CTA Leader: Vacant
Space & Astrophysical Sciences (SAS) research and development advances understanding, specification and prediction of the Earth's atmospheric, and space domains to exploit the extended operational environment for military advantage, and to minimize environmental impacts on military operations. The SAS Computational Technology Area (CTA) embodies the use of mathematics, computational science, and engineering in the analysis, design, identification, modeling and simulation of the space and near-space environment, and of all objects therein, whether artificial or natural. The SAS CTA encompasses foundational discovery research to study the atmospheres of the Sun and the Earth, including solar activity and its effects on the Earth's atmosphere, ionosphere and near-Earth space, and the unique physics and properties of celestial sources; and, employs an extensive array of physical and empirical models and analyses tools to integrate observations and theoretical understanding, for ever-improving Department of Defense (DoD) enterprises within, and exploitation of, the extended operational environment. The CTA melds the strengths of a broad range of physical sciences - atomic and molecular physics, materials science, plasma physics, applied optics, radiation survivability, electronic warfare, directed-energy technology, astronautics and space propulsion, orbital mechanics, space situational awareness, and remote sensing - into a structure that helps the DoD multiply force combat effectiveness.