NATO Armaments Meteorological

Kernel (NAMK) NATO Armaments

significant effort required to the configuration management, release timings and testing burden
more product (green boxes). The organization brings clarity to a complex software system but adds
The Sharable (Fire Control) Software Suite programme endorsed by NATO AC/225 LCG/ 3SG/2 is
organised in five coherent co-operative projects. Each of the projects (pink boxes) develops one or

NABK – NATO Armaments Ballistic Kernel – supplies only ballistic routines (not generic functions)
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Part of the SG/2 Sharable (Fire Control) Software Suite (S ) Meteorological

NASS - NATO Armaments Support Services – underpins all other Projects with generic functions.

NAGIK – NATO Armaments Geophysical & Information Kernel – provides terrain and land data.
Under the Auspices of NATO AC/225, Land Kernel (NAMK)
Capability Group 3 on Fire Support, Sub-Group 2 Part of the SG/2 Sharable (Fire Control)
on Accuracy and Ballistics, using controlling Software Suite (S4)
authorities from the STANAG 4537 and AOP-37

NIFAK – NATO Indirect Fire Appreciation Kernel – evaluates WOF & DOF for OPr.
NAMK project has two products to be released in
documents, a suite of shareable software kernels November each year, and only to be dependent
has been created conforming to the SG/2 Quality upon the NASS product:
System defined in AOP-49.
METM: Provides services to handle meteoro-
Technology for the NAMK is developed with logical data for other S4 products and the OPr, i.e.
support from MCMG/WG-BMWG (Battlescale determine meteorological data values in 4D space,
Meteorological Working Group). as well as validation, sub-setting and conversion to
other formats. The source data format can be
Contributions METGM or METCM.
GMVerify: End user software tool to validate and
CAN leads the development of Confidence Index
sub-set METGM and conversion to other formats.
technology.
The core functionality is provided by METM.
DEU is developing meteorological forecast
technology. NAMK will also include two future products
DNK provides the role of Quality Assurance currently not yet under development:
Leader for the METM product. Confidence Index (CI) is expected to provide a
FRA is developing meteorological forecast broad indicator of the level of forecast risk, or
technology together with DEU. high/low probability of consistency between the
GBR provides the roles of Product, Development forecast and the actual atmosphere.
and Quality Assurance Leader for the GMVerify
product, and currently also the role of Modelling: The purpose is to refine meteoro-
Development Leader for the METM product, logical forecasts by assimilating local
NLD supports the development of the METM measurements and by including high resolution
product. terrain data.
NOR provides the role of Project Leader, and will
For more information visit:
provide the role of Development Leader for the
METM product from 2010. www.aop-37.org
overall.

USA provides the Independent Safety Auditor or email:

(ISA) verification role for SG/2, and contributes in
the development of Confidence Index technology. namk_pl@aop-37.org

5 Oct 2009
METM:
The MET data Manager Product
The scope of the product is solely meteorological
data handling, and does not provide any forecast
capability. The main format is the gridded mete-
orological message, METGM, which is detailed
fully in STANAG 6022.
Services include the validation of supplied data
files in METGM format (initially only ballistic
parameters supported), spatial and temporal sub-
setting from a large METGM to create smaller
areas and/or fewer time-slices, sub-setting of
parameters and conversion of METGM to
METCM (STANAG 4082) or other formats for a
given x, y, z, location at time t (e.g. battery centre
or mortar line centre) within the METGM dataset.
The key operational service includes calls to
supply meteorological parameters at given x, y, z,
and time e.g. for ballistic computations in NABK.
METCM functionality is in the process of being
transferred from the NABK to METM. Capability
to handle meteorological data in the WMO GRIB
format will be included in the future.
The METM is written in the Ada programming
language with code conforming to the S4 Ada
Coding Standard (S4ACS).
GMVerify:
The GMVerify Product
Although the core functionality is provided by
METM, GMVerify is considered to be a separate
product. The GMVerify product is a tool for use
by producers and manipulators of METGMs.
Services include the validation of supplied
METGM data files, spatial and temporal sub-
setting from a large METGM to create smaller
areas and/or fewer time-slices, sub-setting of
parameters, adding hash (fingerprint) for integrity
checking as well as conditioning and compression
of a METGM data file (core functionality provided
by NAGIK product).
The product consists of the command driven
GMVerify back-end written in the Ada
programming language and the GMVerify front-
end for Windows (GMVerifyWin) as shown
below. GMVerifyWin is written in Visual Basic
and requires the .NET framework 2.0 or newer to
run. The GMVerify back-end is platform
independent as all other S4 products are. Typical
use of GMVerify is at the WAC (Weather Analysis
Centre) to process METGM data files before
shipping to theatre.
CI:
The Confidence Index Product
This is a future product where the technology is
still under refinement. The CI is expected to
provide a broad indicator of the level of forecast
risk. Low value indicates high forecast risk, while
high value indicates, but does not guarantee, high
probability of consistency between the forecast and
the actual atmosphere.
The CI value will be the outcome of a rule based
post-processing of the METGM data file to be
assessed. The rules assess synoptic-scale patterns
indicating meteorological conditions that forecast
models may handle poorly.
The intended use of the CI value is for decision aid
(use forecasted METGM or sounded METCM),
and input for computing error budget for projectile
impacts due to meteorological conditions. The
NIFAK product is a potential user.
Modelling:
The Modelling Product
This is also a future product where the technology,
or more correctly how to use available technology,
is still under refinement. The purpose of a
modelling product is to refine meteorological
forecasts from a WAC by assimilating local
measurements and by including high resolution
terrain data.