U.S. Army Signal Corps The history of the Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory dates back to the creation of the
Signal Corps Laboratories in 1929. During the 1930s and 1940s, the Signal Corps directed research on
electronics,
radar, and
communication systems at Fort Monmouth and nearby satellite laboratories. After
World War II, several of the laboratories merged to form the Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories (SCEL), which continued research into advancing various Army technologies. On April 2, 1946, SCEL deployed a team of ten men from Fort Monmouth with two modified
SCR-584 vans to “A” station at White Sands Proving Ground (later renamed White Sands Missile Range) to perform tests on the captured
German V-2 rockets. From these tests, it became increasingly apparent after the war that atmospheric research was vital in predicting the behavior of missiles and where it would impact. On January 1, 1949, the
Department of the Army established the SCEL Field Station No. 1 at
Fort Bliss, Texas to aid the team at “A” station with signal support functions. The unit at Fort Bliss conducted research in radar tracking and communication systems for the early missile programs at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), which then consisted of only 125 military and civilian personnel. In 1952, Field Station No. 1 was reorganized to form the White Sands Signal Corps Agency, a class II activity under the command of the
Chief Signal Officer. In 1954, the group expanded to form three teams, one at Yuma Proving Ground, one Dugway Proving Ground, and one at the Canal Zone in Panama. The organization was mainly tasked with conducting high altitude and upper atmosphere research using various rockets from the
Nike-Cajun rocket to the Army tactical
Loki rocket in 1957 and the
Arcas rocket in 1958. Within two decades, the organization launched more than 8,000 rockets around the world, of which 5,000 were launched at the nearby White Sands Missile Range. In addition, the White Sands Signal Corps Agency saw a string of successes in multiple areas of weather research. In 1957, the researchers launched
Loki II rockets into the air and tracked the drift of the metallic chaff that was released at designated altitudes using radar, obtaining new knowledge of high altitude winds in the process. Later that same year, the WSMR team saw the first successful firing of a rocket capable of being launched by a two-man team. The agency developed the SOTIM (Sonic Observation of Trajectory and Impact of Missiles) System, which provided acoustic information on missiles upon re-entry and impact. These stations were installed at 16 different points at WSMR and were also equipped to measure wind speed, temperature, and humidity. SMSA also built meteorological rockets that could carry a 70-pound instrument package as high as 600,000 feet in order to obtain upper atmospheric data. At the time, the meteorological activities at WSMR were under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army Electronics Research and Development Activity (ERDA) as well as the Atmospheric Sciences Office, an organization under the operational control of SCEL at Fort Monmouth. In 1958, the U.S. Army redesignated SCEL as the U.S. Army Signal Research and Development Laboratory (USASRDL). In 1964, ERDA researchers at WSMR became the first to observe
upper atmosphere tidal waves. The group later launched the world's largest
balloon holding atmospheric sensing equipment in 1968 and an even larger balloon that reached a record height of 164,000 feet in 1969. On June 1, 1965, ECOM ultimately made the decision to discontinue the operations of the U.S. Army Electronics Laboratories, which had adopted the duties of the Signal Corps Laboratories. The U.S. Army Electronics Laboratories was subsequently divided into six separate laboratories: the Electronic Components Laboratory (which later became the
Electronics Technology and Devices Laboratory), the Communications/ADP Laboratory, the Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory, the Electronic Warfare Laboratory (part of which later became the
Vulnerability Assessment Laboratory), the
Avionics Laboratory, and the Combat Surveillance and
Target Acquisition Laboratory. This event marked the beginning of the Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory and its role as a corporate laboratory for the Army. ASL was responsible for conducting meteorological research, developing meteorological equipment for the Army, and providing specialized meteorological support for various Army research and development efforts. As a remnant of its days as part of the Signal Corps Laboratories, ASL headquarters was located at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, but the majority of its meteorological research activities took place at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico. Consequentially, researchers often had to travel back and forth between Fort Monmouth and WSMR until ASL established its headquarters in WSMR in 1969. Shortly afterward, ASL assumed operational control of the meteorological efforts conducted at Fort Huachuca. By 1974, the laboratory grew to a staff of more than 700 people with 90,000 square feet of meteorological operating facilities at WSMR, $30 million worth of equipment, and an annual budget of around $9 million. In 1976, meteorological research conducted at the
Ballistic Research Laboratory (then known as the Ballistic Research Laboratories) was consolidated into ASL, resulting in ASL making up approximately 95 percent of the total Army program in meteorology. In 1992, ASL was one of the seven Army laboratories that were consolidated to form the U.S. Army Research Laboratory as part of a $115 million project following the
Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) in 1988. Under ARL, ASL became part of the Battlefield Environment Directorate (BED). In 1995, the Atmospheric Analysis and Assessment team within BED moved to ARL's Survivability/Lethality Analysis Directorate (SLAD) while the rest of BED was folded into the Information Science and Technology Directorate (later called the Computational and Information Sciences Directorate) in 1996. == Research ==