Armada Compendium - Geospatial Information

Cover Compendium Feb-March 2015:Armada 1/22/15 3:38 PM Page 3

03Compendium Geospatial Information 2015

The Pleiades dual-use imaging satellite combines a very agile platformwith high-power optics. The resulting capability, sharp 50cm resolutionimagery with multi-mode collection capability, complements moreclassical exploitation of the rest of SPOT Images constellation (Astrium)

This compendium is dividedinto five sections:�TheBattlespaceFabric (Digital-agetechnologies transformgeospatialinformation superiority)�Mapping theLand&JointBattlespace�MappingThinAir�Mapping the SevenSeas�MappingUrbanCanyons

In this first part Armada’s C4ISR editoranalyses the technologies and toolsrequired to build the foundation layer of

currentnetwork-centric operations.Thedigital agehasbrought anewhorizon

to geomatics. The word, coined in French-speaking Canada in the early 1980s,describes the contribution of digitaltechnologies to environmental survey andanalysis; geomatics encompass surveyingand cartography, but also photogrammetryand remote sensing, as well as Geospatial

Information Systems (GIS) and GlobalPositioning System (GPS) technologies.

One could have thought that after a fewcenturies of charting, surveying the Earthwas nearing to a close.Quite to the contrary,this endeavour is permanent, as ourenvironment continuously evolves (think ofice caps, coastal areas, or deforestation), andman adds new features to topography.Mostimportantly, requirements for accuracyhave soared, as precision navigation andguidance open new dimensions in fine-

The Battlespace Fabric:Digital-age technologiestransform geospatialinformation superiority

The Battlespace Fabric:Digital-age technologiestransform geospatialinformation superioritySpatial information and geolocated events should be the bread and butter ofmilitaryoperations, and the newly digitised battlespace brings newpromises of sharedsituational awareness and synchronisedmanoeuvres. Nevertheless, the fact is that Natowent to Afghanistanwith Soviet papermaps, and operations in Africa are still carriedoutwith poorly-detailed country-widemaps or obsolete terrain descriptions.

Wesley Fox

grain Earth surface analysis, from routeclearance against roadside bombs to urbancombat, not to mention navigating thelargely uncharted ocean bottoms.

I DATA COLLECTION: ACCURATEAND AGILE SENSORSWhile surveying trade has not disappeared,the surveying tools have changeddramatically. Today’s military topographicteams thus deploy with state-of-the-artground sensors and software. Groundmeasurement sensors gradually integratelaser technologies forhighlyaccurate ranging;but thevery locationofmeasurementunits is

immensely enhanced by the latest globalnavigation satellite systems, like GPS andGlonass, and since 2014 their European andChinese equivalents, respectivelyGalileoandBeidou constellations. In some areas of theworld,differentialGPS(DGPS)servicesallowpinpoint ground location; the latestgenerationofTrimblePro series receivers, forexample, subscribe to Egnos (EuropeanGeostationaryNavigationOverlayService) toofferuptosub-meteraccuracy,whileensuringmaximumuseof available satellites and someresistance toatmospheric andenvironmentaldegradations. The resultingmeasurement ofground control points, essential to

topographic surveyandmapmaking, isnearlyerror-free.USArmyengineering topographicsurvey teams thus deploy with the NorthropGrumman Enfire kit, which gathers opticaland laser rangefinders and military GPSreceivers around data collection, storage andexploitation devices integrated with map-productionsoftware.

In hostile or remote areas though, thedifficulty to access groundsecurely, aswell asmultiple perturbations brought by groundcover(foliage,buildings)has ledthemilitary todevelop remote sensing since the 1940s. Thefast development of aerial photographyallowedcapturingvast expensesof seaor land,and multi-point triangulation techniquesprovided accurate location free fromgroundinterference. In addition, oblique or stereoimagery brings information about terrainelevation. Today, the proliferation of sensorsand digital image processing technologieshaveboostedphotogrammetry, openingnewgrounds for data integration across theelectromagnetic spectrum, combining laser,infrared, optical and radar wavelengths forunparalleled capture of terrain data in day,night and above clouds. The Swiss LeicaGeoSystems is famous for its airborne imagingsensors. The Leica ADS80 airborne digitalsensor offers a high-resolution mode fororthophotoproduction,with swathwidthsof24000 pixels. It comes with a flightmanagement and control system software,computing aircraft dynamics against asoftware sensormodel tominimise flight andatmosphericdistortions.Multi-triangulationmeasurements determine where the camerawas in x, y and z and when the picture wastaken, to automate production of largemosaics of surface travelled. An extension tothesecapabilitieshasarrived toaccommodategrowing use of video sensors on boardsurveillanceUnmannedAircraftVehicles.

Videooffersvariousadvantages, fromlow-cost sensors to real time availability of sensordata. Simactive, aFrenchCanadiandeveloperof photogrammetry software since 2003, hasthus recently unveiled a new version of itsCorrelator 3D photogrammetry producttailored for small-format drone sensors. Butthe ultimate refinement of aerial remote

04 Compendium Geospatial Information 2015

A highly-detailed print of a digital map aboutIsraeli settlements in the West Bank releasedby CIA in 2008 to support the peace process.Hybrid geospatial solutions combine“national technical means” with commercialmapmaking and dissemination products forthe best effect. (CIA)

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sensing has come from active sensors in thenon-visible range; lidar (LightDetection andRanging) provides a laser-based scanningmethodof theEarth surface especially suitedto characterising micro-elevations. Initiallydeveloped tomeasure forest canopyorcoastalerosion, lidarhasbecomeaprimary sensor togenerate Digital ElevationModels (i.e. Earthelevationaugmentedbyvegetationcover andman-madeobjects).

Overhead surveillancehas benefited fromrecent progress in digital video sensors,producing Full Motion Video (FMV) withincreasingly sharp resolution and extensive

metadata, including geolocation. Dedicatedfull-motion video exploitation productsleverage video metadata, correcting errorsinherent tomovingvideocollectionplatformsto produce mapping and targetinginformation. The recently-established 2d3Sensing enables analysts to provide tie points(geo-located reference points) betweencollected imagery and a reference map. Foreachvideoframe, thesensor-agnosticsoftware

can display the platform position and flightpath, but also where the camera points.Additional telemetrydataprovides locationofevery pixel, thus producing geospatialinformation usable for intelligence ortarget acquisition. Together with ESGElektroniksysteme, 2d3 has delivered to theGerman BundesMarine a motion imageryprocessing, exploitation and disseminationsystemintotheirNorthropGrumman/AirbusDefence&SpaceEuroHawkhaledrone, flyingmaritime patrol missions. Harris provides asimilar capability with its Fame (FMVAssetManagementEngine)whichcollects, indexesanddisseminatesvideofrommultiple sensors,without the same fidelity ingeoregistrationatthe frame level, though.

The space age has brought overheadimageryandremote sensing toanewaltitude.Since satellite images are less prone toatmospheric interference and havepredictable distortions along orbital path,space reconnaissance has become thepreferred way of collecting data about hugeterritories worldwide, free from airspacesovereignty. The early remote sensingsatellites of the 1960s were thus the mostvaluable strategic asset to map adverse

Tasking multiple space sensors through weather, terrain, and time zones while maintainingoptimal ground control requires dedicated planning and optimisation software, such as theproven CPAW used by commercial and military operators worldwide (OrbitLogic/Google Pro).

A high-resolution Digital Elevation Model ofEritrea blends Ikonos satellite imagery withaccurate elevation data collected by lidar.Such quality in a geospatial informationproduct can support the most demandingmission requirements, from precisiontargeting to special operations (Satimaging).

Dedicated full-motionvideo exploitationproducts leverage videometadata, correctingerrors inherent tomovingvideo collection platformsto producemapping andtargeting information. Therecently-established 2d3Sensing enables analyststo provide tie points (geo-located reference points)between collected imageryand a referencemap

Compendium Geospatial Information 2015

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territory and manage crises, until digitalcameras and commercial satellites broughtthis capability to the larger public. The USNational Geospatial Agency began to placelarge contracts to commercial imagingsatellites, until cost dropped in 1999 whenLandsat satellitedatahadcopyright removed.Google began to democratise “space maps”from the mid-2000s, initially from the 30-metre resolution, multi-spectral bandThematic Mapper of the Landsat imagingsatellite, followed by higher resolutioncommercial satellites: Ikonos (the firstmetricresolutionsensor),QuickbirdandWorldviewsub-meter imagers from Digital Globe, orGeoEye (bought byDigital Globe in January2013),whichnowpopulateGoogleEarth.Butspace remote sensing was considerablyenhanced by synthetic aperture radars, withimaging capabilities for day, night and all-weather. Its lower resolutionandsensitivity toelevations made radar imaging satellitesprimecandidates for thegenerationofdigitalterrain models, a powerful enhancement tolegacymapbuilding.

The main European challenger, SpotImages (nowAstriumServices), has a similartrack record of exploiting multiple satellitesin synergy, with increasingly higherresolutions which beat Landsat imager longago. The current constellation advertised byAstrium combines dual-use Spot 6 and 7satellites with the latest-generation Pleiades1A and 1B. The four satellites operate in lowpolar orbit as a constellation, phased 90°

apart, offering a daily revisit time. Pleiadesuses a particularly agile Astrium platform,built around the powerful Thales AleniaSpace telescope todeliver 0.5-metre accuracyinblackandwhite.Thanks to three collectionplans a day, imagery acquisition time is lessthan 24h, while the satellite manoeuvresaround its axis in seconds to capturemultipleimages in strip, stereo or spot modes. SpaceImaging is catchingup fast,with the additionof Worldview-3, launched in August 2014;this 29-band very high resolution sensordelivers 0.3-metre resolution imagery withatmospheric correction (smoke and hazereduction). It is adding to the Digital Globeconstellation of WorldView, Quickbird,Ikonos andGeoEye imaging satellites. Since2013, a partnership with Skybox imagingtriggers the first application of videosurveillance from satellites. The start-up haslaunched its 2ndSkysatmini-satellite in2014,withhigh-definition still andvideo imagery;such a disruptive technology will challengelegacy space imageryproviders.This race forresolution and coverage will receive a boostfrom the release of resolution restrictions bythe US Department of Commerce, from50cm to 25cm from June 2014, allowingdistribution of imagery products of up to25cmpanchromatic resolutionbyearly 2015.

Commercial satellites thus allow strategicmilitary users to focus their scarce militaryreconnaissance satellite on imageryintelligence (imint) and targeting, whilecommercial operators faced with huge

tasking constraints rely on dedicated spacesensor scheduling applications, such as theSatellite Toolkit from AGI, or theSTK/Scheduler and Collection Planning &AnalysisWorstation (CPAW) software fromOrbitlogic. The latter are under contractthroughMDAInformationSystemswith theUSArmy’sGeospatialCentre on theRemoteGround Terminal programme to supplymulti-satellite imagery collection planninglinkedwith commercial imageryproviders.

Multi-satellite operation results inenhanced collection synergies. Combinedwith the Spot constellation andnewGermanradar imaging satellites from InfoterraGMbH,AstriumGeoServicesoffer in2014anewWorld Digital ElevationModel (DEM)service at two-metre (relative) verticalaccuracy, challenging aerial photographyespecially for larger areas. This new breedallows rapid legacymapupdateaswell asnewproducts, tailored formilitaryuse. Inanycasehowever, the availability of accurate groundcontrol points is paramount to performortho-rectification of imagery, in order tomitigate distortions caused by the platformalong its orbit, sensor viewing angle, andenvironmental interference.Lastbutnot least,multi-band,multispectral sensorsoncurrentimaging satellites offer a highlydiscriminating power for terrain analysis(between foliage, crops, built-up areas, etc.),althoughat the expenseof resolution (trueorfalse colour images remain above one-metreresolution),andaccompaniedbyasteeprise in

An amazingly sharp image of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, collected by the relatively inexpensive Skysat-2 mini-satellite. Such breakthroughsurveillance and reconnaissance products, together with the recent ban on very high resolution imagery, are likely to transform geospatialinformation production in the coming years (Skybox Imaging).


complexity for image processing andexploitation.Artemis, anewsensorcarriedbytheTacSat-3 satellite, is the firsthyperspectralimaging sensor tailored to tacticalapplications fromspace. It isusedbyUSArmySpace&MissileCommandandArmyForcesStrategic Command in a joint exploitationteam, experimenting fast exploitation fortactical users, in a new trend bringing spacesurveillance closer to the soldier.

I DATA EXPLOITATION:POWERFUL SENSOR SUITESDigital-age sensors would be useless withouttheir accompanying software tools for sensorcalibration, correction, filtering andinterpretation, all leveraging an increasingamount of sensor metadata which augmentthe raw collection product. Geospatialmetadatadealwithdata identification,quality,organisation, spatial references, and otherattributes.Someare forhumaninterpretation,but others are input for automated imageinterpretation, photogrammetry, orgeospatial information software. Beyonddatadescription, theirmainuse is toperformadvanced processing on raw data andautomate workflows to produce map orterrainmodels out of huge amounts of data,while performing some level of qualitycontrol and standardisation. Althoughmostof these applications lie within commercialoff-the-shelf solutions, themost demandingones are either military off-the-shelf orbespoke software suite; often enough, they

combine all of these. The suite of servicesprovided by these products is referred to asTasking,Collection,Processing,ExploitationandDissemination, orTCPED.

Commercial products tend to blur thedistinctionbetweenphotogrammetry (post-sensor imagery computation) andgeospatialinformation systems (extractionandanalysisof terrain features in a database to managemap or elevation data). Even Adobe

Photoshopbrings imageprocessing closer tomapmaking,withmeasurement and filteringfunctions which can un-distort planarsurfaces, and tools to smoothen colour andtextures. Leica Geo Systems andIntergraph—both part of the HexagonGeosystems group since 2005—providemulti-sensor integration and analysis suites.Theirhigh-level of automationandworkflowgeneration is regularly demonstratedduringEmpire Challenge exercises, bringingtogether British, Canadian, Australian andAmerican forces at theNavalWeaponCenterin China Lake, California. Military orprofessional collectionplatformsareusedas amulti-sensor input (e.g. Leica mediumformatdigital camera,Optech lidar,militaryGPS) for the production and disseminationof digital geospatial products, such as terrainmosaicsordigital terrainmodels.TheprovenErdas Imagine imagery analysis suite is usedto exploit multi-sensor feed, identify andcorrect data consistency, and producesmilitary-grade imagery for dissemination toalliedC2or ISR systems.

AhybridTCPEDsolutioncanbe found inwidespreadcommercial andmilitaryoff-the-shelf products, namely theBAeSystemsSocetSet digital photogrammetry and geospatialinformation system designed mostly fordefence applications. Its current 5.6 versionprovides point-matching algorithms formulti-sensor triangulation, turning digitalaerial photography (usually delivered in

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An analyst performs terrain feature extraction from a stereo imagery couple on a GXP SOCETSET workstation. Automated sensor exploitation and computer-aided georeferencing haveboosted time and reliability of photogrammetry and mapmaking (BAe Systems).

Luciad’s geospatial exploitation software comes as a component embedded in C4ISR applications.The example here displays multiple data sources, uses standardised military grids and tacticalsymbols, shows tactical visibility from a unit standpoint and computes its route planning (Luciad).


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stereo pairs) into ortho-images in raster(grid-based information) or vector format(where terrain features are translated intogeoreferenced points, lines and polygons).BAe’s new suite, SocetGXP, combines imageanalysis with geospatial analysis. GXPXPlorer enables analysts to access huge datasets locally or remotely, while streamliningand standardising workflow for geospatialinformation production. In a transitionmove from legacy bespoke capabilities tocommercial-based store-and-retrievecapabilities,NGAawarded a contract toBAeSystems to deploy GXP licences on anenterprise basis.

A somewhat more restricted, military-grade TCPED use can be found with theclearlymilitary-grade photogrammetry andimageanalysis suite fromOverwatchSystemsGeospatial Operations (part of Textrongroup). Remoteview is an advanced multi-imagery and geospatial analysis systemcentred on the exploitation of strategicintelligence collection assets: dual-use ormilitary satellites, as well as high-altitudereconnaissance platforms. In its currentversion, Remoteview 4 takes advantage ofhighgeodetic accuracyofnewdigital sensorsto generate orthorectified or mosaickedproducts from multiple map and imagerysources.Oneuseful function is its fast virtual3D rendering features, enabling analysts tocreate virtual fly-through of large gigabytedatasets.Dedicated extensions servehigher-endgeospatial intelligence requirements; theRV Screener module creates chips andmosaics from recce aircraft like the U-2R/Sanddrones like theGlobalHawkanddisplaysthem in a seamless waterfall format tofacilitate imagery analysis and changedetection; IGeoPos is a tactical imageryprecision positioning module, which grantsRemoteView users access to the highlyclassifiedUSDigitalPointPositionDatabase.This latter feature shouldbehighlyprizedbyanalysts, sincegeospatial intelligence is eithersharply defined or precisely georeferenced,but seldomboth.

MoretailoredmilitarysolutionscanhardlybefoundoutsideAmerica.Britainhasrecentlydeclared initial operational capability of partof its Picassoprogramme, an armygeospatialintelligence system delivered by LockheedMartin UK Information Systems. The FieldDeployable Geoint (FDG) programme hasbeen entrusted to the LockheedMartin UK-ledSocrates industrial teamtoaddressBritishJoint Force Intelligence Group requirementsthrough 11 containerised two-man tactical

exploitationworkingenvironment. ItsFrenchequivalent,MoyensGéographiquesProjetables(MGP) delivered by Thales, has been used inAfghanistan and Mali to deliver geospatialinformationproducts to tacticalusers, thanksto advanced production and workflowautomation tools.

In Israel, higher-end systems mergegeomatics with imagery intelligence asexemplified by the IAI/Elta Systems EL/S-8994RTRicent (Real-TimeImageIntelligenceCentre). This is an applied multi-source,multi-sensor system for intelligence andtargeting. It incorporates an informationassurance component to check authenticityof contributingdata, andautomates searchofmatching imagery with better georeferencesto enhance locationof imageryof interest.

In France, AirbusDefence& Space offersthe Actint suite, an apparent re-branding ofpast references (Optimint Image IntelligenceSystem, itself derived from the EVI basicimage exploitation capability), combinesmulti-sat imagery acquisition with analysisand feature extraction.

Geo Data Design, a South Africancompany, proposes a lesser capable version(combinedwithErdas Imagineandothercotssuite for commercial imageryexploitation) tothe African region. The Thales GeoMakersolution is also a re-branding for militaryTCPED, probably closer to high-end US orIsraeli capabilities though; it combines high-grade geospatial exploitation references

(delivered to the FrenchMinistry ofDefencefor military mapmaking or cruise missilemissionplanning for example)with strategicand tri-service imint systems. In 2013,GeoMaker reachedout tonewhigh-precisionground mapping sensors, such as TopConhigh-density 3D laser mapper for mobilegroundapplications.

I INFORMATION PRODUCTION:THEWORLD OF GISGeospatial Information Systems integrate,exploit and analyse geospatial data,presenting them in layers in either raster (i.e.image-like) or vector (linear and polygonal)formats beforepublishinggeneric or tailored(thematic) geospatial informationproducts.As such, GIS used to stand in the middlebetween data collection and exploitationsystems; however, they tend tobroaden theirscope by incorporating advanced sensorprocessing features to exploit overheadimagery, lidar, video on the one hand, andprovide increasingly business-orientedproducts frommilitarymapmaking, on theother hand. To confuse matters even more,satellite operators develop their own GISservices. Furthermore, almost everymilitary-off-the-shelf or bespoke geospatialexploitation solution incorporates interfacesor modules of commercial GIS. If GIS areplentiful as mapmaking applications andgeospatial data presentation for variousindustries, the range offering trulymilitary

Afghanistan in your pocket? The promise of Web map services, like this rasterised vector dataset of the Panshir valley on an Android smart phone, aims high for dismounted users. But thedisconnected mode (often the case in tactical operations) remains challenging (WF).


applications is quite narrow; militaryapplications encompass more rigorousgeoreferencing and quality control features,as well as tailored functionalities such asmilitary grid editing or tactical symbologymanagement.

Falcon View is one of the few earlyexamples of dedicatedmilitarymapmaking.Developed forPC/WindowsbyGeorgiaTechResearch Institute for free use by the USmilitary (essentially Air Force and SpecialForces formissionplanninguse) in themid-1990s, it hasmet a broad success within andbeyonddefenceuser communities.Anopen-sourceversionwas released in2009, althoughfor non-government users. With around40,000 users, Falcon View remains apreferred moving map application in mostAmerican military aircraft. The success ofthis raster-based mapmaking and displayapplication (currently in its fourth version)has ledmany subsequent andmoreadvancedsolutions toprovideFalconView-compatibleinterfaces in their product design.

I COMMERCIAL DEMANDTheGISmarket is increasingly drifting intocommercial applications though, and isdominated by few software vendors. Esri isleading, with about 35% of the militarymarketworldwide. In theUnitedStates, theirgain of the Commercial Joint Mapping ToolKIT(CJMTK)withNorthropGrummanasasystem integrator at the turn of the centuryhas positioned Esri as a key provider to thePentagon, which buys and distributes theEsri ArcGIS suite for integrationthroughout theUSmilitary.

Initiallyamapmakingtool forgeographers,ArcGIS, covering desktop, server or mobileversions,aswellassoftwaredevelopmentkits tobe integrated in business applications, hasevolved into a full geospatial productionsuite. Its latest 10.3 version has modules forabout everything in the geospatial trade,from imagery and lidar integration todedicated templates for C4I/BattleManagement applications, and is developingmission-tailoredgeo-analysis, fromcounter-piracy to submarine operations. A morerecent success was the recognition of theenterprise version of Arc GIS, when Natoselected Esri (with Siemens as an integrator)for their Nato Core GIS, placing thecommercial product as a central capability toserve Nato C2 as part of its overarching,service-oriented architecture.

Since then, however, Esri has been slowerinpenetratingmore tacticalapplications, suchas mobile battle management systems,artillery or dismounted soldier systems,despite a major partnership with Thales aspart of their Comm@nder integrated C4Icapability in the early 2010s. Today, Esritechnology pervades most imagery orcartography business application (includingcompetitor’s), although pure militarysolutions still rely on their validated andtraceable geospatial processing algorithms,leavingtoEsri the front-endprocessing,or themore standardised dissemination ofstandardisedgeospatial informationproducts.

Against this recognised success, rivalcommercial applications have found itdifficult to maintain their market share;Intergraph, Esri’s nemesis, has seen its

GeoMedia GIS market share erode despiteconsolidation with other core businessapplications (Leica Geosystems, ErdasImagine) within the Hexagon Group. Also,open-source applications, like OpenLayersor the FrenchGeoConcept (successful withGendarmerie, Army Aviation or TacticalAir Control Parties), are struggling tochallenge the strong Esri-Microsofttechnical andmarketing partnership,whichfederates a huge ecosystem of value-addingpartners around the two software editors(likeAGI or IHS/Jane’s).

Between full software suite andcommercialGIS,Geospatialdevelopmentkitsfill aniche for integrators todevelopgeospatialapplications in C4ISR programmes. One ofthe earliest vendors is the Belgian Luciad. ItsLightspeed geospatial component softwarereplaced Luciadmap in 2013, and is widelyused in sea, air, land command andintelligence systems. Luciad solutions offersimple development tools for integrators andsoftware developers to focus on opengeospatial data visualisation rather than thecomplex, expert digital mapping workshopsofferedbyGIS.Scandinaviancompaniesoffersimilar alternatives, like the Maria softwaredeveloped since the early 2000s by TeleplanGlobe inNorway; it has been adopted in C4Iapplications from joint command level to thedismountedsoldier. InSweden, theCarmentaEngine provides software components tobuild specificmilitaryapplications.

Against the rise ofGIS and their constantfunctional extension, is there still a need forbespoke defence geospatial applications? Itseems so, despite the growing presence of

Left, a Google image is used to place intelligence feed. Despite the nice look and feel, it is impossible to know the accuracy, origin and processingassumptions behind this information, which proved to be poorly geo-located (WF/Google). On the right is a sub-meter digital elevation model of thesame area built out of documented satellite imagery and the Thales GeoMaker geospatial production suite incorporating accurate sensors modelsover verified map data. The resulting product turns intelligence into actionable information for effect-based planning and precision targeting (Thales)



commercial components in military-gradeapplications. The reason lies with the need,for critical defence corebusiness (notably firesupport, intelligence or targeting), tomasterand validate key data transformationfunctions, in order to certify their reliabilityfor the most critical missions. The truth is,highly automatedand“cool features” likeon-the-fly mosaicking or instant buildingextraction out of heterogeneousmapdata incommercial GIS have their drawbacks; incutting corners by equalising or simplifyingloads of sensor-specific data, they blur theiraccuracy and traceability, which hardlycomplies with drastic quality controlprocedures of military applications. This iswhy higher-end military geospatialapplications still relyon theirownalgorithmsfrompost-sensorprocessing andanalysis,

I PRODUCT DISSEMINATION:STANDARDISED AND SERVICE-ORIENTEDWithout the structuring and integratingeffects of standards, the geospatial industrywouldstill bea stovepipedcollectionofexpertdataprocessingandanalysis,with segmentedexploitation and single-use authoring ofproprietary geospatial information. Beyondgrowing IT technology standards on whichgeospatial software solutions are surfing, therole of the Open Geospatial Consortium(OGC) is paramount. OGC, largelysponsored by the NGA, binds major GISsoftware players with system integrators andCOTS-MOTS solution providers; among

structuring standards, Web Map Services(WMS) or Geographic Markup Language(GML)standoutasenablersof self-describinganddiscovery standards.Particularly tailoredto enterprise applications, service-orientedarchitectures (where information discoverymechanismsenable informationpublishandsubscribe), and web services becomeincreasingly hardware-independent. Otherexamples are recognised data formats, suchasGeoTIFF,whichenables scalabilityof largeimagerydatawithoutcompression.Theroleofgeospatial or IT companies must also behighlighted, beyondIonicSoftware, leader inOGC-compliant solutions. Adobe, theinventor of the pdf light documentdissemination format, developed the geo pdftoallowgeoreferencingof informationwithindocuments. Esri, with its own shapefile dataformat, is alsodrivingdatadisseminationandinteroperability, with most GIS recognisingtheir competitor’s shapefiles as a quasi-standard. However, even Esri’s shapefile isbeing challenged by the OGC’s latestGeopackage standard (GPKG), which packsraster, vector and symbology data in an objectdatabaseformat,toeaseinformationexchangesbetweenheterogeneous environments.

Theroleofdistributedarchitectures is alsokey to the generalisation of geospatialinformation products, where certifiedauthoring meets user-tailored visualisation.Forexample,3D-friendlyplug-inssupport fastbrowsing and exchange of high-resolution

geospatial products such as digital terrainmodels and fly-through. However, theirexploitation remains stuck at strategic andoperational (theatre) levels, accommodatingenterprises services onWeb2.0 technologies.Propagation of this level of informationremains highly dependent on constrainedtactical networks, as well as local processingcapacityofruggedembeddedhardware.This isprobably why the deployment of Nato coregeospatial services at theatre level (e.g. forISAF) is still pending, while paper maps(although made from digital geospatialinformation) still have a bright future to planandconduct fieldoperations.

The technologies behind geospatialacquisition, production and disseminationare increasingly integrated, resulting inhighlyautomatedgenerationofmulti-sensor,multi-layeredgeospatial informationproductsonaspeed and scale hitherto unimaginable.However, beyond the sexy look and feel of“Google-like” geospatial displays, geospatialinformation production remains an experttrade, averticalbusinesshighlydependentonsensor data and metadata, along withcarefully followed workflow and qualitycontrol to build validated geospatial layers.The current status of geospatial informationshows growing availability of high-qualityproducts, thanks to eased disseminationstandards and powerful map displays. Thetrade behind the powerful software suitesavailable remainsdifficult tomanage though;

“Propagation of this levelof information remainshighly dependent onconstrained tacticalnetworks, aswell as localprocessing capacity ofrugged embeddedhardware. This is probablywhy the deployment ofNato core geospatialservices at theatre level(e.g. for ISAF) is stillpending,while papermaps (althoughmadefromdigital geospatialinformation) still have abright future to plan andconduct field operations.”

This stunningly sharp view of Surobi province in Afghanistan is not a photo, but a high-fidelity3D virtual rendering which forms the terrain database of Tigre and NH90 tactical helicopters ofthe French Army Aviation (Thales Training & Simulation).

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what isgained inuser-friendliness isoften lostin new specialised modules dealing withspecific sensors or tailored analysisalgorithms. The range of skills to master inorder to fully exploit the performanceenvelopeofhigh-gradegeospatial solutions isbroadening. Last but not least, the reliabilityof information assembled from multipleprovidersandheterogeneoussystemsremainsfragile, especially with cots solutions,restricting the integration of geospatialproducts across the sensor-commander-shooternetworkedcommunities.

I BIG GEOSPATIAL DATAThe proliferation of available sensors andtheir growing accuracy are creatingformidable store/retrieve challenges to bothoperators and users. As an example, theaforementioned Worldview-2 satellitedownloadsabout1000gigabytesofdatadaily;a wide-area surveillance drone produces aflow of 2750 terabytes of data daily. Thegeospatialworld is thus theprimarycandidatefor cloud-ready, big data solutions. Indexing

and tagging imagery, video and geospatialproducts are amust inorder toprovidebroadand timely access to geospatial information.Time, space and semantic analysis furthercomplicatematters foranalysts to leverage thesheer volume of sources available. Cloudtechnologies apply to geospatial big data toleveragedistant,heterogeneousdatabases intoa single repositoryof geospatial information.Tobridge the strategic and tactical levels, new

solutions are being applied to featureextraction, compression or bandwidthmanagement to provide content in aconnected and disconnected environment.Excelis Jagwire, for example, is a cloud-basedsolution which discovers and federates dataacross multiple platforms and organisesdistributedaccess toon-demandinformation,standardising data along the way incompliance with NGA’s GeospatialIntelligence StandardsWorking Group. Forthe American Department of Defence’ssatellite imagery, Pixia software similarlyhandles very large datasets in single-composited layers.

Thenext challenge is thus for operationalusers to take full ownership of availablegeospatial products and augment, modify,fuse or tailor them for mission-specific use,while remaining able to trace andacknowledgemultiple data transformations.Thismission-driven integrationof geospatialinformation in C4ISR applications will beanalysed in the next episodes of ourgeospatial information series.

Company Product / Solution Type Main features Comments

AGI STK 10 C4ISR modeling & 3D viewer. Sensor modeling. Eased integration ofanalysis suite Esri output

Airbus Defence & Space ACTINT IMINT production suite Replaces OPTIMINT

BAe Systems Geospatial eXploitation GeoINT & IMINT TCPED suite.Product (GXP) 5.6 production suite

Carmenta Engine 5.6 GIS Supports newest OGC andNATO standards.

Elbit Mapcore GeoINT & IMINT Allows integrators to develop missiondevelopment component planning or C4ISR applications.

Esri ArcGIS 10.3 GIS Expert map workshop. Full software ArcGIS Pro replaces desktopsuite from enterprise services tomobile applications.

Exelis Envi IMINT production suite Formerly ITT

Geoconcept Geoconcept 7 GIS GeoINT production.

Harris FAME Full Motion Video Video georegistration, Wide-Areaexploitation Large Format imagery exploitation.

Intergraph Erdas Imagine 2014 IMINT production suite Advanced imagery exploitation tools(Hexagon Geospatial) (LiDaR,SAR, hyperspectral).

Luciad Lightspeed Geospatial development Enables integrators to focus on geospatial Replaces LuciadMapcomponent exploitation in C4ISR solutions.

OverWatch Systems RemoteView 4 IMINT production suite Multi-sensor exploitation. High accuracy applications

Primordial GroundGuidance Dedicated route planning On-road & offroad applications.Military software component Land cover & road/trail network

extraction from raster and vector.

Saab Rapid 3DMapping 3D production suite

Teleplan Globe Maria 2012 GDK Geospatial development Allows integrators to developcomponent tailored GIS applications.

Thales GeoMaker GeoINT production suite TCPED suite. High accuracy applications

The next challenge is thusfor operational users totake full ownership ofavailable geospatialproducts and augment,modify, fuse or tailorthem formission-specificuse,while remainingable to trace andacknowledgemultipledata transformations.



As seen in the earlier section of thisCompendium the digital battlespacehas been enabled by a revolution in

geospatial information technologies.Increased resolution sensors, automatedproduction tools, and standardiseddissemination formats are shaping the waymilitary operations areplannedand led.Theparticularly complex land environment,obstructed by weather, elevation, vegetationand human activity, is to benefit massivelyfrom this augmented digital description.However, this processdifferswidelybetweenthe higher-level generation of a god’s eyeview, and the lower tactical echelon,constrained by limited connectivity and on-board informationprocessing.

I MAPOF THEWORLD RISINGAn attempt at building a cross-domain,foundation of geospatial intelligence(Geoint) from legacy and new geospatialinformation surfaced inmid-2014under theambitiousMapof theWorldproject launched

by the National Geospatial intelligenceAgency (NGA). This initiative aims atcreating a single common exchange service,acting as an anchor point to link natural andman-made features and explore semanticcontent attached to geospatial objects, fromphysical description to embeddedintelligence. Later in the year,NGAawardedBAe Systems Intelligence&Security sector a$335 million contract to develop, maintainand disseminate Geoint from Map of theworld;BAehadalreadycontractedwithNGAto explore activity-based intelligence tosupport dynamic analysis. Harris thenreceived a$770million, five-year contract tocreate geospatial data products, eliminatingredundant data to store the most currentrepresentation of each geospatial feature.NGA awarded two more millions to fivecompaniesmeeting innovation challenges to

exchange large data sets using datalinktechnology, mitigate conflicting data fromvarious sources, or develop a framework fordata ingestion, analysis and disseminationsupportinguser-generated content.

The Map of the World project is a clearbreakaway from static to dynamicinformation; in its final form in 2020, it willuse big data analytics to integrateinformation from imagery, digital maps,maritime and air safety data, aswell as socialmedia, to generate a highly documentedobject of interest and thereby answerparticular queries from non-specialists.Released in summer 2004 as an initialoperational capability, theprojectwas able tointegrate information from12heterogeneouslegacy sources under a unified format, toserve Geoint requirements of 17 agencies inAmerica. The metadata-tagged content is

Mapping the Land & Joint BattlespaceMaking use of digital geospatial information to prepare, infiltrate and dominatethe land battlespace is still the privilege of higher echelons of command, able to accessand exploit multiple sources of intelligence. But the rise of on-board or personalnetworked terminals is also offering rich functionalities to insert land forces in complexhuman and natural terrain.

Map of the World reflect NGA’s ambition to transform geospatial information intodynamic, on-demand integration of multiple data sets to produce geospatial intelligenceattached to any object of interest in the battlespace (NGA).

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generatedacross thedefence and intelligencecommunities in a cloud-ready, web-basedenvironment. Access is facilitated throughthe Globe, a web portal where accreditedanalysts can search an object of interest inspace and time, generating layers ofgeospatial informationarounda target site ora mere individual. Published in highlystandardised formats, this information ismeant to be portable, with connected anddisconnectedusersable tobrowsepetabytesofcontent and update it on an on-demand,user-defined basis. A follow-on to theenterprise geospatial informationprojects ofthe early 2000s,Mapof theWorld is themostambitious geospatial initiative to date, andwill inspire similar initiatives in othernations, already committed to unifyenvironmental information services.

The US Army embarked in a similarendeavour with the Army’s GeospatialCenter’s Common Map Background. Thisprogramme is bridging NGA and Armycontent, to ease access to a broad range ofgeospatial information products (fromdigital elevationmodels to geopdf files) fromusers in the field. Access will be grantedthrough a web portal, with datasets madeavailable in standardised format, anddissemination allowed through an FTP site,DVD, or external disk drive. Afghanistanwas chosen as the first implementation,giving way to standardised data sets of thecountries geospatial features.

I THE RECOGNISEDENVIRONMENTAL PICTUREThenotionofsharedsituationalawarenesscanbesimplydefined toanswer thecritical “who’swhere” question inmilitary operations. In itsultimate form, it is delivered as a CommonOperational Picture (COP); but this multi-layered, geo-located view has hardly becomeareality inhigherheadquarters, challengedbya refined description of the operationalenvironment, defined as the RecognisedEnvironmental Picture. The REP is anambitious endeavour to describe in digitalformats all aspects of the operationalenvironment: geography, hydrography,oceanography, and meteorology. As a by-product of the intelligence preparation of thebattlespace, it is thus capable of serving allmilitary users (army, navy, air and specialoperations forces), and can be seen as thefoundation of the COP. Building theRecognisedEnvironmentalPicture,however,entails leveraging the very best of terrain,water and weather generation tools; and thisfinding is even more acute in the landenvironment where natural and humanfeatures converge to load topography withsurface details. REP components have beenfoundforsometime,althoughinaproprietaryformat, held by a loose community oftopography, oceanography andmeteorologyspecialists. Today, leveraging new andincreasinglystandardisedgeospatialproducts,REP is athand inahandfulof countries, from

where it will logically spread tomost defencestaffs.Duetothehighvolumeofdata,modernIT is seen as a powerful enabler to bringtogether environmental data: enterpriseservices, subscribing to distant networkedcommunities, service-oriented architecturesandWeb2.0 technologiesall combine toallowaccess to user-defined information servicesandbuildingof adhoc informationproducts.This will give rise to new specialties innetwork-centric operations, such as a REPmanager, tasked with pulling geospatialinformation to serve dedicated demand forsuch operational services asweather overlaysfor drone operators, helicopter landing zonesfor army aviation units, or route computingfor logisticplanners.

In America, Britain, France and withinNato, Recognised Environmental Picture isslowly being experimented to fuel planningor commandand control of network-centricoperations. The 2013 edition of CWIX(Coalition Warrior InteroperabilityeXperimentation) allowed Nato commandstaffs to refine requirements expressed inprevious editions, and test robustness andrelevance of tailored environmentalinformationproducts.

TheFrenchDGAparticipatedwithThalestoshowthe first resultsof theirREPadvancedstudy, a forerunner of the several hundredmillion euro Geode 4D, aiming at leveraginggeospatial information from geography,hydrography,oceanographyandmeteorologythroughout theC4ISRusercommunityby themiddle of this decade. This will shape thefuture of current geospatial informationprogrammes, still largely-map-driven, in keycountries.WithinNato, similar requirements,

This Recognised Environmental Picture shown during CWIX displays a situation of Somaliato prepare a joint operation, including special forces insertion, drone and amphibiousoperations. REP will at last create operational pictures where the sea is no longer flat andthe sky no longer empty (Nato).


under the planned Nato EnvironmentalServices, will leverage core geospatialservices deployed in Nato headquarterssince the early 2010s by SiemensDeutschlandandEsri.As amemberof the27-nation,NGA-sponsoredMGCPgroup(under theNextviewoutsourcingcontractfor the NGA), the British Ministry ofDefence produces its share of geospatialdata; the choice made in 2012 to launch aproduction run onLebanon and Syria hascertainly met strategic priorities in 2013-2014,andtheseproductswillmost likelybein high demand for disseminationthroughout the coalition. InAustralia, theJoint Programme 2064 (GeospatialInformation Infrastructure & Services)fulfilsasimilarambition.Thecurrent, four-phased JP 2064 provides dissemination ofgeospatial services via a web portal todistant users. LockheedMartin Australia,under an AU$ 200 million contract, iscurrently delivering phase 3, allowingforwarddigitalmapdissemination.

I HUMAN TERRAINBeyondenvironmentaldatadominatedbyphysical terrain features, the currentoperational environment has broughtabout the need for accurate informationon human activity in places often alien towestern cultures: Afghanistan, Iraq,Malior Somalia. In these highly traditionalsocieties, the notion of human terrainbrings value todeployed forces in termsofsettlement, allegiances, or centres of localpower, all valuablenotions for intelligencegathering, psychological operations, or

urban control.Although “human terrain”is usually associated with the intelligencepreparation of the battlespace, it isvaluable topolice andmilitary operationsas well, as long as it enables forces in thefield to better insert their actions in acomplex social andcultural fabric.TheUSArmy embarked in the Human TerrainSystem programme in 2007, initiated by acontract toBAeSystemstorecruitandtrainsocial science specialists to serve as fieldscientists and advisors (human terrainteams) in Iraq and Afghanistan. Closer toa psychological operations project thangeospatial intelligence, theHumanTerrainSystemhasproducedanthropologicaldatanot easily integrated in a common GIS.However, it can leverage non-traditionaluse of geospatial exploitation, powered bynewfunctionalities suchaspatternanalysisor activity-based intelligence, cross-database exploitation, and advanced data

A modern-day Joint Operations Centre leverages digital geospatial informationfrom theatre to lower tactical levels, associating cartography, imagery, video andgeospatial intelligence around a multi-window information wall (Barco).

Although “humanterrain” is usuallyassociatedwith theintelligence preparationof the battlespace, it isvaluable to police andmilitary operations aswell, as long as itenables forces in thefield to better insert theiractions in a complexsocial and cultural fabric.


visualisationfeatures.Asakeystakeholder, theUS Army’s Geospatial Center has built acultural mapping database, which servesdedicatedoverlays(e.g. ethnicgroupcoverage)in a GIS-compatible format (using Esri’s ArcGIS) for areas of interest. An ongoing effort,the CMAP geodatabase includes culturalcomponents over 120 countries and regionswith ethnic, tribal, religious or languageaffiliation, and contains roughly 60,000features. Although in its early phase, humanterrain analysis in counter-insurgencyoperations remains shrouded in controversyabout the use of social sciences to “winninghearts andminds”.

I ON-BOARD GEOSPATIALBATTLE MANAGEMENTThe powerful, layer-based geospatialinformation management has found agrowing demand beyond higher-levelcommandposts, for intelligencepreparationofthe battlespace or mission planning. Thetactical exploitation of this powerfulknowledge is far less advanced, though, dueto cultural and technological obstacles.

On cultural grounds, one must bear inmind that the special skills required forgeospatialdataexploitationare seldomfoundin deployed command staffs below brigadelevel,wheremissionexecution leaves fewseatsfor intelligence or geospatial analysts.Battlespacedigitisation thuscomesata slowerpace for the mobile warfighter, despite histhorough skills for traditional map readingand field navigation. Northrop Grummanmission systemsbecame famous for theiruseof “blue force tracking” (now a patented NGterm)whensevereweatherconditionsduringthe 2003 invasion in Iraq disrupted visibility(as well as voice communications) and

armoured vehicle crews had to resort toswitching on their “screens”—ruggedizedcomputers attached to their combat netradios. To their surprise, they displayedtactical symbols on a pan-and-zoom map,showing type and position of friendly units.Since themid-2000s this capability has beenslowly disseminated throughout land forcesasBattleManagementSystems (BMS).

ABattleManagement Systemshosts, on acomputer, several operationally usefulfeatures: message handling, tactical editor,

map management. It usually is coupled to adata communications interface for thecombat net radio. This allows tacticalcommanders, typically from battalioncommand posts to individual vehicles, toprepare, exchangeanddisplay tactical orders,shifting from the legacy structured textmessages (inherited fromstandardisedvoiceorders) to map-based graphical situations.From the lengthy, text-based situationalawareness of the early 2000s,BMSusershaveshifted to largely automateddisseminationofalerts andoperational or fragmentaryorders,based on geo-located, standardised tacticalsymbologyknown in theUSmilitary asMIL-STD2525or inNatoasAPP-6.Commanderscan thus create, exchange andupdate tacticallayers of unit, manoeuvre or volume typesdescribing their position, course of action,and boundaries. More mature versions cantap into the limited array of army sensors,fromEO/IRcameras tomini-drones.

Technically, this process inherited fromthepapermapsand tactical drills generalisedduringWWII, stumbles against a number oflimitations. The most obvious one is thelimitedbandwidthavailable to sharedataovertactical radios;most legacycombatnet radiosallow either voice or data exchanges, and themost recent ones (such as the Thales PR4G

This map of heroin production in Afghanistan is an example of how human terrain data canmerge with operational missions to prepare tailored actions (Nato ISAF).

A brigade-level graphical operational order over-layered on highly accurate geospatial dataof the Panshir valley in Afghanistan, merges text, ranges, tactical symbols, waypoints andartillery fire missions. This Recognised Ground Picture is ready for dissemination to Army tacticalunits via combat net radios (French MoD).

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F@stnet or the Harris PRC-117) allow a fewtens of kilobytes of voice and data to transitbetween a limited number of mobile userssharing the same VHF network. This tailorstactical exchanges to friendly force tracking,oralert dissemination, while dissemination ofcommander’s intent can take up to a fewminutes todisplay as agraphicalmapoverlayin each vehicle. Another constraint is thelimited computational power available onboard.Ruggedpersonal computers ormulti-function tactical displays are morecomfortable with static, low-resolutionimagery (satellite pictures or raster maps)thanheavy sets of vector data to dynamicallypan, zoom, or refresh tomatch vehicle speedonamap.Lastbutnot least,mobile, on-boardC4IrelyonITarchitecturewhichmustbeableto operate as a self-contained, oftendisconnected heavy client, far from rich(oftenWeb-based) client-serverarchitecturesavailable inheadquarters.

This set of constraints explain why mosttactical geospatial exploitation relies mostlyon “dots and arrows on a map”, whereasadvanced C4I functionalities remain absentfrom lower tactical echelons. The fastevolution of CPU and GPU, even on tacticalcomputers, is easingthesebottlenecks though,and the latest BMSs now embark powerfulmapmanagement functionalities, featuringcomputation of line-of-sight, waypoints,weapon and sensor footprints; the resultingshared situational awareness is transformingarmy manoeuvre in the digital age. ThalesCommunications, concentratingmost of theEuropean integrator’s C4ISR expertise (fromtactical radio to command & controlinformation systems and cyber security), hasbeenpromptto leveragecommercialandNatostate of the art capabilities. Its Comm@nder

family of integrated C4I systems has beenfeaturing exploitation of rich geospatialinformationontactical computers since2007.In 2010,Comm@nderBattlegroupbrought anew dimension to battle management, byintegrating information from vehicleelectronics (vetronics) and specific missionsystems according to vehicle type(reconnaissance, infantry combat, direct orindirect fire support, etc.) into the BMS. Thisallows integrating tactical data and videoinformation with geospatial analysis in threedimensions, displaying accurate navigation,vehicle status, sensor and weapon footprint

down to each combat vehicle. This solutionhas been selected by Malaysia for their newgeneration of 8x8 combat vehicles locallyproducedbyDefTechintwelvevariants,able tooperate innetworkedbattlegroups.

A steady improvement curve is alsoreflectedby theNorthropGrummanMissionSystems series of FBCB2 battle managementsystems. Fielded in the early 2000s as a “BlueForce Tracker”, the Joint Capability Releaseversion of FBCB2 common to US Army andUSMarine Corps can handle imagery, videoandcartographytodisplaygraphical situationsand exchange tight data sets in VariableMassage Format, the datalink-like standardcompatiblewithAmericancombatnet radios.Although less integrated into vehiclesubsystems than the Thales Comm@nder(resting on a vehicle electronics core), theFBCB2 rests on a proven, massive installedbase; as akey informationsuperiority enablerthough, it is notwidely exported (Australia isknown to be the only ForeignMilitary Salesbeneficiary), even if the Samsung-ThalesKBMS poised to enter service in Korea looksvery similar incapability.

Elbit follows a similar path, with tacticalterminals displaying simple map-basedtactical situations with little vehiclesubsystem information (outside gun layingand target acquisition formain battle tanks)in theirWINBMS family.


This multi-layered map of Afghanistan combines air coordination information, historisedimprovised explosive device information, and the day’s significant enemy activities.Leveraging core geospatial services and user-generated content, it illustrates state-of-the-artgeospatial intelligence exploitation at joint level (NATO).

A BMS embedded in a reconnaissance vehicle displays both imagery and geospatial data,with decision aids to identify an observed vehicle and turn an observation into a georeferencedtactical object. This local situational awareness is highly interoperable and saves thebandwidth of constrained tactical radios (Thales).

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The French SIT (Système d’InformationTerminal) installed by Nexter in combatplatforms, or the Sagem SITel fitted inarmoured personnel carriers and lightvehicles, are contemporary solutions withsimilar functionalities, using mostly rastermap as background. The ambitious Frenchnetworked integrated battlegroupprogramme, Scorpion, has shifted therequirement for battle management to ahighergroundwith theSystèmed’Informationde Combat Scorpion. Breaking away from theterminal level of command and controlmessagesandsituationalawareness, theSICSisdesigned as an army equivalent to a navalcombat management system; it featuresadvancedtargetallocationandfiringsolutionscomputationfunctionalities, althoughits levelof geospatial information managementremains inherited from the legacy of mapdisplays rather than leveraging truegeospatialinformation power. Scheduled to equip thenew generation of digitised combat vehiclesaround 2016, the SICS is being developed byBull, a French software house. It will have tocloselymatch thenewgenerationof software-definedradiosdevelopedbyThalesunder themulti-billion euro contact programmerunning inparallel toScorpion.

At the other end of the spectrum liecommercial-based software productsdesigned to leverage the best of currententerprise GIS technologies. The SystematicSitAware family is proposed by the Danishsoftwarehouse in aBMSconfiguration; it hasabandonedEsri’sArcGIS to leverageLuciad’sLightspeedembeddedgeospatial componentsoveraMicrosoft suite inaruggedcommerciallaptop. Although handy for deployed tactical

command posts, this solution rapidlyencounters thetechnicalbottlenecksof tacticalradiosandvehicle integration, especiallywithSystematic’s use of automated databasereplicationmechanisms, ill-adaptedtocombatradionetworks.This iswhySitAwarehasbeenslower tosatisfy truly tacticalneeds formobilebattlegroups, beyond its Slovenian, Irish andRomanianreferences.

I GEOSPATIALLY-ENABLED SOLDIERSoldiermodernisationprogrammesaugmenthuman eyes with day and night surveillanceand target acquisition optronics. Localsituational awareness in soldier C4I calls forbasic but critical information: where are myvehicle, team leader and fellow riflemen?Putting this information on a map takes alight, ruggedized form of personal digitalassistant inmanySMPs,with thedrawbackofhaving to look down at a small screen in afirefight. This is probably why soldier C4Icomes either as adismountedkindofBMSor

an enriched kind of digital compass. It cancombine both, like in the NorwegianNormansprogrammeor theBritish Fist bothled by Thales, with the former leveraging theTeleplanGlobeMariageospatialdevelopmentkit. It can also leavemap-based situations forthe platoon leader, like in the early Sagem-deliveredSitcomdeequippingtheFélinsoldiersuite inFrance.Butanewapproach to tacticalterrainreadingcanalsocomefrominnovativestart-ups like the GroundGuidance softwarefrom Primordial, a small Minnesota-basedbusiness created in 2002by anMITgraduate.GroundGuidanceuses standardmap-data tocompute variousoperational features: fastestroute, but also least exposed or least slopedfor vehicles or foot soldiers in open or urbanterrain; intervisibility, with an opticalvegetation penetration model; alternate orrandomised routing inurban terrain.Able toanalyse terrain fromthepixels of a rastermapto digital elevation models and vector data,Ground Guidance also comes with its ownGPU-based route computing algorithm,which is twenty-two times faster than itsCPUequivalent. Used for both mission planningor mission execution by small Army unitsand special forces, Ground Guidancesoftware development kit is deployed inFalconvieworXPlan, andhasbeen includedby Lockheed Martin in the eyepiece of itsGroundSoldierEnsemble.

Such innovative geospatial informationsolutions designed to leave headquarters toserve tacticalusers in the fieldare still few,butthey are called to spread, offering mission-tailored functionalities which can leveragegeospatial information at a similar level togeospatial intelligence systems deployed inhighercommandposts.

The Ground Guidance software wasincluded in the early phases of the Land

Warrior programme to provide an intuitiveroute planning tool displaying terrain costs

in terms of concealment, distances, andphysical costs (Primordial software).

Geospatial information in support of sniper missions; this Luciad Mobile applicationembedded in Systematic’s Sitaware Edge attached to an assault rifle computes line of sight,range, and wind speed (Luciad/Colt).



We’re all “sons” of Flight Simulator.For a long time, we used toconsider terrain information as a

convenient green and brown carpet overwhichwecould, using a fewvisual referencesto plot course and keep track of position andtargets. This notion is being challenged bymultiple new trends:� increased density of coalition air-to-groundmissions in permissive airspace;

increased need for accurate effects of airmissions, in all weather, day and night,with a growing air-land integration andbattlemanagement;� increased congestion of airspace inmilitary operations, withmultiple drones,helicopters, aircraft sharing the thirddimensionwith occasional ballisticpaths of rising or falling ordnance andlast but not least,

�manynations are facedwith growingcivil-military integration requirements tomanage their airspace at all altitudes.

Digital geospatial information thusenables air control to leverage the full set ofbattlespace dimensions: sea, land, air,space, information, and more importantlyelectromagnetic spectrum and positioning,navigation and timingdata.

“Air” is a key dimension for battlespacemanagement; it provides freedom of actionand higher observation positions, free fromthe frictionof terrainobstacles (althoughstillimpactedbyweather). Its commandalsocallsfor dynamic coordination between terrainfeatures and navigation procedures. This iswhyaeronautical chartshave little incommonwith topographic maps. They do leverageterrain information though, augmenting itwith dedicated information to segment,navigate, and mitigate airspace use. Visualflight route air maps thus look liketopographicmaps at first glance, but they areladen with flight-related information aboutinvisiblevolumes, corridors, visual landmarksand obstacles, and numbered informationabout runwayapproachor radio frequencies.For instrument flight rules, topographicinformation disappears altogether, to centreon procedures, airways and navigationinformation. Aeronautical charts markinvisiblewalls in the sky, anddisplay codes toenter or avoid them.Military air dominancefurther adds to this complexity, combiningprocedural control to navigate airspace, aswell as positive control from sensors (radars,IFF) and weapon systems to identify, track,authoriseordenytheuseofparticularareas. In

Mapping Thin AirAirspace is probably themost demanding dimension foraccurate ground and 3D positioning information. Nowhereelse is extensive environmental descriptionmore indemand from fast movers and ground control alike, toprovide air safety, plan navigation routes and approach indense environments, or orchestrate complex air operationsatmultiple altitudes betweenmanned and unmanned airvehicles, missiles and artillery. Today, as airspacecoordination increasingly relies onmerged topographicand aeronautical data, the need for digitised, integratedgeospatial information rises towards Earth orbit too.

A raster aeronautical chart is augmented with a drone flight path against adverse radardetection patterns and missile ranges over the Persian Gulf, provided by AGI’s System Tool Kit.This kind of simulated or live data is extensively used in planning and control of droneoperations worldwide (AGI).

A typical VFR air navigation chart displaysprocedural information over terraindescription. This kind of support, in paper ordigital form, provides basic air navigationtools worldwide (Jeppesen).

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representing suchmulti-layeredphysical andsemantic information, digitisation andinformation systemscome inhandy,whereasadvanced information visualisation,supportedby3Ddisplay technologies, freeairnavigation from the flat representations ofpapermaps.By integrating static information(terrain features, airspace volumes, radiofrequencies) with dynamic information(altitude, speed, and time computations forfast-moving air vehicles), new geospatialinformation products have emerged toenable aircraft pilots to focus on theirmission, while planners and controllers cande-conflict and synchronise air operationsat combined, joint and allied levels.

Typical aeronautical charting products,such as 1:250 000 JointOperationsGraphicsor 1:500 000 Tactical Pilotage Charts,distributed by East View Geospatial (EVG),still provide the bases of air navigation; butthey are used as a basic information layer,over which to integrate automation andcomputation features to maximise use ofairspace; this is why raster air maps, with orwithout vector or elevation data, are thebread and butter of drone ground controlstations. For on-board systems though,all electronic navigation aids require

certification from both civil and militaryauthorities to be granted access to thecockpit. In the US for example, the NationalGeospatial intelligenceAgency’s aeronauticaldivision is responsible for dissemination ofaeronautical charts, themselves compliantwith theFederalAviationAdministration. Inthe late-2000s, NGA embarked in anenterprise-scale roadmap to industrialisedigitised aeronautical map production andupdate, to ease integration into electronicnavigation systems. A new AeronauticalInformation eXchange Model (AIXM) wasdeveloped to share standardised routeplanning, in-flightnavigationor take-off andlanding information update betweenincreasingly connecteddevices, on-boardoron the ground. On the vendor side, leadingaeronautical chart providers have started toteamwithgeospatial informationcompaniesto enhance accuracy, information content,and interoperability of their products; forexample, the same East View Geospatialteamed in 2012 with the younger PlanetObserver, todistribute global andup-to-dateterrain data. Combined with rich aviation-related metadata maintained in English,Arabic, Chinese and Russian, EVG is readytomove to full electronic charting.

I ELECTRONIC FLIGHT BAGSThe electronic charting revolution started inthe late 1970s in the mission-criticalaeronautical sector, to equip fourthgeneration fighter-bombers with movingmaps. A sound reference is the family ofHarris Flitescene digital maps, supportingvector (navaids, airways, airports, etc),vertical obstruction points, and tacticalsymbology. Flitescene software still equipsmost of the US special operations aircraft.This level of digital information, whichreplaces the pilot’s kneepad map display, isalready valuable to plan air missions andsupport in-flight navigation. In turn,standardisation and dissemination ofinformation technologies impact defenceapplications, and civil aviation electronic airnavigation products now changes militaryflight operations. Jeppesen, a Boeingcompany famous for its aeronautical mapproducts, provides integratedgroundandairinformation on mobile devices, pioneeringthe concept of electronic flight bags (EFB).EFBs not only reduce paper volume taken byflight crews, they also act as computingdevices, able to match aircraft performanceandnavigationdatawith terrain, airspaceandairportdatabases tomaximise anairmission.iPad-borne EFBs were thus adopted in 2012by both US Special Operations Commandand Air Mobility Command, sometimes

The Flitescene 2.7 digital map software displays aeronautical information in the flightmanagement system of a special operations C-130 (Harris).


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replacing legacymovingmaps.Theynotonlyreplace paper maps and manuals, but someduly certified versions canbe takenonboardto manage flight missions in real time.Design-controlled EFBs type C undergoingairworthiness and software certification caneven replacemulti-functiondisplays.

I INTEGRATED FLIGHTMANAGEMENT SYSTEMSIn the mission-critical domain, flightmanagement systems (FMS) have replacednavigators and flight engineers (and in somecases navigation computers) as the ultimateon-board aeronautical informationapplication. FMS manage flight plan frommultiple databases, updated on a monthlybasis, to determine aircraft position andcompute the course to follow by the pilot or

the autopilot. Military aircraft can augmentnavigational sensors (radio beacons, aircontrol radars, or differential GPS) withdedicated on-board sensors (inertialnavigation systems, terrain-following radar)to provide very accurate positionalinformation. The most demanding airmissions, such as close air support or specialoperations (inserting commandosatnightorinbadweather in radio silenceandsupportedby passive sensors only), require highintegration and automation betweenmultiple information databases to providevery strict platformcontrol. For example, theGarmin GTN 750/650 helicopter-specificdatabase manages 30 000 low altitude

obstacles, navigation information, combinedwith heliports, helicopter landing zone, andhigh-resolution terrain mapping. Takingintegration furtherwith cockpit avionics andflight controls, Lockheed Martin Helisurefamily of integrated flight decks for criticalmission helicopters combine FMS with asynthetic vision system, helicopter terrainawareness and multiple threat warningsystems. A similar top-of-the range solutionintegrating aeronautical charts, terrain andobstacle information, is proposed by Thalesfor its Topdeck military helicopter avionicssuite, adopted by the RAF for its upgradedCH-47ChinookMk4 after an initial successon civilian Sikorsky S-70.

I AIR C2 AND BATTLE MANAGEMENTGeospatial information integration in tacticalmission systemsarekey enablers ofnetwork-centric operations. Managing the air battlecalls for simultaneous sharing of terrain,navigation, and real-time trackinginformation about friends, neutrals andhostiles. For on-board missions, provensystems such as the Rockwell Collins JointMoving Map Tactical Information DisplaySystem (JMMTIDS) combine networkingand messaging information from tacticaldatalinks with navigation and terraininformation (from imagery, digital terrainmodels, and aeronautical charts). Theresulting local situational awareness enablesfighter crews to focus on delivering their

An electronic flight bag uses digitalaeronautical charts to compute route andapproach and maximise fuel consumption,combining navigation and avionicsinformation (Jeppesen).

Helisure flight situational awareness solutions combine helicopter synthetic vision with terrainawareness and warning system to allow safe flight in poor visibility conditions (Rockwell Collins).


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aircraft and its payload over recognisedtargets, maintaining situational awarenesswhile navigating around obstacles, threatsandcollision risks. Sharing tactical situationsover tactical networks paves the way to air-land-integration between fighter aircraft,tactical air control parties on theground, andsupported armyor special forces units.

For ground-based air defence, latest-generationairC2smergemultiple sensordata(radar and military navigation aids) withaccurate terrain mapping to generate andmanage multiple airspace volumes. Theresulting positive control, arrayed on tacticalcommunications networks between radars,missile batteries, and command centres,provides safe orchestration of complex airoperations while accommodating civilaviation requirements. The Nato AirCommand&ControlSystem(ACCS)unifiedairC2,deliveredbyThalesRaytheonSystems,enjoys such capabilities. It can provideallocation and monitoring of extendedairspace while performing planning andcoordination of unmanned aircraft vehiclesand helicopters (in so-called standard-usearmy aircraft flight routes) with multipleaircraft flight profiles (combat, combatsupport, mobility or special missions) atcoalition level. Its interoperability

requirements enable the ACCS to exchangeinformation with civil aviation authorities,army aviation or field artillery unitsrequesting ballistic trajectory corridors fortheir firemissions.A fewcountriesboast suchanadvancedcapability as theNatoACCS; the

Thales Skyview Air C2 can integrate withextensive Army air defence (Martha) andartilleryC4I (Atlas) systems, tomaximiseuseof airspace volumes and trajectories. TheAmericanOmnyx-10AirC2 fromLockheedMartinMission Systems & Sensors has beenprovided toTaiwan, Kazakhstan, Jordan andmore recently to Iraq (through ForeignMilitary Sales); its cots-based, service-oriented architecture eases interoperability

Walls in the sky; the French Martha Army air defence C4I system provides overall managementof the 3rd dimension, allocating corridors, flight routes and volumes for artillery, drones,helicopter and aircraft (Thales Raytheon Systems).


Integrated with pilot navigation and mission system, an electronic map display fusing pre-processed terrain, obstacles, flight information, navigation and threats is at the centre of pilotsystem interface in this generation 4+ Dassault Rafale cockpit (Dassault Aviation).

with civil air traffic management andrequires a less expert operator base.

I NAVIGATINGORBITAL SPACEThe increasing integration of space assets incurrentoperationshasdrawnattentionontheneed tobettermanageEarthorbit, inorder tomaximise access to it, ensure availability ofspaceassets, andtheir survivabilityagainst themany natural or man-made threats to spacevehicles.Thegrowingcongestionof lowEarthorbit or geostationary positions by active orinactive satellites, and a rising number ofdebris posing risks to active satellites, adds tointentional threats to unattended spaceplatforms. This congested and contestedenvironment has given rise to spacesituational awareness as a new, vitalcomponent to information superiority innetwork-centric operations. One might betempted to wonder about geospatialinformation in space though; groundreferences lie far below, andorbit is free fromairspacerestrictionsonsafetyandsovereignty.However, space is not without trajectories,flight paths and obstacles, even if all abide bythe predictable laws of space mechanics. Aspaceobject canachievea stabilised trajectoryin orbit; but it is always subject to slightoscillations, and its orbital parameters canbe

altered to avoid slow erosion of residualatmosphere, or collision risks with spacedebris. Also, space weather, from cosmicradiation or solar activity (solar winds oreruptions which trigger sudden chargedparticle flows) can have a disrupting or evendamaging impactonspace systems, aswell asgroundcommunications infrastructure.Lastbutnot least, a satellite ground footprintmustbe assessed with accuracy, to compute itssensor swathandpoint imagersaccurately forobservationsatellites (whichnormallyoverflya given target site once a day and for a fewminutes), ground spots for communicationssatellites, or their line-of-sight with groundcontrol stations for sending commands ordownloading information in a narrow timeandspacewindow.

Space control is not only earmarked forcommercial or government satelliteoperatorsworriedwithquality of service; it isalso a privilege of a few space-rich militarypowers, whose space assets are key toinformation superiority: communicationssatellites ensure connectivity on a globalscale, free fromgroundnetworks; navigationsatellite maintain positioning accuracy andcommon time references, grantingsubscribers with sub-metric navigation andtargeting; observation satellites provide

regular access to areas of interest, free frominterference from ground or air, to map,discover or assess damage.All these strategicassets must be controlled though, not onlyto fulfil their individualmission (sensor andplatform alignment, tracking of groundantennae) surviving the hostile orbitalenvironment, but to synchronise flightoperations as constellations (e.g. optical andradar surveillance).

This is why military space operationcentres in a handful of countries (US,Russia,France,China and Israelmainly) share amixof commercial and bespoke tools to providesituational awareness and ensure accuratecontrol of their space assets. One such tool isthe Satellite Tool Kit (STK) from AGI,augmentedby a specialised space situationalawareness software suite. Connected to liveor simulated sensor information (groundradars or optical telescopes) andusing spacetracking algorithms, the STK can providereal-time tracking of space objects, analyseinteraction between payload and terrain,alert on collision risks, and mitigateelectromagnetic interferenceordegradationofsignals. US Space Command in ColoradoSprings is a long-timeSTKuser;memorandaof understanding between Joint SpaceOperations Command in Vandenberg AFB

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Space weather, generated by cosmic rays and the solaractivity cycle (solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and

geomagnetic storms) can compromise communications andinformation systems, and also affect satellite orbits.

Understanding it is critical to air and space operations (ESA).


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and allied countries (France, Israel orABCAallies) often rest on exchange of informationmanaged by or compatible with the STK.The growing need to maintain spacesituational awareness, notably a catalogue ofsome 23,000 tracked objects of more than10cm in orbit, or early detection of solaractivity, has fuelled a service-based initiativefrom AGI and the private Space DataAssociation to provide commercial servicesto proven or emerging space powers. Therecent Commercial Space OperationsCentre initiative (ComSpOC) is thuschallenging legacy space surveillancesystems that can be tempted to augmenttheir non-critical space tracking activity bythe AGI-provided Spacebook catalogue oforbital objects, or leverage sensors on aglobal scale. The most ambitious spacesurveillance programme to establish andmaintain a detailed space object catalogue istheSpaceFenceprogramme, grantedunder a$914 million contract to Lockheed Martinagainst Raytheon; from 2018 on, SpaceFence will merge data from new S-bandground radars, large telescopes and space-based surveillance satellites, to feed a spacesituational awareness command centre.

Since space power is increasingly linkedto sovereignty though, progressmay be slowbefore space surveillance is left to non-national, private entities. A more pragmaticapproach is a burden sharing betweeninternational bodies (e.g. the EuropeanSpace Agency), national space agencies,

commercial providers or partof the scientific community, toprovide common services totrack hazardous objects inorbit,warnon re-entryof largeobjects, or anticipate andmitigate space weather. Moremission-critical tasks, such asthe safe operation of nationalsatellites, or the tracking ofadverse space capabilities (in-orbit or through their groundfootprint) can thus be left tomilitary forces. France hasrecently embarked on apermanent space surveillancecapability in a newly-openedfacility near Lyons; manned24/7 by air force crews, itwill deploy the Systèmed’Information Spatiale, a spacesituational awareness C2granted to a consortium ledbyThalesAlenia Space end-2014;the SISwill leverage expert tracking of spaceweather, as well as the modernised Gravesbistatic radar mapping objects in low orbit,designating some to dedicated orbitographyradars oroptical telescopes. In any case, suchcapabilities are drawing interest from agrowing number of countries outside spacepowers, either because they have recentlyacquired valuable space assets, or becausethey worry about the use adverse countriescoulddoof their own.

Aerospace geospatial informationrequirements thus differ from classicalground mapping, integrating much moredynamic (semantic or spectrum-related)knowledge,while powerful decision supportand asset optimisation potential rests onsuccessful and accurate integration ofaerospace and terrain information withweather (space or atmospheric) data, sharedbetween fast movers and operational ortactical commandcentres.The trendhas justbegun to exploit informationof aeronauticalinterest in all dimensions of the battlespace,and serve communities of interestwithhigh-resolution, accurately located andstandardised geospatial information. Fewcompanies combine the know-how of high-

grade geospatial information production,integration into standardised, enterprise-based architectures, and dissemination ofhigh-value services to operational users. Butthe growing role of geospatial informationsystems, and the increasingly matureinteroperability standards in both thecommercial and military domains, bears abright future inexploiting immaterial fieldsofthe battlespace to augment ground andatmospheric physical information.

A conceptual rendering of the Space Fencecommand & control centre, which will trackmore than 200 000 active and inactive objectsin orbit to maintain space situationalawareness (Lockheed Martin).

An Ikonos imaging satellite manoeuvres in low Earth orbit in acluttered environment, displayed in terms of areas ofuncertainty around each tracked orbital object. Maintainingaccurate orbital parameters and anticipating collision risks inorbit is paramount to ensure safe operations of satellites (AGI).


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This is probablywhy the leading chartingcompaniesdescribed in theair andspacepart, such as Jeppesen or Navionics,

provide also high-grade marine charts forcommercial and military users. Nauticalcharts, however, comply with specificrequirements to describe coastlines andmaritime areas, as well as ocean depths andmain seabed features, natural or man-madenavigational aids, marine currents and tidal

activity. Such knowledge rests on nationalhydrographic offices coordinated by theInternational Hydrographic Organisation(IHO). Within historical naval powers, theNational Oceanographic and AtmosphericAgency in America, the old British

OceanographicOffice, and theFrenchServiceHydrographique et Océanographique de laMarine thus produce official marine charts(e.g. the famousBritishAdmiraltycharts) thatupdatedona regularbasis.

I ADVANCED SENSORS, BETTER DATA,NEW STANDARDSThe maritime domain forms a complexinteraction between the sea floor, watercolumn, the sea surface, air column, anddynamic information about navigation,weather or obstacles. To comply with thesafety and security missions of most navies,this specific battlespace is surveyedby awidevariety of subsurface, surface, air andspace sensors, mostly of dual-use betweengovernmentsandthemilitary.TheNasa Jasonsatellite provides accurate measurement ofwaveheight and sea levelsworldwide; its datacan be consumed in near real-time to plannaval escorts to pirate-threatened maritimetraffic in the Horn of Africa. Airborneimagingor ranging sensors like lidarsprovideaccurate coastal contours, or gatherbathymetric information in shallow waters(using for example a blue-green laser topenetrate water and infra-red laser tomeasure surfaceheight).

Mapping the Seven SeasMarine charting started in the ancient times, and thepower of a navy has since beenmeasured by the qualityof its charts. On a predominantly oceanicworld, mappingthemaritime environment amounts to summing up all theknow-howand constraints described in the previouschapters: the complexity of coastal, surface andsubsurface features is augmented by specific humanoccupation of the littoral, the changing and dynamicnature of the seas, aswell as their peculiarweatherpatterns; on top of this, navigational and traffic controlinformation is adding up an extra, critical dimension.Fortunately, digital-age information products translate thiscomplexity into critical decision-making tools.

Multi-sensor input has brought positive and negative elevation to marine charting,enhancing visualisation through electronic navigation charts, illustrating the multi-dimensionalaspect of the Maritime domain (Jeppesen).


Ship-borne or submarine sonars, fromsingle beam to multi-beam echo sounderscombining sensor swathe with attitudesensors,gyrocompass,andinertialnavigation,deliverbathymetric information tomapdeepseafloor features.Other sensors surveyoceantemperature, salinity, and tidal flows. Theresulting amount of data can be extremelycomplex to integrateonasingle, standardisedsupport such as the old paper map; the stillexperimental or academic use of the mostadvanced hydrographic or bathymetricsensors also adds to the data exploitationchallenge. This is why marine charting hasfound the useful help of digital technologies,giving way to electronic navigational charts(ENC);departingfromscannedmarinechartsto provide dynamic information, ENCstranslatevast amountof information intosetsofstandardiseddata,producingintelligentandinteractive maps able to manage and displaymulti-layered information, often combiningrasterandvectordata (see first section).

The wide array of data collection sensorsand their scientific orientation have sloweddown standardisation, still lagging behindcomparable land and airmapping products.Commercial geospatial information systemshave only recently started to cope withmaritime geospatial information, both fortheproductionandexploitationof intelligentdigital maps. The most internationallyrecognised format in marine electroniccharting is the IHO-approved S-57, alongwith its S-63 encrypted variant. Companieslike Jeppesen provide conversion tools tobring legacy and exotic data onto S-57maps.However, this maritime standard is slowlybeing accepted in commercial GIS. Luciadwas early to provide S-57 visualisation tools,thanks to its early involvement with Thalesat the turn of the century to deliver ship-borne and shore-based commandinformation systems, notably for the new-generation SIC 21 maritime C4I system-of-systems for the French fleet command. Esrifollowed suit, developing its ArcGIS formaritime operations alongside its version10.1 in the early 2010s. This suite offunctionalities leverages Esri’s priorinvolvement inenterpriseGIS forNOAAandother maritime users in America. Itcomplements Esri’s ocean basemap servicesreleased in 2011 on ArcGISonline, filling agap and demonstrating how poorly theworld’s ocean are mapped today. Oceanbasemap is planned to move in scale fromtoday’s 1/500 000 to 1/72 000 aroundAmerican coasts.

As S-57 was developed when computingpowerwas farweaker, electronic charts soonreached their limits in incorporatingmarinedata. So the rich metadata associated withmaritime information systems have led todevelop S-100 and S-101 formats, designedto replace S-57 for new-generation ENCs inthe mid-2010s. These new, more open IHOstandards augment pure geospatialinformation with marine-relevant dynamicinformation. The S-100 hydrographicgeospatial standard for marine data andinformation supports multiple data sets:bathymetry, 3D and temporal information,or trackingsensordata, suchas radar tracksorAIS (Automatic Identification System).Beyond at-sea navigation, the new formatenables route planning, coastal and harbournavigation, and takes into account dynamictidal models. The S-101 implementation,tested in 2014-2015, will transformENCs toricher Electronic Chart Display andInformation Systems. ECDIS combine ENCdata with positioning information, to plotcourseandwarnof forthcomingdangers, andcross-analyse different geo-enabledinformation to provide a rich,multi-layered

situational awareness. Among the mostawaited type of dynamic information areweather data. Already available instandardised GRIB files, they bringadditional graphical layers ofwind, pressure,precipitation, temperature,waveheight, andtidal streams. This rich environmentalinformation canbeused toplan intelligence,surveillance and reconnaissance resources,maximising sensor planning and multi-sensor exploitation.

I LOCAL TO COMBAT INFORMATIONSince July 2012, ECDIS are scheduled tobecome compulsory on-board majorcommercial andgovernmentships,becomingthe centrepiece of integrated bridge systems.This growingmarket is populatedby leaders,quickly taken over by major defencecompanies, such as Transas, RaytheonAnschütz or Northrop Grumman SperryMarine. Based in St-Petersburg, TransasMarine produces a range of ECDIS (like theTRIMS integrated bridge managementsystem, available only for Russian and CIScustomers), and has teamed with the Britishhydrographic office to provide the Transas

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An artistic rendering of NASA’s Jasonocean survey satellite, measuring in real

time sea levels and wave height. Thedistribution of this information over web

services adds up to the building of anaccurate environmental picture

(NASA/Thales Alenia Space).


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AdmiraltyDataService for rich, certifieddatacontent and faster update of its charts.Raytheon Anschütz has developed theSynapsisECDISas aPC-basedapplication todisplay both raster charts and S-57 or S-63vector electronic charts. Synapsis is used foron-board navigation, course plotting, andtrackdisplay,withweather chartoverlayasanoption. It is akeybuildingblock inautomatedbridge management systems adopted on-board Damen’s Sigma-class corvettes andlight frigates in service with Maroccan,IndonesianandsoonVietnamesenavies.

Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine’sVisionMaster FT ECDIS is its closestcompetitor, also featuring picture-in picturefor visualisation of video, radar or sonarinformation; it is similarly a key buildingblock in Sperry Marine’s TotalWatch singleintegrated bridge display. In both solutions,however, true sensor fusion (where geo-referenced sensor data actually replace mapinformation) is still not achieved. To move

from a ship’s bridge to major combatantstactical operations centres, militaryapplicationsofECDISneed to takegeospatialinformation one step further, by providingadditional military layers (e.g. readinginformation froma tactical editoror a sensortrack manager) and interfaces to combatmanagement systems (which monitor andintegrate a ship’s target acquisition andweapon systems).This combat application isthe role of Warship ECDIS (WECDIS)described in Nato and major naval powerssince the endof the2000s. In2011,NorthropGrumman was granted a contract to installitsWECDIS version ofVisionMaster on thenext HMS Queen Elisabeth aircraft carrier.The very lack of aWECDIS, and the relianceonpapermaps tonavigate,was a key issue inthe grounding of HMS Astute, the RoyalNavy’s latest nuclear attack submarine, inOctober 2010. It led to an Admiraltyrecommendation to install WECDISthroughout the class. In the submarine

branch, OSI Maritime Systems provideTactical Dive Navigation System, a Nato-certifiedWECDIS dedicated to underwateroperations. TDNS uses Vancouver-basedOSI Geospatial ECPINS-W Sub software,compliant with Stanag 4564 for integrationof additional military layers (a standardisedcatalogue of object of military interest) intomaritime information systems. InApril 2014,the same software was retained for theintegrated bridge system on board RoyalNavyT45Class guidedmissile destroyers.

I MARITIME DOMAIN AWARENESSBringingmaritime geospatial information tobear with mission management systems is alogical step, taken by ECDIS providers inmission-specific solutions formaritimesafetyandsecurity.Supportingthecompany’sarrayofcoastal surveillance radars, RaytheonAnschütz provides the Smartblue C2 systemtoprovide local situational awareness aroundports, naval bases, or oil and gas facilities. Itscontainerised version provides a compactsolution to deployment requirements incoastalandoffshoreenvironments.Smartbluecan extend to Land perimeter protection,diver detection, and intrusion control,thanks to a radio frequency identification(RFID) extensionmodule.

The USNS impeccable ocean surveillance shipis immensely valuable to monitor and map theunderwater environment thanks to its towedarray sensor system. It was chased fromChinese waters off the nuclear submarinebase of Hainan in 2009, triggering a seriousdiplomatic incident (US Navy).

Disputed Palawan atolls in the South China Sea. Nautical charts combine natural and humanfeatures for navigation and route planning purposes. Their move to electronic formats makesfor higher accuracy and automated update (NOAA, via TerraMetrica).

Transas Marine Electronic Chart Display andInformation Systems equip commercialand government ships worldwide; this Russiandesign accepts the latest standards inmaritime information services (Transas).


Beyond point surveillance and for shore-based higher-level command & controlapplications, themost recent solutions comefrom information services providers; theirlevel of IT, and sometimes Natostandardisation, enable system integrators toembed them in Maritime C4I applications.Esri’smaritimeoperations suite combines thecommercialGISeditor’s large ecosystemwiththeir substantial referencebase in thedefenceand intelligence areas. Noted in 2010 for arich operational use-case for fighting piracyoff the Somali coast by combining satelliteimagery, open data and geospatial queriesacross multiple thematic layers (frommaritime charts to human terrain of tribaloccupation of the Somali coast), Esri havecombined enterprise geospatial services andopen data providers (such as IHS, owner ofworld-famous Jane’s and Lloyds maritimeinformationdatabases).

Their ArcGIS for maritime operationssuite offers operational preparation of themaritime battlespace, starting with availabletemplates andopen tocustomers’ intelligencedatabases. Multi-layer information querieslead toarichsetofanalysis tools,merginggeo,hydro, oceanographic and meteorologicaldata, against which patterns of activity,coming from open sensors (such as AIS),military ISR,orcommercialdatabases, canbedisplayed.The resulting time-spaceanalyticscapability showcases the extent of consistentcommercial solutions open to standardisedexploitation in military C4I. The first C4Isystem integrator to leverage this richecosystemwasThales,EsriGoldpartner since2010. Stepping on board their ArcGIS V10releaseonthesameyear,Thalesdemonstratedintegrationof legacyandWeb2.0 solutionsbyintegrating their SIC21 maritime C4I, justdelivered to the French Navy, with an Esri

serverhostinggigabytesofopendata (suchasIHS AIS worldwide, Fairplay harbour andships maritime databases, and oil and gasexploitation areas). Both were connected toWeb-based Common Operation Pictureviewer in Nato Vector Graphics (NVG)standard to manage large volumes ofbattlespaceobjects.Thenextyear,Thaleswonthe Nato COP project, serving the Alliancewith Joint C4I (leveraging Nato coreGeospatial GIS delivered by Siemens, basedonEsri).Nato’supcomingenvironmental andmaritime functional services will make fulluse of latest information standards andarchitecture, since information associationthroughWebmap services brings maritimedomain awareness one step further from therealmofmilitary-grade information.

There seems to be virtually no limit inassociating own-ship sensor information,fleet-wide situational awareness, andbusiness applications pulling informationfrom fisheries, customs, port authorities,coast guards andnavies, all georeferencedona set of dynamic geospatial layers. This newhorizonhasgivenbirth toanewgenerationofMaritime C4I systems designed to connectwith on-board WECDIS or CombatManagement Systems, and augment themwith professional information services. ThiscomplieswithNatonewest requirements fortheir enterprise functional services, as a setof military applications resting on a service-orientedarchitecture, brokering informationon a pull rather than a push basis, under theso-calledUser-DefinedOperationalPictures(UDOP). This allows operational users toconsume information frommultiple legacysystems and new services (e.g. the Jason 2satellitewaveheightmeasurement, broadcastin near-real time as a web service by the

Anything wrong in this latest Zumwalt-class DDG-1000 notional operations centre rendering?Geospatial information displays, for sure, seemingly stuck in the late 1990s and unworthy oftoday’s Warship Electronic Chart Display & Information Systems (General Dynamics).


Esri’s ArcGIS for the warfighter leverage the GIS editor’s rich partner ecosystem to offer tailoredinformation services in the maritime domain, like this maritime battlespace analysisapplication to mine warfare (Esri).


Australian Navy), and bring them onto aninteroperable framework to create mission-tailored information products for decisionsupport. In this context, the releasebyThalesof their latest Comm@nder integrated C4Isystem, Comm@nder Maritime in 2013, istargeting Triton, the follow-on programmeto the ageingMaritimeCommand&ControlInformation System (MCCIS) delivered toNatobyNorthropGrummanUKin the early2000s. The Indian Navy has taken a similarpath with their Trigun and Samvaad C2software suites, designed to leverage sensorand navigation information betweensubmarine, surface and air platforms,networkedwithmaritimeoperations centrestobuild and sharemaritimeacross theboard.

Thesenewtrends illustrate therecentmoveof geospatial information from platform-centric, to network-centric. New standardsease transition from electronic charting toopen maritime information systems; richmaritime geospatial information provides arecognised environmental picture on whichtomap general surveillance (AIS, navigationradar)ormission-specific (e.g. surveillanceortarget acquisition) sensors. The border hasbecomeblurredbetweenon-boardandshore-based applications, since the former canleverage rich databases from fleet command,and the latter can consume locally-builttactical information to create, share andmaintain a fully recognisedmaritime picturefor thebroadermaritimedomain.

I THE LIMITS OF DIPLAYSThe limits to thismulti-layered exploitationrest in our current visualisation tools. Theclassical 2D displays inherited from papercharts may well be meeting their limits.The rise of web-enabled 3D visualisation,combinedtogrowinggraphicalcomputationalpower carried by standard computers ormobile devices, is fuelling a promisingresearch and technology effort. As themaritimespace isanaturalcandidate tomulti-dimensional visualisation (from oceansurveillance satellites to submarine sonars),new directions are investigated to render themultiple volumes of maritime activity,maximising exploitationof congested shores,or opening new horizons for blue wateroperations.MarineCadastre is a civil project,started in the early 2010s by NOAA and theUSBureauofEnergyManagement, topresentmaritime informationasanon-demandsetofinformation layers, visualised in2Dor3D.

Another promising direction is beinginvestigated by the defence industry.Battlespace Vista is an advanced concepttechnology demonstrator (ACTD)showcased by Thales in 2014 as aninnovation initiative, pooling the group’sadvanced C4I solutions between ThalesSecure Information & CommunicationSystems, Thales Raytheon Systems, ThalesUnderwater Systems, and Thales Researchand Technology. Battlespace Vistaapplication toMaritimeDomainAwarenessfor the 2014 Euronaval exhibitiondemonstrated a three-dimensionalimmersive and interactive environment(thanks to active 3D glasses tracked bysensors to slave the display to thecommander’s motion) to visualise anintegrated battlespace from the oceanbottom to the higher atmosphere on high-grade geospatial data, complete with everyship position and ID, sensor footprints, andcommunications links. There is no doubtthat such innovationwill transform thewaywe look at the complex maritime domain,relegating electronic charts to the past assurely as they replaced century-old papercharts. Asmore reliable and open geospatialinformation becomes available for newsituational understanding solutions, navalpowers of today and tomorrow willdemand these new information superioritytools as surely as their ancestors cravedadmiralty charts.

Next-generation maritime domain awareness systems will hide the complexity of maritime geospatial information and integrate on-boardsensors and shore-based intelligence and information services, to present a fused 3D rendering of recognised environmental and maritimepictures focused on mission management (Armada/Wesley G. Fox).

“There is no doubt thatsuch innovationwilltransform thewaywelook at the complexmaritime domain,relegating electronic chartsto the past as surely asthey replaced century-oldpaper charts.”

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Urban terrain poses a formidablechallenge to military operations. Noneed to look back as far as Stalingrad

for lessons learned; combats in Beirut,Mogadishu, Grozny, Jenin or Fallujah allshare a considerable cost and a common

finding: understanding the complex,compartmented and obstructed urbanenvironment is critical toensure the successofoperations inbuilt-up areas.Urbanmappingis a branch of human geography and ischallenging too by its very large, or human

scale (1:10 000 to 1:5 000 ideally), whereasmost military maps deal with strategic,operational or tactical scales. Beyondsurveying population and social habitat, theamount of artificial features range fromtransportation infrastructures to built-upsuperstructures, andan increasingly complexnetworkofutilities:water, sewage, power andphone lines, and more recently digitalcommunications, either based on groundcables or radio relays.

Ironically, thismassive information existsindocumentedandoftenupdated formats; itwas needed from the start to build any city,for urban planning or cadastre and utilitylayout.However, this data comes inmultiple,fragmented and proprietary sources, fromarchaeological surveys topowerdistributioncharts, and incidentally, urban paper maps.Digital information for urban applicationsthus still forms a minor part of availablemapping information, compared to landsurvey or maritime and aeronauticalcharting; information standardisation andintegration about cities are still at anembryonic stage. These shortcomings

Mapping Urban CanyonsUrban areas severely complicate situational awarenessand threat identification, requiring a specific, time-consuming intelligence preparation of the battlespace(IPB). Besides, the peculiar human nature of urban terraincombineswith today’s stringent rules of engagement,which tend tominimise friendly fire and collateral damagerisks. Such constraints call for data accuracy andavailability in large volume; new solutionswhich arebreaking away from classical geospatial informationproduction processes, leveraging 2D/3D data processingto describe urban complexity.

US Army servicemen examine aholographic map of an Iraqi city. Innovative

ways of representing urban areas aredemanding new sensors and high-resolution 3D data (Zebra Imaging)



painfully appear during every disaster reliefoperation, as recent crises have shown fromNew Orleans to Bangkok. Each time,responders struggle to aggregatedata ownedby multiple stakeholders; they are criticallyshort in any military operation in urbanareas, whether cities are orderly planned orresulting fromanarchicurbangrowth.

This is probably why most GeographicalInformation Systems (GIS) vendors proposededicated tools adapted to urban mapping,from raster edition to digitised paper maps,or vector edition to add additional features.Early modules dealt with cadastre or urbanplanning applications; newer ones provideadvanced tools to produce fine-graininformation for navigation, horizontal andvertical planning, or rationalisation ofoverlapping utility networks. In this process,classical 2D descriptions are giving in toinnovative 3D representations of urbaninformation, with a growing contribution ofhigh-resolution, multi-sensor imagery,modelling and simulation, and layers afterlayers of semantic information, from merepostal data to qualitative features abouthabitat,business, andresidentspatternsof life.

IPB for Military Operations in UrbanTerrain (Mout) hardly benefit from thisincreasingly rich information content,though. Since combat or disaster reliefoperationsoftendevelop inpoorcountriesoreven failed states, with little or nocooperation from local authorities,modern

armies spend a considerable amount ofeffort to survey, map and describe urbanareas of operations in a hardly permissiveenvironment.The longhaulofproducingup-to-date urban maps for military operations,ill-adapted to operational tempo, is thusincreasingly giving way tomore automatedurban feature description, leveraging recent

breakthroughs in payload miniaturisation,multi-sensor processing and big dataexploitation. The new capabilities arisingfromnetwork-centric operations conductedbyhighly-digitisedandconnected forces alsobring new requirements to accommodateprecision navigation, targeting andcommunicationneeds.

I CURRENT SOLUTIONSUrban areas are captured primarily throughremote sensing. In peacetime, aerial imageryprovides the best compromise between highgroundresolutionandlargeareacoverage,andcanbeaugmentedbygroundsurveys. Innon-permissive areas, satellite coverage, at theexpense ofmultiple revisit, provides accuratecapture of urban areas, with fused radar andpanchromatic imageryproducingmediumtohighaccuracyelevationdata.VriconSystems,a subsidiary of Saab Dynamics, offer suchaerial or satellite (in partnership with DigitalGlobe)mappingservices.TheImageCityMap(ICM)format is theprimarywayto transformspacemaps into thebase layerofurbanmaps.GIS tools can then edit maps, creating therelevant overlays for street names, area

A satellite overhead view of Falluja, Iraq.Space maps are the primary feed of urbanmapping, but a small contribution to thedescription of the human and physicalcomplexity of cities (Digital Globe).

Visualising complexity: a combat route planning displayed against multiple constraints incity displaying line of sight from one of the convoy’s vehicle viewpoint. Digital geospatial solutionsprovide both proven and innovative tools to exploit multiple geospatial formats in a hybrid2D-3D environment (Luciad).

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classification, buildings of interest, publicworks and obstacles. Additional modulesprovide bespoke urban feature description,notably computer-aided 3D extrusion tocompute and extract building shapes. Esri’sArcGIS City Engine, for example, providessuch computer-aided functionalities fromimagery, including point cloud conversionfrom lidar data (a laser radar that producemillions of georeferenced points accuratelymeasured inx-y-z).Luciad’sLightspeedsavespre-processing time by reading data in theirnative format, and offers a simultaneous,hybrid 2D-3D view, instead of dedicated 3Dmodules of traditional GIS. Such dedicatedfunctionalities for defence users areproposed inOverwatchGeospatial’s RV3D,part of their RemoteView suite; UrbanAnalyst combines various feature extractionandmeasurement tools tailored to performterrain analysis within a geospatiallyaccurate terrain environment. It can beimported from a commercial GIS (Esri’sArcMap) desktop project.

The proven MapIt! Software, from theSarnoff Corporation, provides a somewhatmore generic suite for defence and securityapplications; it combines imagery and lidarpoint clouds to generate veryhigh resolutiondigital elevationmodels (DEM).Theresultingortho-mosaics and 3D site models supportsIPB in urban areas, from intelligence,surveillance and reconnaissance to targetinganddamageassessment.Lastbutnot least, thelatest release of BAe Systems Socet GXP(Geospatial eXploitation Program, see the

first chapter of this Compendium) featuresthe next-generation automatic terrainextraction (NGATE), which uses dedicatedalgorithms to create precise digital elevationmodels from imagery. All these bespokeapplications deliver advanced results at thecost of expert skills, though.

Producing high-fidelity 3D city modelshas become a trade in itself, and specialisedbusinesses born out of urban planningrequirements are now offering geospatially-enabledproducts earmarked fordefence andsecurity. PLWModelworks in America, forexample, produces detailed 3D models ofmore than 450 locations in 21 countries,covering either critical infrastructures likestadiums, airports and refineries or entirecities, with before-and-after disaster areamodels like Port-au-Prince in Haiti orIshinomaki in Japan.Onamoremodest scale,Vectuel’sVirtualCity, inFrance,hasbuilt geo-referenced3Dmodelsof cities likeAbuDhabior critical sites like the Kremlin in Moscow.Such products result from specific contractswhich render their output proprietary to theuser; but the tools and technology used areGIS-compatible and can meet the stringentrequirements of urban analysis for criticalmissions. Georeferenced 3D data in citymodels can also support further analysis

Raw lidar data read natively in LuciadLightspeed at a very large scale. Lidar data isthe best source of urban 3D mapping since itcan capture the smallest artificial featureswhich hamper line of sight and vehiclemobility (Luciad & GeoEye).

“detailed 3Dmodels ofmore than 450 locations in21 countries, coveringeither criticalinfrastructures likestadiums, airports andrefineries or entire cities,with before-and-afterdisaster areamodels likePort-au-Prince in Haiti orIshinomaki in Japan”

Gorgon Stare’s platform and payload provide a proven solution to rapidly generateaccurate urban geospatial information from massive volumes of wide area surveillance data,while delivering pinpoint reconnaissance of urban areas to Army and special forcesdeployed forces (Sierra Nevada Corporation).


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compatiblewith information andnavigationwarfare. Additional, highly specialisedsoftwaremodules can compute radioorGPSpropagation between buildings. This aspectof urban modelling is often overlooked inmilitary and security operations; however,poor spectrum planning has resulted in thepast in catastrophic failure, as experiencedby Russian forces in their first operation inGrozny in 1994, where urban canyonsproduced masks and multi-paths whichimpaired tactical radio exchanges. Luciadsolutions take this into account by allowingexploitation of large urban datasets (thenew GeoPackage open format definedby the Open Geospatial Consortium) ondisconnected mobile devices, asdemonstrated in their Astute project forBelgian firefighters. Similarly, GPS data inhigh-rise cities are often degraded by the

buildings’ glass andmetal structures, callingfor innovative ways to provide high-accuracy positioning information. LocataCorporation, an Australian companyspecialising in positioning solutions in poorornon-GPSenvironment, has demonstratedLocataNet inWhite Sands missile range fortheUSAirForce, using anetworkof ground-based transceivers to allow air combatmissions over the range in GPS-deniedconditions. The Air Force 746th TestSquadron is expected to draw significantexperience in navigation warfare from thisproject. Thedenials of service experimentedby both American and Russian GNSSconstellations over the Ukrainian crisisclearly point position, navigation and time(PNT) signals as a single point of failure infuture information-centric, network-enabled operations, calling for increased

attentionpaid to navigationwarfare in areaswhere positioning information is eitherdegraded or suppressed.

I NEWAIRBORNE SENSORSThe legacy process of producing validatedgeospatial information fromskilledusers andexpert toolsbeforedissemination in-theatre isill-adapted to the human resource andoperational tempo in the current theatres ofoperations. This finding has led to an initialstopgapmeasure,which consisted in fieldingin-theatre geospatial productionworkshopsto support soldiers. It was still deemed ill-adapted to unit-of-action requirements forpersistent surveillance and near-real timeextraction of terrain features for immediatetactical exploitation.

The solution has come out as adevelopment of the first deployed persistent

The Argus-IS wide area surveillance payload imagery shows a quantum leap in the command of urban terrain. The latest increments of GorgonStare leverages the latest hardware and software improvements from DARPA and BAe Systems (DARPA).


37

drones in Afghanistan and Iraq. Platformslike theGeneralAtomicsMQ-1Predator andits sensordelivered full-motionvideo (FMV)feed to ground stations, and portableterminals such as the L-3Rover (seeArmada1-2014). In parallel, America began to equipmodified business aircraft to carry high-resolution imaging payloads, such as lidars.This was the aim of the USArmyGeospatialCenter’s Buckeye programme which hasrevived combat mapping since 2004. TheBuckeye pioneered the collection of high-resolution 3D (HR3D) imagery over (air)permissive areas of operations, combining10cm colour imagery and one-metre postspacing lidar intounclassifieddata, shareableat coalition level. The resulting, human-scaleHR3D feed was immediately grasped byspecial operation forces to plan and executedelicate, small-scaledirect actionmissions inurban areas. Obstacles, cover, concealment,weaponplacement, ingress andegress routes,became available out of near-real timegeospatial information about urban targets.Deep urban canyon understanding enabledby this high-resolution colour imagery andaccurate elevation data acted as a game-changer in the non-traditional ISR and

counter-insurgencywarfare inAfghanistanand Iraq. Buckeye and its associated suite oflidar exploitation and terrain modellingsoftware quickly proved able to servemilitary intelligence, special operations, andtopographic/geospatial communities atnational and coalition levels. Its 3Dfoundation layer, built by Applied Imagery,supports themost demanding urban terrainanalysis, such as sniper/counter-sniperoperations or detailed road clearanceagainst road bombs. After more than tenyears in operation, Buckeye has beenresponsible for mapping most populationcentres and lines of communications in bothcountries. In early 2014, asAmerican forcesbegan to withdraw from Iraq, the entireBuckeye dataset was given to the newgovernment, amuch-appreciated gift in therenewed fighting against radical Islam innorthern Iraq bymid-year.

The full-motion video feed delivered bytraditional drone sensors is either in wide-fieldofvieworhigher-resolutionnarrowfieldof view; it produces a frustrating “lookingthroughasodastraw”effect that is ill-suited toa large, complex urban area, where the userloses context rapidly.Thesolutionwasofferedby latest wide-area persistent surveillanceprograms; Sierra Nevada Corporation’sGorgonStaredelivered to theUSAirForce forits Reaper drones in a first increment is apoddedsensor systemfromExelis combiningnine cameras. It began operations inAfghanistan in March 2011, despite poorinitial operational assessment during AirForce testing at Eglin in Florida, followed byon-the-fly improvements. The 16km2 areasurveyed by the Gorgon Stare’s visiblespectrumand infrared sensors canbebrokensimultaneously into multiple spotsurveillance vignettes and despatched to tenusers on the ground equipped with portableground terminals networked to the GorgonStare ground station. Advanced on-boardcompression and storage hardware andsoftwarepackedbyMercuryFederal Systemsin the unmanned aircraft pod overcame thetraditional limitationsofon-boardprocessingand air-ground communications bottleneck.Gorgon Stare Increment 1 has since loggednearly 12,000 flying hours over Afghanistanterrain. The follow-on Increment 2 passedinitial operational capability in July 2014,adding a four-fold increase in area coverageand a two-fold one in resolution. Theoptronics sensor,delivered froma jointDarpaand BAe Systems Argus technologydevelopment, combines with the largest

infrared sensor array to date (delivered byExelis), enabling a single drone to monitor a100km2area for several hours.The resultingscene fuses 368 camera images, creating a 1.8billion-pixel composite video imageat twelveframes per second. Increased imagingperformance allows users to find smallertargets over larger areas. Dissemination usescommercial standards (e.g. JPEG 2000 forimagecompression,orGeoPDFfor inclusionof imagery and its metadata in digitaldocuments). The Buckeye andGorgon Stareprogrammes have acted as force multipliers;they can let future theatre commandersexpectnearreal-timecoverageandmappingofthe largesturbanareas fromasingle aircraft.

I ADVANCED EXPLOITATION TOOLSThe increased availability and accuracy ofHR3Ddatahavebrought three-dimensionalmapping technologies to the tactical level,allowing deeper understanding of thecomplex urban environment. Thesetechnologies call for newways of visualisinginformation to produce better situationalawareness. Draping imagery over elevationdata, which used to be the way to represent3D features in 2D, is reaching its limits inurban terrain combining topographic andhuman features.Newapplications can render3D data in a dynamic and immersive way tobetter fuse physical and semanticinformation, an attractive advantage invisualising urban environments. Theseapplications can produce various 3Dsupports, turningmaps toholograms.

Holographic maps are the main outputof the US Army Tactical BattlefieldVisualizationprogramme, using technologyfrom the Texas-based Zebra Imaging. Suchrepresentation of urban terrain bridges thegap between geospatial community andtactical users, since untrainedpersonnel canunderstand a complex environmentwithoutparticular map training. Zebra Imaging’shologram maps can be printed, with 3Drendering triggered by a source of light (e.g.

The Vigilant Stare airborne sensor payloadcombines the latest improvements in dayand night motion imagery sensor integrationwith intelligence bandwidth managementto serve multiple deployed users innear-real time (Exelis).

“Such representationsof urban terrain bridge thegap between geospatialcommunity and tacticalusers, since untrainedpersonnel can understanda complex environmentwithout particularmap training.”


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ON THE COVER: The old situation tables withmodels of tanks or ships pushed around with longpoles and their electronically displayed equivalentshave had their time. Full immersion systems providinga four-dimensional rendering of real-time situationsare taking over, with full “identity card” of every blue orred force item given as exemplified by this Thalesdisplay, part of the firm’s Battlespace Vista advancedconcept technology demonstrator.

a flashlight) over the film-likemap.Viewersdon’t need any glasses to read the 3Dfeatures and can take the custom-madeholographic maps with them in the field.The next step is going to see real-time2D/3Ddisplay, allowing real-time data to befed into the hologram.

AnothernewtechnologybeingexploredtoleverageHR3D fusedwith other informationoverlays (suchasC2-relatedtactical situations,space volumes, or sensor footprint) is beinginvestigated by Thales under its 2014innovationprojects initiative.Releasedduringthe company’s TechDays inMarch in Paris, itwas shown during Eurosatory as BattlespaceVista, an advanced concept technologydemonstrator (ACTD) focusing on air-landintegration in Afghanistan. Merging Thalesintegrated C4I technology with commercialsoftware, Battlespace Vista displayedimmersiveand interactive information fusingterrain, tactical situation, and semantic

information about own and enemy forces,downtothesoldier level.NorthropGrummanInformationTechnologyarealso investigatingsimilar solutions at a lower technologyreadiness level, having patented a methodcombining located video streams withgeospatial information.

With these latest breakthroughs fed bytechnical and operational advances, urbanterrain is now reaching a higher level ofrepresentation, bringingpeculiar situationalunderstanding to non-geospatial experts ina fraction of the time and effort required tobuild legacy urbanmaps.Urban and tacticalfeatures are just starting tomerge in order topresent a thematic, layer-based situation toanswer mission-driven requirements at averyhigh scale.This stepwill pave theway tointegrationof ever richer urban informationcoming from civil and military sources,producing a very high fidelity rendering ofall the constraints of urban landscapes.

Compendium Geospatial InformationSupplement to Issue 1/2015Volume 39, Issue No. 1, February-March 2015

INTERNATIONALis published bi-monthly by Media Transasia Ltd.Copyright 2012 by Media Transasia Ltd.

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3D data come from a variety of sources; the Battlespace Vista ACTD combines intelligence and situational awareness in an immersive and interactive environment, where a complex scenecan be slaved to the user’s point of view for maximum situational understanding and decision support (Thales).

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