Improving weather prediction models utilizing 3D data (Atmopsheric Infrared Sounder).

Simulated views of intense magnetic fields as seen for an Earth orbiting spacecraft and a Solar orbiting spacecraft (Solar Polar Imager mission study).

Simulated measurement of changes in atmospheric temperature and composition (Mars Climate Sounder).

Modeling and simulation are fundamental and essential to JPL mission success spanning all phases of formulation, development, operations, and science analysis. As an interdisciplinary activity, it enables more thorough instrument engineering, design trade-space analyses, improved science understanding, better representation of operational environments, public outreach product generation, and predictive capabilities of system performance based on quantifiable margins and uncertainties.

Our current modeling capabilities enable engineering design and performance prediction of complex instrument systems across the electromagnetic spectrum. We also support investigations in Earth, astrophysics, and planetary sciences. Our mission simulation capabilities establish feasibility of implementations generated by mission formulation trade studies and these same models are extendable during development to drive flight and ground system design and implementation.

As future measurements move toward integration of observations from multiple instruments, and/or design of highly sensitive systems, model-based engineering techniques will allow a more rigorous and rich mechanism for capturing and communicating system designs as they mature. Verification and validation of model results, with model-checking capabilities, will be essential. The ability to accurately predict on-board computational needs will also drive instrument and data processing design choices.

Enabling capabilities to meet current and future mission needs include: quantitative analysis of instrument's ability to meet science goals, component and assembly viability when physical testing is not feasible, hardware/software co-design for on-board instrument science data processing based on next-generation system-on-a-chip processors, and physics-based modeling of complex systems to gain new insights from observations and scientific phenomena.