Weather Support to USAF Airborne Laser

The USAF Airborne Laser will revolutionize our nation's missile defense capabilities. This complex system will be a new & unique national asset, and optimizing its performance in different atmospheric environments will require specialized weather support. In addition to present-day capabilities, new types of weather assessments will be important to optical atmospheric compensation, optimization of look angles through clouds and turbulence, operational tactical decisions, and unique aspects of resource protection. From a data standpoint, it is highly desirable to provide rapidly updated cloud depiction, representative temperature and wind data (emphasizing upper-tropospheric and stratospheric structure), as well as possible on-board data derived from aircraft instrumentation. This presentation will expand on some of these issues & on weather support development currently underway.