Projects and Missions

In the last several years, record-setting 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.

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.

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.

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.

Developing novel controls for robotic systems operating safely in complex environments

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.

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.

Leveraging the power of artificial intelligence and mathematics to spur innovation and novel solutions to challenges at the intersection of climate change and national security

APL balloon missions and instruments observe planetary targets and the interstellar medium, and conduct other space science investigations.

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.

APL is developing innovative ways to evaluate biological threats in a natural environment.

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.

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.

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.

APL is leading the development of the first-ever comprehensive, integrated, and automated solution for industrial control system cybersecurity.