page_title: Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory
section_title: Mission areas
hierarchical_section_title: Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory / Mission areas
caption_attribution_description: English: Acoustic model of probability for detecting an arriving helicopter.
context_page_description: The Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory is a United States Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center research facility headquartered in Hanover, New Hampshire, that provides scientific and engineering support to the U.S. government and its military with a core emphasis on cold environments. CRREL also provides technical support to non-government customers.
  CRREL arose from a consolidation of three antecedent organizations whose purpose was to understand frozen ground, permafrost, snow and ice as factors which were important in strategic northern areas during the Cold War. In its first 25 years CRREL researchers contributed to the understanding of polar ice caps, permafrost, and the engineering technology for developing natural resources in cold climates, such as Alaska. More recently, CRREL researchers have made contributions to science in climate change, the understanding of wave propagation for sensor systems, the control of snow on structures and ice in navigable waterways, and the environmental remediation of military installations.
context_section_description: The stated mission of CRREL is to "solve interdisciplinary, strategically important problems of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Army, DOD, and the Nation by advancing and applying science and engineering to complex environments, materials, and processes in all seasons and climates, with unique core competencies related to the Earth's cold regions."
  The technical areas that CRREL staff reportedly engage in are:
  Biogeochemical processes in soils – Encompasses the management and remediation of military training lands and characterizing how microorganisms survive in soils subject to freezing.
  Infrastructure in cold regions – Addresses building envelopes, pavement technology, geotechnical engineering, the design and repair of aircraft runways, and polar facilities.
  The fate and transport of chemicals in the environment – Addresses the detection and the modeling of distribution and movement of chemical contaminants in soils. It includes topics relating to permafrost degradation.
  Hydrology and hydraulics – Encompasses the processes related to ice in rivers, locks and dams and their effects on ships. Supporting this effort is the CRREL Ice Jam Database. It also addresses snow hydrology by characterizing the distribution and runoff rates of snow, using various investigative techniques.
  Support of military maneuverability and air operations – Addresses the mobility of vehicles over terrain subject to snow, ice, freezing and thawing. It includes the operation of aircraft on minimal improved landing sites. Related work addresses operations in Antarctica, supporting over-ice transport and snow and ice runways.
  Propagation of signals to sensors and imaging systems – Encompasses the use of ground-penetrating radar, radar, seismic sensors, and acoustic sensors to develop methods to model the propagation of millimeter-wave, seismic and acoustical signals through various media. This research is applied to the detection of unexploded ordnance and military targets.
  Terrestrial and meteorological processes in cold regions – Addresses the state of natural and man-made terrain for modeling their physical characteristics. It encompasses the science of sea ice and glaciers to the micro-scale processes that represent the formation of snow and ice crystals. The scientific problems include global climate change and the influence of weather on aviation and transportation.
  Geospatial applications for tracking water resources – Emphasizes the use of remote sensing techniques and the use of mapping imagery to understand environmental and technical problems at a geographic scale.
caption: Simulation of terrain, depicting the probability of detecting helicopters from the center of the grid.
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