A STTR Phase I contract was awarded to N.P. PHOTONICS, INC. in June, 2019 for $140,000.0 USD from the U.S. Department of Defense and United States Navy.
This overall research program is oriented towards a deeper experimental and theoretical understanding of meteorological properties of the marine wave boundary layer (MWBL) and laser light propagation in the marine environment. To advance this goal requires developing an experimental data base derived from measurements using specialized lasers, instruments, and sensors over electromagnetic propagation conditions most characteristic of the marine layer. This information will be analyzed and integrated to build up state-of-the-art computational and physics-based models capable of handling the dynamic character of the marine boundary layer within 3 – 30 meters of the ocean surface. Ultimately, integrating such a robust model into a laser sensor instrument will become a valuable and deployable predictive tool to enable and support Navy ships and submarines to meet the challenges of diverse global marine environments that impact the performance of the Navy’s current and planned operational systems.