marine aspects of atmospheric science such as air-sea interaction, coupled ocean-atmosphere modeling, Electromagnetic (EM) and Electro-Optical (EO) propagation, coastal meteorology, Tropical Cyclone (TC) prediction, and thermosphere-ionosphere dynamics and prediction, especially in expeditionary regions that are otherwise under observed such as the maritime subtropics and the polar regions, and the use of remote sensing to obtain quantitative observations of atmospheric and ionospheric properties. Aspects of the atmospheric environment of particular interest include near-surface phenomena that affect refractivity, marine boundary layer dynamics that affect clouds, rain, visibility and fog, processes that control TC structure, track, and intensity, extended range prediction and the ability to make better decisions across the weather continuum, and coupling between the lower atmosphere and the thermosphere / ionosphere and how it affects tactical to regional High Frequency (HF) over the horizon radar and communication. Objectives of this activity are improved NWP systems and TDA that provides nowcast and forecast skill at global, regional, and tactical scales for operational support, sensor and system development, and performance prediction.

The goal of the Marine Mammals and Biology activity focus is to better understand and characterize the effects of underwater sounds produced by Navy acoustic sources on marine mammals. Studies address characterizing marine mammal and their ecosystems, quantifying effects of sound exposure on marine mammals, and improving the ability to monitoring and detect marine mammals in the open ocean. Research results supports Navy environmental compliance information needs and facilitates acquiring Letter of Authorizations from regulators that enable all Navy training and testing operations, and the development of appropriate state-of-the-art mitigation measures.

The Coastal Geosciences / Optics activity develops knowledge of the littoral, nearshore and riverine environments in which physical, acoustical and optical processes are dominated by the presence of the sea or river bed and air-water interface. Predictive environmental models, custom climatological databases, adaptive sampling schemes, technologies for nearshore observations and advanced remote sensing capabilities provide critical foundational information for Naval Special Warfare, Mine and Expeditionary Warfare and Amphibious operations. This Program emphasizes field research in navally relevant environments, including many that require research outside the U.S.

The Task Force Ocean activity focuses on the impact of the natural ocean environment on acoustic wave phenomena in support of undersea warfare and underwater force protection operations. This activity studies underwater acoustic propagation, scattering from ocean boundaries, and ambient noise issues that impact the development and employment of acoustic systems. The littoral zone has been the ocean environment of greatest interest. Aspects of this environment, that greatly impact underwater acoustic systems, are the shallow water, the consequent closeness and physical significance of the ocean bottom, and the complexities inherent to rapid changes of the ocean structure. The objectives of this program are met through measuring, analyzing, modeling and simulating, and exploiting ocean acoustic factors to gain advantage over potential adversaries using undersea acoustic systems. Results of this activity support acoustic sensor and system development, performance prediction, and tactical decision aids. This activity will also focuses on efforts addressing research needs identified by Task Force Ocean that will enable tactical maneuver for the future submarine force. The efforts funded by this Program Element (PE) fall generally into two topic areas: Analysis and understanding of the impact of environmental conditions on sonar data, and the development of reduced order ocean-acoustic models to enable environmental awareness and prediction on forward platforms.

The Physical Oceanography activity develops knowledge of the physics of the ocean to enable tactical naval use and exploitation of the battlespace. This is achieved through the development of predictive models of the water mass structure, waves, currents, and air-sea interactions and developing measurement / observation technology. Other applications utilize knowledge of the interaction of the water column hydrodynamics and the acoustics to predict the undersea transmission characteristics and sources of uncertainty in these statistics. Utilizing knowledge of the ocean surface physics, the physical oceanography program seeks to exploit the combination of remotely sensed data, in-situ data, and adaptively sampled data to optimize predictions of ocean currents and water column structure. These predictions, custom databases, adaptive sampling schemes and data programs serve Surface Warfare, Anti-Submarine Warfare, Naval Special Warfare, and Mine and Expeditionary Warfare operations. Oceanographic field research that uses active acoustic transmissions requires modeling of the acoustic effects of sound on marine life in order to meet Navy environmental requirements.