The Atmospheric Surveillance System (codename System 5, originally Project 677) is a covert federal system of the Commonwealth that monitors the atmosphere and aerospace traffic through strategic radar and sampling stations. Its primary function is early warning of ballistic missile launches, though it also consolidates a number of systems designed to track aircraft, nuclear detonations and air contamination.
What we now call System 5 is really a network of existing systems drawn together in the 2060s and comprising radar and weather monitoring installations to improve the strategic usefulness of the data being collected. The Commonwealth is a scattered country of distant islands which suits well over-the-horizon radar coverage, where arrays can bounce signals off the ionosphere to detect aircraft and missiles are ranges exceeding 3,000km. System 5 is able to forward hostile radar signatures (like the emissions of a missile’s boost phase) to air-defence artillery of the Fires Establishment and, if necessary, the Shelter Network.
Radar Installations with Discrete Sections of System 5
System 5 also comprises atmospheric sampling stations that are distributed throughout the country for the purposes of radiological and chemical analysis. Primarily these supplement existing systems (like System 12) as further evidence of activity relevent to the country’s strategic concern, like reactor accidents or weapons testing. Sampling stations can also provide more details information regarding the type of radiation present, like isotope ratios and decay products that can locate an emission to the sub-area of a single reactor. These stations generally operate under the LSRE’s Division of Atmospheric Physics and conduct legitimate research, with only the Camicos Station in Mira as a dedicated installation of System 5.
Sampling Installations with Discrete Sections of System 5
Beyond missile defence, the atmospheric sampling provides intelligence on foreign nuclear programs and industrial activities, and represents well the kind of persistent data collection that characterises Commonwealth surveillance generally.