Benefits of imagery collection for enhancing intelligence gathering

Abstract

Weather and other environmental data are critical information that affects the decision-making abilities of the warfighter and commanders on the battlefield. Disposable, air-droppable, meteorological tower array (DAMTA) consists of a sensor-based platform that will be dispersed over an area of interest. The data (wind speed, direction, temperature, humidity and barometric pressure) and images from DAMTA are used to enhance the accuracy of the current Army forecast models, provide information on remote areas of the battlefield, provide forecasting for future battlefield operations and gather additional information about out of sector areas. We explored the capabilities imagery brings to DAMTA in future military operations and the integration of DAMTA into future combat systems. We focused on: 1) how imagery can assist specific military operations; 2) the trade-offs, attributes and relationships of imagery; 3) the configuration of the imagery-capturing device and 4) the vulnerabilities of imagery-based devices on sensors in several types of environments. We focus on the system integration tasks and tools used to identify the benefits of imagery collection for enhancing intelligence gathering.