The authors participated in four Tactical Network Topology Marine Interdiction Operations (TNT MIOs) during FY 2007. The overall goals of the authors TNT MIO studies were (1) to provide military and law enforcement personnel with real time and future information on how the environment will affect marine interdiction operations and (2) to develop, verify and improve models and procedures used in (1) by comparing predictions with actual in situ observations. Similar to earlier TNT MIO experiments, the authors addressed how environmental factors affect the transmission of radiation in the visible and radio bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. But, unlike the earlier experiments, more emphasis was placed on other environmental effects such as winds, sea state, tides and other weather factors. By developing a system to provide the relevant personnel with this information we hope to (1) enhance overall situational awareness, (2) enhance mission planning and safety and (3) provide an advantage over any potential adversaries who might not consider these atmospheric effects. For this project we made in situ measurements of atmospheric conditions as and also incorporated a large amount of outside information to give a better picture of the environmental conditions that affected the MIO. In addition to providing weather briefings in the mornings of the operations, several environmental products were made available via the experimental networks. These products included results of visibility and radar range model predictions developed especially for these experiments as well as more general products downloaded from the World Wide Web. The data collection efforts were successful and allowed verification and improvement of the effects models.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited
