DAHLGREN, Va. - Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren

DAHLGREN, Va. - Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD) scientists Kayla Frye and Dr. Chris Brown prepare a weather balloon sounding for tests in support of a collaborative research project combining the Navy’s next-generation laser weapons with maritime environmental challenges. Frye and Brown conducted the tests to measure for optical turbulence. Dr. Evan Bates - an NSWCDD systems engineer who leads the High Energy Laser Measurement Support Laboratory - hopes to take the instruments used for optical turbulence measurements and incorporate them into shipboard lasers in the future. “You want to be able to get a real-time measurement with a single-ended system, because if we can get that we can look at the environment and evaluate the atmospheric effects on laser transmission to the target," said Bates. "That’s the end goal of optical turbulence instrumentation.”