NORTHWEST RESEARCH ASSOCIATES, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: NGA191-008
NORTHWEST RESEARCH ASSOCIATES, INC. — SBIR Phase I award from Department of Defense.
Phase I SBIR feasibility signal
- Phase I awards fund proof-of-concept work. For capture teams, they mark early interest from Department of Defense in a technical approach.
- Watch for Phase II follow-ons from the same firm/topic family — that conversion path is where budgets and transition pressure rise.
- Obligated amount $99,943. Cross-check similar awards in the same agency and technology tags for going-rate context.
- Topic code NGA191-008 links this award to a solicitation family — search the same topic stem for incumbents and recompete timing.
- Amount
- $99,943
- Agency
- Department of Defense · National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
- Program / Phase
- SBIR · Phase I
- Topic
- NGA191-008
- Solicitation
- 19.1
- NAICS
- —
- Place of performance
- WA
- Period
- 2019-08-23 → 2020-06-02
Description
Coordinate Registration (CR) of OTHR targets requires accurate real-time ionospheric modeling coupled with HF propagation calculations to convert radar-detected target delays and beam steers to geographical positions. Our team has developed a comprehensive ionospheric data assimilation capability called GPSII. Within proposed effort GPSII will be matured for OTHR CR. Of particular value are recently introduced GPSII capabilities to assimilate Known Reference Points (KRPs) and Unknown Reference Points (URPs). The latter refers to the process of joint estimation of ionospheric state and targets’ geo-positions. In Phase I we will advance the URP approach to CR. The workflow for supplying data for robust GPSII-CR operation will be established. The driving data will include backscatter ionograms, vertical ionograms, air and marine traffic reports (to be used as KRPs in GPSII), ionospheric Doppler. New GEOINT tools for ray-tracing-driven CR will be demonstrated. The improved propagation model is expected to enhance target detection when our SIFTER radar signal processing method is employed. This method interprets OTHR signal in terms of distribution of scatterers in ground coordinates. Multiple-mode returns produced by a target are effectively collapsed into an enhanced peak on the scattering surface. Investigation of SIFTER method with GPSII ionosphere will lead to Phase II.