Atmospheric Modeling And Sensor Simulation (AMASS) study

Abstract

A 4800 band synchronous communications link was established between the Perkin-Elmer (P-E) 3250 Atmospheric Modeling and Sensor Simulation (AMASS) system and the Cyber 205 located at the Goddard Space Flight Center. An extension study of off-the-shelf array processors offering standard interface to the Perkin-Elmer was conducted to determine which would meet computational requirements of the division. A Floating Point Systems AP-120B was borrowed from another Marshall Space Flight Center laboratory for evaluation. It was determined that available array processors did not offer significantly more capabilities than the borrowed unit, although at least three other vendors indicated that standard Perkin-Elmer interfaces would be marketed in the future. Therefore, the recommendation was made to continue to utilize the 120B ad to keep monitoring the AP market. Hardware necessary to support requirements of the ASD as well as to enhance system performance was specified and procured. Filters were implemented on the Harris/McIDAS system including two-dimensional lowpass, gradient, Laplacian, and bicubic interpolation routines.