Micro Weather Sensor (MWS)

The Special Operations Forces mission requirement for remote weather sensing can be satisfied with an innovative solution that addresses tactical mobility in high threat environments. Within this context UES proposes the development of a novel Micro Weather Sensor, a modular system consisting of a comprehensive sensor suite and a compact, powerful networking device. The suite measures temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, ambient light, and radiological contamination and can be extended to also monitor wind speed and direction, cloud height and thickness, and chemical and biological warfare agent contamination. A mobile handset running the Linux operating system serves as the user/network interface, supporting both fully-automated and human-directed operating modes. Using encrypted Internet Protocols over wireless data networks, the handset not only relays locally acquired weather information to command and control elements, but also receives and graphically portrays data feeds from those elements. By virtue of the expanded network awareness and broad spectrum sensing capabilities that also include CBRN detection; the proposed sensor represents a dramatic improvement in remote weather sensing technology. BENEFITS: The proposed micro weather sensor will increase the availability of ground-based weather sensor data in forward areas. The sensor will be smaller and lighter than current state-of-the-art solutions and therefore easier to transport. The modular sensor array will be reconfigurable, allowing custom configurations that are optimized for specific deployment scenarios. A decoupled architecture will allow optimal placement of sensor and radio communications hardware. The computing subsystem will use an operating system with a strong security model and secure network communications will be supported. Intelligent software design will provide improved interoperability with local user and remote command and control elements. Remote sensing of weather phenomena has applications in Special Operations Forces and conventional military activities.