Alexandria, Virginia – Strengthening defense against dust outbreaks is a priority for the U.S. Air Force (USAF) 557th Weather Wing and the United Kingdom (UK) Met Office. Dust modeling technology developed by researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Geospatial Research Laboratory (GRL) to tackle dust related issues could be the key to overcoming this challenge.
GRL’s Weather Effects Team, or WxET, is collaborating with the two agencies to implement the ERDC Geomorphic Surface Erodibility (ERDC-GEO) parameterization dust forecasting technology into the operational modeling systems used to provide critical weather information to the Air Force, Army, Intelligence community, UK Ministry of Defense and other NATO partner nations. WxET researchers are also analyzing the benefits of applying enhanced terrain information and ERDC-developed dust source characterization methods into the Model Prediction Across Scales (MPAS), a cutting-edge numerical weather prediction framework that can be used for regional weather modeling applications by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Air Force Weather.
The innovative dust forecasting technology was formed to combat dust hazards that affect operations in dryland environments and areas where dust transports. Air operations supporting Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) logistics and ground forces are frequently degraded by dust aerosols. The current authoritative Air Force Weather model struggles to forecast individual dust events, such as dust outbreaks, surface visibility and location/time specific sensor effects. The UK Met Office uses the same model as Air Force Weather to generate weather data for UK Ministry of Defense, NATO allies and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change community.
The technology’s broad functionality enables it to work at an unprecedented pace, making it ideal for forecasting numerous weather events. Kent Sparrow, a physical scientist from GRL and one of several researchers who played a role in the project, gave a glimpse into how dust forecasting operates.
“It has been an exciting meteorology project to work on because of the broad range of weather phenomena that the project involves,” said Sparrow. “We use numerical weather models to simulate dust events associated with convective thunderstorms, tropical weather events and large-scale weather systems. We also evaluate and help improve these weather models. The project has been an invaluable learning experience, and I feel fortunate to be involved in such high-impact research.”
Partnership has been critical to the success of the project. Wayne Elliot, head of Defense for the UK Met Office, anticipates collaborating with ERDC on more projects in the future.
“The Met Office has had a long-standing relationship with the USAF, and being able to extend our collaboration to ERDC has been exceptional,” said Elliot. “We now look to extend this experience to work with other ERDC projects such as hydrology modeling and coastal forecasting.”
The project lives up to a 2018 preliminary study in which ERDC’s dust modeling methods were deemed a potential solution to dust challenges. Jennifer Luce, lead engineer/meteorologist for the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Weather Systems Branch’s Numerical Weather Modeling program, appreciates all that comes with the success of this project, including the opportunity to partner with other agencies to better the Department of Defense (DoD).
“The project has been a major success and highlights the benefit of working with interagency labs to solve problems that impact the DoD as a whole,” said Luce.
Developing this research was also a multi-laboratory effort across ERDC. Some of the researchers that joined GRL participants were Sean Matus, a civil engineer from the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, and Alex Gallagher, a research physical scientist from the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.
Matus and Gallagher appreciate the experience and opportunity to work with new colleagues while expanding their knowledge.
“The lab collaboration was important,” said Matus. “There is a synergy that comes from having a diverse team from across ERDC labs that work together on a shared goal. A project like this presents opportunities to share knowledge and expertise. I learned plenty while making connections that will outlive the project.”
“Working on the dust modeling forecasting project was a wonderful experience,” said Gallagher. “It’s great to make a tangible difference with my research. Coming straight from graduate school and academia, I wanted to get into applied research, learn more, and practice what I learned by implementing practical research.”