Established in October 2014, ARTEMIS is a four-year, applied research and development (6.2) project managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). ARTEMIS seeks to bridge a number of capability gaps to improve geospatial awareness of the dynamic environment at the tactical level, enhancing situational awareness and improving predictive capabilities. To that end, ARTEMIS aims to create visualization tools and predictive models that are

• designed to aid in identifying threat patterns for support mission planning,
• readily usable by soldiers with minimal training,
• adaptable to emerging threats, and
• adaptable to new uses so we can rapidly respond to emerging asymmetric threats and enemy counters. 

These decision aids can apply to a range of efforts, from mobility planning, to estimating patterns of threats, to predicting Army relevant terrain processes that impact operations or sensing change.

Problem

Terrain, including weather, is one of the six mission variables (mission, enemy, terrain, time, troops, and civilian considerations—METT-TC) considered by Army commanders during mission analysis and planning.  It affects how commanders select objectives and how they locate, move, and control forces.  Adverse weather can significantly degrade Soldier and weapon-system performance, jeopardizing mission accomplishment and operational success.

Integrating weather with geospatial services has long been a challenge within the Army.  Without full integration and understanding of weather impacts on terrain and systems, Army planners and unit leaders are less capable of estimating or anticipating associated impacts and risk on mission performance and outcomes. ARTEMIS proposes to investigate innovative methods of fusing weather data with geospatial content and services to fill a number of identified Army capability gaps.

Technology

Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) allow terrain analysts to process data and to use embedded decision aids to create a deeper understanding of terrain.  ARTEMIS investigates innovative methods for integrating weather and physical terrain models with geospatial systems, compliant with the six computing environments, creating a more efficient data-to-decision geospatial infrastructure to facilitate all-weather, all-season terrain knowledge.

Additionally, this effort investigates sophisticated modeling and simulation-based terrain and weather-informed decision-aid services on the DoD High Performance Computing infrastructure supporting environmental simulations, illustrating how linked systems support the military planning process and the acquisition community with atmospheric, terrain, and hydrology-impacted scenarios informing training, concepts and acquisition. 

ARTEMIS includes the following features:

Tools and products to deliver fused weather services with geospatial delivery methods
Information regarding weather impacts on terrain systems (e.g., mobility, maneuver, fires, sensing and sustainment)

• Content delivered via Army Geospatial Enterprise (AGE) and computing environments
• Fused all-weather and all-season tactical decision aids that deliver risk-based assessments for more efficient decision making
• Fine-resolution weather information suited for Army geospatial applications
• Uncertainty-informed terrain reasoning and awareness applications tailored to the echelon and synchronized across the Army Geospatial Enterprise
• Analytical support to test assumptions in mission planning related to uncertainty in the operational environment

Success Stories

The team has received endorsements from the Army TRADOC Maneuver Support Center of Excellence (MSCoE), the Intelligence Center of Excellence, the Department of the Army Military Intelligence (U.S. Army G-2 DAMI/OPS), the DOD Modeling and Simulation Coordination Office, and the Program Manager for Defense Common Ground System–Army (DCGS-A).

Specifications/System Requirements

The goal is to have system-agnostic tools that follow open standards to support interoperability with the Army’s Common Operating Environments and the Army Geospatial Enterprise.

Status

ARTEMIS is in year one of four with several sub-components being developed by the Army Research Laboratory, the Geospatial Research Laboratory, and the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL). We are building interoperability between ARTEMIS projects and the Army’s Common Operating Environment by using the Standard Sharable Geospatial Foundation in compliance with the requirements of the Army Geospatial Enterprise. As a result, several of the projects should be able to benefit each other and from existing ERDC tools, such as integration with ERDC’s GRiD (Geospatial Repository and Data Management System) to facilitate user access. Initial capabilities have been demonstrated at the Army’s Intelligence Center of Excellence with a goal of integrating them into future experimentation to demonstrate the potential impact of using cutting-edge atmospheric and terrestrial modeling to support decision analysis.

ERDC Points of Contact

Questions about ARTEMIS?
Contact: John Eylander, Physical Scientist
Office of the Technical Director (CEERD-RV-T)
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center - Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory
Email: John.B.Eylander.civ@mail.mil
Phone: 603-646-4188