Accelerating Air Quality Forecasts
Severe wildfires have released millions of smoke-borne contaminants into the air, setting off air quality alerts across the country. APL is using artificial intelligence to accelerate air quality forecasts and ultimately deliver a better understanding of how and where these pollutants will travel.
ACE
A heliophysics observatory, the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) provides early warning of geomagnetic storms that can overload power grids, disrupt communications on Earth, and present a hazard to astronauts.
Advancing Biomanufacturing for National Security
Researchers at APL are combining their technical expertise, creativity, and national security acumen to put biomanufacturing to work to make supply chains more secure, strengthen the defense industrial base, and produce materials wherever and whenever.
Advancing Materials for Thermal Management
More than half the energy consumed in the American residential industry is spent on heating and cooling homes. Researchers at APL have made a significant breakthrough in the development of advanced materials technology that can efficiently manage thermal conditions, particularly in buildings and data centers.
Agile and Intelligent Robots
Developing novel controls for robotic systems operating safely in complex environments
AI for Climate Intelligence
Leveraging the power of artificial intelligence and mathematics to spur innovation and novel solutions to challenges at the intersection of earth systems and national security
AI for Tipping Point Discovery
Artificial intelligence experts and oceanographers are integrating AI with traditional climate modeling methods to enable scientific researchers to better understand tipping points, critical thresholds that, once crossed, could “tip” a natural Earth system into an entirely different state.
AlphaDogfight Trials
APL served as a core member of the Air Combat Evolution program team created by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the 2020 AlphaDogfight Trials, a showdown between eight AI research teams from across the United States.
Army Environmental Health Research
APL and the U.S. Army Center for Environmental Health Research are developing capabilities to detect, assess, and prevent effects from exposure to toxic materials—focusing especially on ways to prevent acute and chronic health effects through new biological technologies.
Balloon Programs
APL balloon missions and instruments observe planetary targets and the interstellar medium, and conduct other space science investigations.
Better Options for Data Analytics
The open-architecture tool we developed for U.S. Special Operations Command’s Science and Technology Directorate limits dependence on a single vendor and enables the command to evaluate data analysis and visualization tools against defined data and interfaces.
Biological Threat Analysis
APL is developing innovative ways to evaluate biological threats in a natural environment.
Boundary Layer Transition (BOLT)
Hypersonic vehicles move fast—faster than five times the speed of sound, or Mach 5. Being able to pinpoint whether the air is laminar (moving in a smooth, straight line) or has transitioned to turbulent (swirling in eddies, with up to eight times the heat transfer) is critical for determining what materials to use when designing hypersonic aircraft and missiles.
Countering Anti-Access, Area-Denial Threats
APL is an established, critical partner of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Strategic Capabilities Office, which provides lower-cost, strategic alternatives for shaping and countering emerging threats.
Creating Coatings for Extreme Environments
The leading edges of hypersonics vehicles—as well as fins, control surfaces, and apertures—need to be protected against speeds exceeding Mach 5, temperatures well above 1,000 degrees Celsius, oxidation from the atmosphere, and tremendous aerodynamic shear loads. Custom materials can enable mission success in these extreme environments.