31 December 1998 David Voelz Air Force Research Laboratory/DEBS Department of the Air Force Mr. Rett Benedict Schafer Corporation 2000 Randolph Rd. SE, Suite 205 Albuquerque, NM 87106-4232 Dear Rett, We would like to bring to your attention the significant contribution Mara and Don Payne have made to our Signatures Program. First, some background. During this past year, the Signatures Program has gone from a pie-in-the-sky idea to a hard program obtaining concrete results, the most significant being a limited demonstration of geosynchronous orbiting space object identification (geo SOI) capability. This success is due entirely to the people working the program. Before spelling out individual contributions, let us outline the official Signature Program creed:      A necessary prerequisite to illumination of deep space satellites using the GLINT (Geo Lignt Imaging National Testbed) system is the ability to identify the objects. These objects (deep space satellites) will be unresolved to any single pupil. Hence, a non-imaging method to identify these satellites is needed. The Signatures Program does this by exploring a variety of optical non-imaging techniques such as spectral and polarimetric measurements. The Signatures Prgram has the potential to increase the operational capabitlity of the US Air Force today, and due to key contributions, the program stands at the verge of fulfilling this potential. This year's demonstration of a limited geo SOI capability is due to four key contributions. First, a way to assign quantifiable probabilities to the measured data was found; this is fundamental to our science effort and a prerequisite to this year's success. Second, through scheming and plotting, many observations were made at various observatories. This yielded much more data, all of which is highly claibrated. Third, information tools were developed which present our data in easy-to-read form; this will facilitate eventual acceptance of an operational system of this type. Fourth, through numercial modeling efforts, we identified better spectral bands. Once optimal spectral bands are discovered, the total measured data can decrease significantly. Mara has played a central role in this year's success of the Signatures Program; she had a hand in three of the four key contributions mentioned above. She learned and applied Capt. Caudill's pattern recognition techniques, transitioned that knowledge to the newer team members of our team, and then verified that it was applied properly. Several major errors were discovered in this initial attempt of the new implementation. In addition, Mara's TASAT simulations allowed us to choose optimal broad band spectral filters for our measurements. Further, she played a large part in sorting out how to process the data such that it is 1) quantifiable and 2) presentable. Finally, although not a part of this year's contributions, Mara took the initiative in bringing recognition to our program with both her contacts at Space Command and presentation at conferences. Don, although he worked a limited time for us, solved a nagging data acquisition problem; he provided us with a software solution for sorting satellites in a cluster. This increased our confidence in identifying a satellite / ephemeris vector pair and reduced the cross-tagging problem to solely GEODSS metrics. Please convey to both Dr. Mara Payne and Mr. Don Payne our appreciation of their excellent performance. Sincerely, Dr. David Voelz, DR-4 GLINT Chief Scientist and Dr. Darryl Sanchez, WB SS Signatures Program Coordinator