The 4-Dimension Ocean Cube Training Test and Evaluation Area

Abstract

Over the next decade there will be an increase in the development and use of unmanned maritime technologies by the Navy, NOAA, and other commercial and educational entities. There is a need for a cost effective training, test, and evaluation (TT&E) area that can support the demonstration and evaluation of these emerging unmanned maritime systems. The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) has developed the environmental and oceanographic measurement tools, modeling framework, data processing, and visualization products required for the testing and performance evaluation of these maritime systems. Since the performance of these systems and their advanced technologies are coupled to changing ocean and atmospheric environments, their capabilities must be demonstrated, tested, and evaluated in an area with a broad range of oceanographic, acoustic propagation, and environmental variabilities. Mississippi's coastal waters provide these wide range of oceanographic variabilities that are not collectively available in other test areas. Data analysis, modeling, acoustic channel propagation characteristics, and visualization products have been developed to support TT&E activities for both private and academic research partners. Both underwater and atmospheric sensor systems provide data on the controlling environmental processes and their variabilities in the 4-D Ocean Cube test area. Nowcasts and forecasts using high-resolution Navy and NOAA operational models have been integrated into visualization and interactive tools to describe the 4-D Ocean Cube's operational environment.