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Preliminary UAS Weather Research Roadmap(1.51 MB)

Published in:
Project Report ATC-438, MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Summary

A companion Lincoln Laboratory report (ATC-437, “Preliminary Weather Information Gaps for UAS Operations”) identified initial gaps in the ability of current weather products to meet the needs of UAS operations. Building off of that work, this report summarizes the development of a proposed initial roadmap for research to fill the gaps that were identified.
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Summary

A companion Lincoln Laboratory report (ATC-437, “Preliminary Weather Information Gaps for UAS Operations”) identified initial gaps in the ability of current weather products to meet the needs of UAS operations. Building off of that work, this report summarizes the development of a proposed initial roadmap for research to fill the...

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Preliminary Weather Information Gap Analysis for UAS Operations(4.88 MB)

Published in:
Project Report ATC-437, MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Summary

Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) operations in the National Airspace System (NAS) are rapidly increasing. For example, 2017 has seen dramatically increased low altitude UAS usage for disaster relief and by first responders. The ability to carry out these operations, however, can be strongly impacted by adverse weather conditions. This report documents a preliminary quick-look identification and assessment of gaps in current weather decision support for UAS operations.
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Summary

Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) operations in the National Airspace System (NAS) are rapidly increasing. For example, 2017 has seen dramatically increased low altitude UAS usage for disaster relief and by first responders. The ability to carry out these operations, however, can be strongly impacted by adverse weather conditions. This report...

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Preliminary weather information gap analysis for UAS operations, revision 1

Published in:
MIT Lincoln Laboratory Report ATC-437-REV-1

Summary

Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) operations in the National Airspace System (NAS) are rapidly increasing. For example, 2017 has seen dramatically increased low altitude UAS usage for disaster relief and by first responders. The ability to carry out these operations, however, can be strongly impacted by adverse weather conditions. This report documents a preliminary quick-look identification and assessment of gaps in current weather decision support for UAS operations. An initial set of surveys and interviews with UAS operators identified 12 major gaps. These gaps were then prioritized based on the importance of the weather phenomena to UAS operations and the current availability of adequate weather information to UAS operators. Low altitude UAS operations are of particular concern. The lack of observations of ceiling, visibility, and winds near most low altitude UAS operational locations causes the validation of numerical weather forecasts of weather conditions for those locations to be the highest priority. Hazardous weather alerting for convective activity and strong surface winds are a major concern for UAS operations that could be addressed in part by access to existing FAA real time conventional aircraft weather products.
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Summary

Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) operations in the National Airspace System (NAS) are rapidly increasing. For example, 2017 has seen dramatically increased low altitude UAS usage for disaster relief and by first responders. The ability to carry out these operations, however, can be strongly impacted by adverse weather conditions. This report...

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MOVPE growth of LWIR AlInAs/GaInAs/InP quantum cascade lasers: impact of growth and material quality on laser performance

Summary

The quality of epitaxial layers in quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) has a primary impact on QCL performance, and establishing correlations between epitaxial growth and materials properties is of critical importance for continuing improvements. We present an overview of the growth challenges of these complex QCL structures; describe the metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy growth of AlInAs/GaInAs/InP QCL materials; discuss materials properties that impact QCL performance; and investigate various QCL structure modifications and their effects on QCL performance. We demonstrate uncoated buried-heterostructure 9.3-um QCLs with 1.32-W continuous-wave output power and maximum wall plug efficiency (WPE) of 6.8%. This WPE is more than 50% greater than previously reported WPEs for unstrained QCLs emitting at 8.9 um and only 30% below strained QCLs emitting around 9.2 um.
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Summary

The quality of epitaxial layers in quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) has a primary impact on QCL performance, and establishing correlations between epitaxial growth and materials properties is of critical importance for continuing improvements. We present an overview of the growth challenges of these complex QCL structures; describe the metalorganic vapor...

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Photonic lantern kW-class fiber amplifier

Published in:
Opt. Express, Vol. 25, No. 22, 30 October 2017, pp. 27543-27550.

Summary

Pump-limited kW-class operation in a multimode fiber amplifier using adaptive mode control and a photonic lantern front end was achieved. An array of three single-mode fiber inputs was used to adaptively inject the appropriate superposition of input modes in a three-mode gain fiber to achieve the desired mode at the output. Mode fluctuations at high power were compensated by adjusting the relative phase, amplitude, and polarization of the single-mode fiber inputs. The outlook for further power scaling and adaptive-optic compensation is described.
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Summary

Pump-limited kW-class operation in a multimode fiber amplifier using adaptive mode control and a photonic lantern front end was achieved. An array of three single-mode fiber inputs was used to adaptively inject the appropriate superposition of input modes in a three-mode gain fiber to achieve the desired mode at the...

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UAS weather research roadmap

Published in:
MIT Lincoln Laboratory Report ATC-438
Topic:

Summary

Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) operations in the National Airspace System (NAS) are rapidly increasing, and the trend is expected to continue as regulations are refined to allow broader access to the airspace. The unique characteristics of UAS (e.g., extensive operations in populated areas at altitudes below 500 feet, speed capability, and control systems) may drive the need for new and unique operational strategies, many of which are highly dependent on weather conditions. The objective of this study is to identify information gaps in the ability of current weather products to meet the needs of UAS operations, and provide a roadmap of research required to fill the gaps. There are several trends in the information gaps that surfaced repeatedly. A key item is the availability of weather observations, and forecasts tailored for on-airport operations are not necessarily sufficient for off-airport operations. Surveyed users indicated that airport-specific weather information (e.g., METAR, TAFs, etc.) do not readily translate to conditions at remote launch locations, which may be 10-30 miles from the nearest airport, and are influenced by local terrain, vegetation, and water sources. Moreover, the results show significantly less weather information available to support low-altitude flight than for typical manned-flight profiles. Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations are found to have higher need for weather forecasts, uncertainty information, and contingency planning than Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) operations. Furthermore, the study identifies specific gaps related to how the airspace should be managed to mitigate safety and efficiency impacts to UAS operations. The research roadmap is composed of research recommendations that are derived from the aforementioned weather information gaps. In total, there are 14 specific recommendations that define the roadmap. The first two recommendations are not explicitly tied to specific gaps; rather they are based on lessons learned through the course of research in this study. The remaining recommendations are ordered such that their priority is based on their overall significance to the operation, the maturity of the operation, and any dependence among other recommendations.
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Summary

Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) operations in the National Airspace System (NAS) are rapidly increasing, and the trend is expected to continue as regulations are refined to allow broader access to the airspace. The unique characteristics of UAS (e.g., extensive operations in populated areas at altitudes below 500 feet, speed capability...

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Designing agility and resilience into embedded systems

Summary

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) such as Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) sense and actuate their environment in pursuit of a mission. The attack surface of these remotely located, sensing and communicating devices is both large, and exposed to adversarial actors, making mission assurance a challenging problem. While best-practice security policies should be followed, they are rarely enough to guarantee mission success as not all components in the system may be trusted and the properties of the environment (e.g., the RF environment) may be under the control of the attacker. CPS must thus be built with a high degree of resilience to mitigate threats that security cannot alleviate. In this paper, we describe the Agile and Resilient Embedded Systems (ARES) methodology and metric set. The ARES methodology pursues cyber security and resilience (CSR) as high level system properties to be developed in the context of the mission. An analytic process guides system developers in defining mission objectives, examining principal issues, applying CSR technologies, and understanding their interactions.
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Summary

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) such as Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) sense and actuate their environment in pursuit of a mission. The attack surface of these remotely located, sensing and communicating devices is both large, and exposed to adversarial actors, making mission assurance a challenging problem. While best-practice security policies should be...

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Cloud computing in tactical environments

Summary

Ground personnel at the tactical edge often lack data and analytics that would increase their effectiveness. To address this problem, this work investigates methods to deploy cloud computing capabilities in tactical environments. Our approach is to identify representative applications and to design a system that spans the software/hardware stack to support such applications while optimizing the use of scarce resources. This paper presents our high-level design and the results of initial experiments that indicate the validity of our approach.
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Summary

Ground personnel at the tactical edge often lack data and analytics that would increase their effectiveness. To address this problem, this work investigates methods to deploy cloud computing capabilities in tactical environments. Our approach is to identify representative applications and to design a system that spans the software/hardware stack to...

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Towards a universal CDAR device: a high performance adapter-based inline media encryptor

Summary

As the rate at which digital data is generated continues to grow, so does the need to ensure that data can be stored securely. The use of an NSA-certified Inline Media Encryptor (IME) is often required to protect classified data, as its security properties can be fully analyzed and certified with minimal coupling to the environment in which it is embedded. However, these devices are historically purpose-built and must often be redesigned and recertified for each target system. This tedious and costly (but necessary) process limits the ability for an information system architect to leverage advances made in storage technology. Our universal Classified Data At Rest (CDAR) architecture represents a modular approach to reduce this burden and maximize interface flexibility. The core module is designed around NVMe, a high-performance storage interface built directly on PCIe. Interfacing with non-NVMe interfaces such as SATA is achieved with adapters which are outside the certification boundary and therefore can be less costly and leverage rapidly evolving commercial technology. This work includes an analysis for both the functionality and security of this architecture. A prototype was developed with peak throughput of 23.9 Gb/s at a power consumption of 8.5W, making it suitable for a wide range of storage applications.
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Summary

As the rate at which digital data is generated continues to grow, so does the need to ensure that data can be stored securely. The use of an NSA-certified Inline Media Encryptor (IME) is often required to protect classified data, as its security properties can be fully analyzed and certified...

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Dynamically correlating network terrain to organizational missions

Published in:
Proc. NATO IST-153/RWS-21 Workshop on Cyber Resilience, 23-25 October 2017.

Summary

A precondition for assessing mission resilience in a cyber context is identifying which cyber assets support the mission. However, determining the asset dependencies of a mission is typically a manual process that is time consuming, labor intensive and error-prone. Automating the process of mapping between network assets and organizational missions is highly desirable but technically challenging because it is difficult to find an appropriate proxy within available cyber data for an asset's mission utilization. In this paper we discuss strategies to automate the processes of both breaking an organization into its constituent mission areas, and mapping those mission areas onto network assets, using a data-driven approach. We have implemented these strategies to mine network data at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and provide examples. We also discuss examples of how such mission mapping tools can help an analyst to identify patterns and develop contextual insight that would otherwise have been obscure.
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Summary

A precondition for assessing mission resilience in a cyber context is identifying which cyber assets support the mission. However, determining the asset dependencies of a mission is typically a manual process that is time consuming, labor intensive and error-prone. Automating the process of mapping between network assets and organizational missions...

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