High Fidelity Sporadic E Model

OUSD (R&E) CRITICAL TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Advanced Computing and Software;Integrated Network System-of-Systems;Space Technology The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120-130, which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services, including export of sensitive technical data, or the Export Administration Regulation (EAR), 15 CFR Parts 730-774, which controls dual use items. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals (FNs), their country(ies) of origin, the type of visa or work permit possessed, and the statement of work (SOW) tasks intended for accomplishment by the FN(s) in accordance with the Announcement. Offerors are advised foreign nationals proposed to perform on this topic may be restricted due to the technical data under US Export Control Laws. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this project would be to develop and integrate and high fidelity sporadic E model that is useful to currently accepted and deployed ionospheric modeling and ray tracing tools. High fidelity in the context of this model is one that is spacially and temporally on the order of the development of the key features of sporadic E. This model should be 3 dimensional in nature and capture correctly the features seen by high fidelity measures by Incoherent Scatter Radar. This model would then be used to develop and update ionospheric propagation codes used by the Space Force in modeling and tracking ISR performance and communication performance currently in use by operational user. DESCRIPTION: This model will be developed using existing 2 dimensional Magneto-Hydro-Dynamic codes coupled to existing neutral atmosphere fluid dynamic codes. These codes are already developed and tested on HPC systems, but would be required to extend to a 3 dimensional code. This code would be run for a variety of 3 dimensional cases exploring relevant ionospheric conditions, both across the globe and through a variety of solar conditions. The output of these code will be an extremely high fidelity electron density map which can be compared and validated against existing ISR coverage of sporadic E to ensure that the code produces qualitatively and quantitatively similar results to the highest fidelity observations available. Once validated, the resulting electron density models would be integrated into existing ionospheric propagation code bases to determine the effects of this phenomena on relevant RF military systems. The code would also provide a validation of the resulting codes at the SSC and operational level. PHASE I: For this topic a phase I is not necessary as the technology and literature review has been conducted as well as relevant code explored and understood. If required Phase 1 would be used to develop a software framework compatible with expected transition agents as well as doing an evaluation of relevant use cases and their particular requirements. PHASE II: The goal of the Phase II will be to produce representative magneto-hydro-dynamic output and validate that output against existing incoherent scatter radar data. This will be an iterative process to ensure that the relevant underlying physics in understood and that the magneto-hydro-dynamic code captures all sporadic E phenomena. This will likely be run on High Performance Computing systems, utilizing massively parallelizable code. The end point of the Phase II will be a complete, validated sporadic E model. PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: The Phase III of this project will be to produce sporadic E models for a variety of locations and conditions within the ionosphere. This will provide a baseline through which currently existing RF propagation codes can be used with the determine the appropriate effects that sporadic E has on RF propagation. These effects will then be integrated into operationally relevant RF propagation models, after which the models will be validated against the high fidelity models and ISR data. REFERENCES: 1. 1. Werne, Joe & Fritts, David & Wang, Ling & Lund, Thomas & Wan, Kam. (2008). High-Resolution Simulations and Atmospheric Turbulence Forecasting. 262 - 266. 10.1109/DoD.HPCMP.UGC.2008.82.; KEYWORDS: For this topic a phase I is not necessary as the technology and literature review has been conducted as well as relevant code explored and understood. If required Phase 1 would be used to develop a software framework compatible with expected transition agents as well as doing an evaluation of relevant use cases and their particular requirements.