Naval Oceanography Officers attending the Naval Postgraduate School presented their thesis and participated in the Directed Energy Professional Society (DEPS) 2023 conference in San Antonio, Texas, April 3-6.
 
The 2023 Annual DE S&T Symposium focused on sub-systems and component research as well as development aspects of DE in a mixed-access environment. There were symposium sessions at the Open/Public Release and CUI/Limited Distribution levels so that all attendees could participate.
 
LCDR Melissa JonMoore and LCDR Kelsey Rowe, both Meteorology and Oceanography Officers (METOC), attended the conference in the past week and presented their thesis work to a wide range of audiences. Also presented at the conference were Mr. Ryan Yamaguchi, an NPS faculty affiliate researcher, and Ph.D. candidate.
 
“My thesis work analyzed measurements taken from the Coastal Land Air-Sea Interaction (CLASI) 2021 field study to assess the coastal variability of optical turbulence,” said LCDR JonMoore, NPS Student and METOC Officer. “The impact of atmospheric scintillation on optical beams, including High Energy Laser Weapon Systems (HELWS), is related to turbulence perturbations in the index of refraction known as optical turbulence.”
 
DEPS intends to be the premier professional organization for the advocation and exchange of information between academia, industry, service laboratories, and warfighters while continuing to develop and support the next generation of scientists and engineers in Directed Energy.

JonMoore continued “I presented these results during the conference to highlight the strong vertical and temporal variation of optical turbulence within the lowest 12 m of the atmospheric boundary layer where most forecast models do not have sufficient resolution to accurately represent the small-scale turbulent structures.”
 
“As part of the Fog and Turbulence Interactions in the Marine Atmosphere (FATIMA) project sponsored by ONR, my research aims to improve the fundamental understanding of the marine-fog life cycle, focusing on understanding and quantifying the relationship between fog microphysics and their impact on optical propagation,” said LCDR Rowe, NPS Student, and METOC Officer. “Characterizing and forecasting fog is not only vital for operational safety but of increasing importance due to the impact on optical attenuation in applications such as free-space optical communication, use of Electro-optical and Infrared (EO/IR) sensors, and high-energy laser weapon systems.”
 
DEPS serves the DE Community through the volunteer efforts of its nearly 1,000 members. They represent a wide cross-section of the DE community.
 
JonMoore closed her comments about her work and the conference with, “Directed Energy offers a wide range of applications in the battlespace, from improved targeting to optical dazzling, and ultimately, hard kill via High Energy Lasers. A better understanding of how lasers interact with our atmosphere improves our targeting algorithms, offering the warfighter a higher probability of kill per shot and therefore helping to keep our sailors safe from rapidly evolving threats.”
 
All presenters worked on their thesis/dissertation under the guidance of Professor Qing Wang in the Meteorology Department of NPS.
 
Her group is actively involved in highly Navy-relevant research subjects such as the impact of the atmosphere on electromagnetic (EM) and electro-optical (EO) wave propagation in addition to the basic understanding of the marine atmospheric boundary layers sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Joint Directed Energy Transition Office (DE-JTO). Her work is of significant interest to the DE community.
 
Rowe finished her comments by saying, “Increased understanding of coastal fog will enhance our ability to exploit the battlespace and increase lethality in an otherwise mission-limiting environment. Attending the Annual Directed Energy Science and Technology Symposium was an invaluable opportunity to engage with professionals from a comprehensive range of specialties from atmospheric propagation to machine learning and laser beam control. DE is a high-impact field, and I look forward to leveraging the knowledge and connections I gained from this experience to enhance the operational employment of these systems in the Fleet.”
 
All the presented thesis research work was well-received by the audiences.
 
The Directed Energy Professional Society (DEPS) is a professional organization for the advocation and exchange of information between academia, industry, services laboratories, and warfighters to develop next-generation scientists and engineers in Directed Energy (DE) and aid in the research, development, and operational transition of DE technologies. DEPS holds Science and Technology symposiums yearly. This year’s symposium was in San Antonio, Texas from 3-6 April 2023.
 
The Naval Postgraduate School provides defense-focused graduate education, including classified studies and interdisciplinary research, to advance the operational effectiveness, technological leadership, and warfighting advantage of the naval service.
 
Naval Oceanography has approximately 2,500 globally distributed military and civilian personnel, who collect, process, and exploit environmental information to assist Fleet and Joint Commanders in all warfare areas to guarantee the U.S. Navy’s freedom of action in the physical battlespace from the depths of the ocean to the stars.