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next generation digital camouflage™

The climate of the taiga is characterised by long winters and short summers. Due to the high latitude, the daylight period is short in winter and average temperatures can be as low as −30°C (−22°F). The daylight period is correspondingly long in summer; however, average summer temperatures range from 6–14°C (43–57°F). Only about 50–100 days are free of frost. The taiga experiences low annual precipitation, which typically ranges between 350–500mm (14–20in.); much of this is in the form or snow. Strong winds cause high rates of evaporation and the wind chill factor is high.

Repeated freeze–thaw cycles often give rise to ground characterised by cracks, polygons, hummocks, knolls, frost boils and earth stripes, which result from the differential movement of soil, stones and rocks. The soil mantle in taiga regions is usually thin, deficient in nutrients, and acidic. It is also poorly-drained; as a result, the top­soil may become sat­ur­at­ed with stand­ing water during the sum­mer thaw. Bogs and fens are com­mon features.

Cold-tolerant evergreen conifers, such as fir, pine and spruce, dominate taiga forests. The leaves of these trees exhibit water-conserving characteristics, such reduced surface area and a thick, reflective cuticle. They are also dark in colour, so that they can absorb heat from sunlight and begin to photo­syn­thes­ise when temperatures rise above 6°C (43°F).

Another adaptation, which helps trees in taiga regions to exploit fully the short growing season, is a high, dense canopy. As a result, very little sunlight penetrates to the ground and there is little understorey vegetation.

Almost all Roggen­wolf dig­it­al cam­ouf­lage pat­terns can be adapt­ed for de­ploy­ment in taiga forests. The most suc­cess­ful are those in which the macropattern is omni­dir­ect­ion­al with a bias toward vert­ic­al­ly-aligned elements, which further disrupt the geometry of the human shape at longer ranges by blending with the dominant pattern of shadows in wooded terrain. Strong contrasts may also be used, to simulate the perception of different layers in space.

Still, a well-devised macro­pattern can do only so much; the choice and ar­range­ment of colours is also im­port­ant. If the colours dis­play­ed in a cam­ouf­lage pat­tern dif­fer too much from the colours present in the im­mediate sur­round­ings, the target shape can still be dis­cerned and suc­cess­ful re­cog­nit­ion shall occur.

Appropriate colours help a cam­ouf­lage pattern to blend with its sur­round­ings. In some cases, the colours dis­play­ed in Roggen­wolf taiga forest digital cam­ouf­lage pat­terns have been derived from com­puter-aided analyses of colour satel­lite photo­graphs; the Deep Taiga 4.1 palette is illustrated on this page. Al­tern­at­ive­ly, more local­ised palettes may be creat­ed, to match spec­if­ic tac­tic­al set­tings, through com­puter-aided anal­yses of ground-level photo­graphs.