Armada Compendium - Geospatial Information

Cover Compendium Feb-March 2015:Armada

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

The Battlespace Fabric: Digital-age technologies transform geospatial information superiority Spatial information and geolocated events should be the bread and butter of military operations, and the newly digitised battlespace brings new promises of shared situational awareness and synchronised manoeuvres. Nevertheless, the fact is that Nato went to Afghanistan with Soviet paper maps, and operations in Africa are still carried out with poorly-detailed country-wide maps or obsolete terrain descriptions.

Wesley Fox This compendium is divided into five sections: The Battlespace Fabric (Digital-age technologies transform geospatial information superiority) Mapping the Land & Joint Battlespace Mapping Thin Air Mapping the Seven Seas Mapping Urban Canyons

I

n this first part Armada’s C4ISR editor analyses the technologies and tools required to build the foundation layer of current network-centric operations.

The digital age has brought a new horizon to geomatics. The word, coined in Frenchspeaking Canada in the early 1980s, describes the contribution of digital technologies to environmental survey and analysis; geomatics encompass surveying and cartography, but also photogrammetry and remote sensing, as well as Geospatial

Information Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies.

One could have thought that after a few centuries of charting, surveying the Earth was nearing to a close. Quite to the contrary, this endeavour is permanent, as our environment continuously evolves (think of ice caps, coastal areas, or deforestation), and man adds new features to topography. Most importantly, requirements for accuracy have soared, as precision navigation and guidance open new dimensions in fine-

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A highly-detailed print of a digital map about Israeli settlements in the West Bank released

by CIA in 2008 to support the peace process.

Hybrid geospatial solutions combine “national technical means� with commercial mapmaking and dissemination products for the best effect. (CIA)

grain Earth surface analysis, from route clearance against roadside bombs to urban combat, not to mention navigating the largely uncharted ocean bottoms.

I DATA COLLECTION: ACCURATE AND AGILE SENSORS

While surveying trade has not disappeared, the surveying tools have changed dramatically. Today’s military topographic teams thus deploy with state-of-the-art ground sensors and software. Ground measurement sensors gradually integrate laser technologies for highly accurate ranging; but the very location of measurement units is

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immensely enhanced by the latest global navigation satellite systems, like GPS and Glonass, and since 2014 their European and Chinese equivalents, respectively Galileo and Beidou constellations. In some areas of the world, differential GPS (DGPS) services allow pinpoint ground location; the latest generation of Trimble Pro series receivers, for example, subscribe to Egnos (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service) to offer up to sub-meter accuracy, while ensuring maximum use of available satellites and some resistance to atmospheric and environmental degradations. The resulting measurement of ground control points, essential to

topographic survey and mapmaking, is nearly error-free. US Army engineering topographic survey teams thus deploy with the Northrop Grumman Enfire kit, which gathers optical and laser rangefinders and military GPS receivers around data collection, storage and exploitation devices integrated with mapproduction software.

In hostile or remote areas though, the difficulty to access ground securely, as well as multiple perturbations brought by ground cover (foliage, buildings) has led the military to develop remote sensing since the 1940s. The fast development of aerial photography allowed capturing vast expenses of sea or land, and multi-point triangulation techniques provided accurate location free from ground interference. In addition, oblique or stereo imagery brings information about terrain elevation. Today, the proliferation of sensors and digital image processing technologies have boosted photogrammetry, opening new grounds for data integration across the electromagnetic spectrum, combining laser, infrared, optical and radar wavelengths for unparalleled capture of terrain data in day, night and above clouds. The Swiss Leica Geo Systems is famous for its airborne imaging sensors. The Leica ADS80 airborne digital sensor offers a high-resolution mode for orthophoto production, with swath widths of 24000 pixels. It comes with a flight management and control system software, computing aircraft dynamics against a software sensor model to minimise flight and atmospheric distortions. Multi-triangulation measurements determine where the camera was in x, y and z and when the picture was taken, to automate production of large mosaics of surface travelled. An extension to these capabilities has arrived to accommodate growing use of video sensors on board surveillance Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles.

Video offers various advantages, from lowcost sensors to real time availability of sensor data. Simactive, a French Canadian developer of photogrammetry software since 2003, has thus recently unveiled a new version of its Correlator 3D photogrammetry product tailored for small-format drone sensors. But the ultimate refinement of aerial remote

A high-resolution Digital Elevation Model of Eritrea blends Ikonos satellite imagery with accurate elevation data collected by lidar.

Such quality in a geospatial information product can support the most demanding mission requirements, from precision targeting to special operations (Satimaging).

sensing has come from active sensors in the non-visible range; lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) provides a laser-based scanning method of the Earth surface especially suited to characterising micro-elevations. Initially developed to measure forest canopy or coastal erosion, lidar has become a primary sensor to generate Digital Elevation Models (i.e. Earth elevation augmented by vegetation cover and man-made objects).

Overhead surveillance has benefited from recent progress in digital video sensors, producing Full Motion Video (FMV) with increasingly sharp resolution and extensive

Dedicated full-motion video exploitation products leverage video metadata, correcting errors inherent to moving video collection platforms to produce mapping and targeting information. The recently-established 2d3 Sensing enables analysts to provide tie points (geolocated reference points) between collected imagery and a reference map

metadata, including geolocation. Dedicated full-motion video exploitation products leverage video metadata, correcting errors inherent to moving video collection platforms to produce mapping and targeting information. The recently-established 2d3 Sensing enables analysts to provide tie points (geo-located reference points) between collected imagery and a reference map. For each video frame, the sensor-agnostic software

can display the platform position and flight path, but also where the camera points.

Additional telemetry data provides location of every pixel, thus producing geospatial information usable for intelligence or target acquisition. Together with ESG Elektroniksysteme, 2d3 has delivered to the German BundesMarine a motion imagery processing, exploitation and dissemination system into their Northrop Grumman/Airbus Defence & Space EuroHawk hale drone, flying maritime patrol missions. Harris provides a similar capability with its Fame (FMV Asset Management Engine) which collects, indexes and disseminates video from multiple sensors, without the same fidelity in georegistration at the frame level, though.

The space age has brought overhead imagery and remote sensing to a new altitude.

Since satellite images are less prone to atmospheric interference and have predictable distortions along orbital path, space reconnaissance has become the preferred way of collecting data about huge territories worldwide, free from airspace sovereignty. The early remote sensing satellites of the 1960s were thus the most valuable strategic asset to map adverse

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

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

territory and manage crises, until digital cameras and commercial satellites brought this capability to the larger public. The US National Geospatial Agency began to place large contracts to commercial imaging satellites, until cost dropped in 1999 when Landsat satellite data had copyright removed.

Google began to democratise “space maps” from the mid-2000s, initially from the 30metre resolution, multi-spectral band Thematic Mapper of the Landsat imaging satellite, followed by higher resolution commercial satellites: Ikonos (the first metric resolution sensor), Quickbird and Worldview sub-meter imagers from Digital Globe, or GeoEye (bought by Digital Globe in January 2013), which now populate Google Earth. But space remote sensing was considerably enhanced by synthetic aperture radars, with imaging capabilities for day, night and allweather. Its lower resolution and sensitivity to elevations made radar imaging satellites prime candidates for the generation of digital terrain models, a powerful enhancement to legacy map building.

The main European challenger, Spot Images (now Astrium Services), has a similar track record of exploiting multiple satellites in synergy, with increasingly higher resolutions which beat Landsat imager long ago. The current constellation advertised by Astrium combines dual-use Spot 6 and 7 satellites with the latest-generation Pleiades 1A and 1B. The four satellites operate in low polar orbit as a constellation, phased 90°

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apart, offering a daily revisit time. Pleiades uses a particularly agile Astrium platform, built around the powerful Thales Alenia Space telescope to deliver 0.5-metre accuracy in black and white. Thanks to three collection plans a day, imagery acquisition time is less than 24h, while the satellite manoeuvres around its axis in seconds to capture multiple images in strip, stereo or spot modes. Space Imaging is catching up fast, with the addition of Worldview-3, launched in August 2014; this 29-band very high resolution sensor delivers 0.3-metre resolution imagery with atmospheric correction (smoke and haze reduction). It is adding to the Digital Globe constellation of WorldView, Quickbird, Ikonos and GeoEye imaging satellites. Since 2013, a partnership with Skybox imaging triggers the first application of video surveillance from satellites. The start-up has launched its 2nd Skysat mini-satellite in 2014, with high-definition still and video imagery; such a disruptive technology will challenge legacy space imagery providers. This race for resolution and coverage will receive a boost from the release of resolution restrictions by the US Department of Commerce, from 50cm to 25cm from June 2014, allowing distribution of imagery products of up to 25cm panchromatic resolution by early 2015.

Commercial satellites thus allow strategic military users to focus their scarce military reconnaissance satellite on imagery intelligence (imint) and targeting, while commercial operators faced with huge

tasking constraints rely on dedicated space sensor scheduling applications, such as the Satellite Toolkit from AGI, or the STK/Scheduler and Collection Planning & Analysis Worstation (CPAW) software from Orbitlogic. The latter are under contract through MDA Information Systems with the US Army’s Geospatial Centre on the Remote Ground Terminal programme to supply multi-satellite imagery collection planning linked with commercial imagery providers.

Multi-satellite operation results in enhanced collection synergies. Combined with the Spot constellation and new German radar imaging satellites from Infoterra GMbH, Astrium Geo Services offer in 2014 a new World Digital Elevation Model (DEM) service at two-metre (relative) vertical accuracy, challenging aerial photography especially for larger areas. This new breed allows rapid legacy map update as well as new products, tailored for military use. In any case however, the availability of accurate ground control points is paramount to perform ortho-rectification of imagery, in order to mitigate distortions caused by the platform along its orbit, sensor viewing angle, and environmental interference. Last but not least, multi-band, multispectral sensors on current imaging satellites offer a highly discriminating power for terrain analysis (between foliage, crops, built-up areas, etc.), although at the expense of resolution (true or false colour images remain above one-metre resolution), and accompanied by a steep rise in

complexity for image processing and exploitation. Artemis, a new sensor carried by the TacSat-3 satellite, is the first hyperspectral imaging sensor tailored to tactical applications from space. It is used by US Army Space & Missile Command and Army Forces Strategic Command in a joint exploitation team, experimenting fast exploitation for tactical users, in a new trend bringing space surveillance closer to the soldier.

I DATA EXPLOITATION: POWERFUL SENSOR SUITES

Digital-age sensors would be useless without their accompanying software tools for sensor calibration, correction, filtering and interpretation, all leveraging an increasing amount of sensor metadata which augment the raw collection product. Geospatial metadata deal with data identification, quality, organisation, spatial references, and other attributes. Some are for human interpretation, but others are input for automated image or interpretation, photogrammetry, geospatial information software. Beyond data description, their main use is to perform advanced processing on raw data and automate workflows to produce map or terrain models out of huge amounts of data, while performing some level of quality control and standardisation. Although most of these applications lie within commercial off-the-shelf solutions, the most demanding ones are either military off-the-shelf or bespoke software suite; often enough, they

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

combine all of these. The suite of services provided by these products is referred to as Tasking, Collection, Processing, Exploitation and Dissemination, or TCPED. Commercial products tend to blur the distinction between photogrammetry (postsensor imagery computation) and geospatial information systems (extraction and analysis of terrain features in a database to manage map or elevation data). Even Adobe

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 tactical symbols, shows tactical visibility from a unit standpoint and computes its route planning (Luciad).

Photoshop brings image processing closer to mapmaking, with measurement and filtering functions which can un-distort planar surfaces, and tools to smoothen colour and textures. Leica Geo Systems and Intergraph—both part of the Hexagon Geosystems group since 2005—provide multi-sensor integration and analysis suites.

Their high-level of automation and workflow generation is regularly demonstrated during Empire Challenge exercises, bringing together British, Canadian, Australian and American forces at the Naval Weapon Center in China Lake, California. Military or professional collection platforms are used as a multi-sensor input (e.g. Leica medium format digital camera, Optech lidar, military GPS) for the production and dissemination of digital geospatial products, such as terrain mosaics or digital terrain models. The proven Erdas Imagine imagery analysis suite is used to exploit multi-sensor feed, identify and correct data consistency, and produces military-grade imagery for dissemination to allied C2 or ISR systems.

A hybrid TCPED solution can be found in widespread commercial and military off-theshelf products, namely the BAe Systems Socet Set digital photogrammetry and geospatial information system designed mostly for defence applications. Its current 5.6 version provides point-matching algorithms for multi-sensor triangulation, turning digital aerial photography (usually delivered in

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stereo pairs) into ortho-images in raster (grid-based information) or vector format (where terrain features are translated into georeferenced points, lines and polygons).

BAe’s new suite, Socet GXP, combines image analysis with geospatial analysis. GXP XPlorer enables analysts to access huge data sets locally or remotely, while streamlining and standardising workflow for geospatial information production. In a transition move from legacy bespoke capabilities to commercial-based store-and-retrieve capabilities, NGA awarded a contract to BAe Systems to deploy GXP licences on an enterprise basis.

A somewhat more restricted, militarygrade TCPED use can be found with the clearly military-grade photogrammetry and image analysis suite from Overwatch Systems Geospatial Operations (part of Textron group). Remoteview is an advanced multiimagery and geospatial analysis system centred on the exploitation of strategic intelligence collection assets: dual-use or military satellites, as well as high-altitude reconnaissance platforms. In its current version, Remoteview 4 takes advantage of high geodetic accuracy of new digital sensors to generate orthorectified or mosaicked products from multiple map and imagery sources. One useful function is its fast virtual 3D rendering features, enabling analysts to create virtual fly-through of large gigabyte datasets. Dedicated extensions serve higherend geospatial intelligence requirements; the RV Screener module creates chips and mosaics from recce aircraft like the U-2R/S and drones like the Global Hawk and displays them in a seamless waterfall format to facilitate imagery analysis and change detection; IGeoPos is a tactical imagery precision positioning module, which grants RemoteView users access to the highly classified US Digital Point Position Database.

This latter feature should be highly prized by analysts, since geospatial intelligence is either sharply defined or precisely georeferenced, but seldom both.

More tailored military solutions can hardly be found outside America. Britain has recently declared initial operational capability of part of its Picasso programme, an army geospatial intelligence system delivered by Lockheed Martin UK Information Systems. The Field Deployable Geoint (FDG) programme has been entrusted to the Lockheed Martin UKled Socrates industrial team to address British Joint Force Intelligence Group requirements through 11 containerised two-man tactical

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

exploitation working environment. Its French equivalent, Moyens GĂŠographiques Projetables (MGP) delivered by Thales, has been used in Afghanistan and Mali to deliver geospatial information products to tactical users, thanks to advanced production and workflow automation tools.

In Israel, higher-end systems merge geomatics with imagery intelligence as exemplified by the IAI/Elta Systems EL/S8994RT Ricent (Real-Time Image Intelligence Centre). This is an applied multi-source, multi-sensor system for intelligence and targeting. It incorporates an information assurance component to check authenticity of contributing data, and automates search of matching imagery with better georeferences to enhance location of imagery of interest.

In France, Airbus Defence & Space offers the Actint suite, an apparent re-branding of past references (Optimint Image Intelligence System, itself derived from the EVI basic image exploitation capability), combines multi-sat imagery acquisition with analysis and feature extraction.

Geo Data Design, a South African company, proposes a lesser capable version (combined with Erdas Imagine and other cots suite for commercial imagery exploitation) to the African region. The Thales GeoMaker solution is also a re-branding for military TCPED, probably closer to high-end US or Israeli capabilities though; it combines highgrade geospatial exploitation references

(delivered to the French Ministry of Defence for military mapmaking or cruise missile mission planning for example) with strategic and tri-service imint systems. In 2013, GeoMaker reached out to new high-precision ground mapping sensors, such as TopCon high-density 3D laser mapper for mobile ground applications.

I INFORMATION PRODUCTION: THE WORLD OF GIS

Geospatial 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 before publishing generic or tailored (thematic) geospatial information products.

As such, GIS used to stand in the middle between data collection and exploitation systems; however, they tend to broaden their scope by incorporating advanced sensor processing features to exploit overhead imagery, lidar, video on the one hand, and provide increasingly business-oriented products from military mapmaking, on the other hand. To confuse matters even more, satellite operators develop their own GIS services. Furthermore, almost every military-off-the-shelf or bespoke geospatial exploitation solution incorporates interfaces or modules of commercial GIS. If GIS are plentiful as mapmaking applications and geospatial data presentation for various industries, the range offering truly military

applications is quite narrow; military applications encompass more rigorous georeferencing and quality control features, as well as tailored functionalities such as military grid editing or tactical symbology management.

Falcon View is one of the few early examples of dedicated military mapmaking.

Developed for PC/Windows by Georgia Tech Research Institute for free use by the US military (essentially Air Force and Special Forces for mission planning use) in the mid1990s, it has met a broad success within and beyond defence user communities. An opensource version was released in 2009, although for non-government users. With around 40,000 users, Falcon View remains a preferred moving map application in most American military aircraft. The success of this raster-based mapmaking and display application (currently in its fourth version) has led many subsequent and more advanced solutions to provide Falcon View-compatible interfaces in their product design.

I COMMERCIAL DEMAND

The GIS market is increasingly drifting into commercial applications though, and is dominated by few software vendors. Esri is leading, with about 35% of the military market worldwide. In the United States, their gain of the Commercial Joint Mapping Tool KIT (CJMTK) with Northrop Grumman as a system integrator at the turn of the century has positioned Esri as a key provider to the Pentagon, which buys and distributes the Esri ArcGIS suite for integration throughout the US military.

Initially a mapmaking tool for geographers, ArcGIS, covering desktop, server or mobile versions, as well as software development kits to be integrated in business applications, has evolved into a full geospatial production suite. Its latest 10.3 version has modules for about everything in the geospatial trade, from imagery and lidar integration to dedicated templates for C4I/Battle Management applications, and is developing mission-tailored geo-analysis, from counterpiracy to submarine operations. A more recent success was the recognition of the enterprise version of Arc GIS, when Nato selected Esri (with Siemens as an integrator) for their Nato Core GIS, placing the commercial product as a central capability to serve Nato C2 as part of its overarching, service-oriented architecture.

Since then, however, Esri has been slower in penetrating more tactical applications, such as mobile battle management systems, artillery or dismounted soldier systems, despite a major partnership with Thales as part of their Comm@nder integrated C4I capability in the early 2010s. Today, Esri technology pervades most imagery or cartography business application (including competitor’s), although pure military solutions still rely on their validated and traceable geospatial processing algorithms, leaving to Esri the front-end processing, or the more standardised dissemination of standardised geospatial information products.

Against this recognised success, rival commercial applications have found it difficult to maintain their market share; Intergraph, Esri’s nemesis, has seen its

GeoMedia GIS market share erode despite consolidation with other core business applications (Leica Geosystems, Erdas Imagine) within the Hexagon Group. Also, open-source applications, like OpenLayers or the French GeoConcept (successful with Gendarmerie, Army Aviation or Tactical Air Control Parties), are struggling to challenge the strong Esri-Microsoft technical and marketing partnership, which federates a huge ecosystem of value-adding partners around the two software editors (like AGI or IHS/Jane’s).

Between full software suite and commercial GIS, Geospatial development kits fill a niche for integrators to develop geospatial applications in C4ISR programmes. One of the earliest vendors is the Belgian Luciad. Its Lightspeed geospatial component software replaced Luciadmap in 2013, and is widely used in sea, air, land command and intelligence systems. Luciad solutions offer simple development tools for integrators and software developers to focus on open geospatial data visualisation rather than the complex, expert digital mapping workshops offered by GIS. Scandinavian companies offer similar alternatives, like the Maria software developed since the early 2000s by Teleplan Globe in Norway; it has been adopted in C4I applications from joint command level to the dismounted soldier. In Sweden, the Carmenta Engine provides software components to build specific military applications.

Against the rise of GIS and their constant functional extension, is there still a need for bespoke defence geospatial applications? It seems 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 processing assumptions behind this information, which proved to be poorly geo-located (WF/Google). On the right is a sub-meter digital elevation model of the same area built out of documented satellite imagery and the Thales GeoMaker geospatial production suite incorporating accurate sensors models over verified map data. The resulting product turns intelligence into actionable information for effect-based planning and precision targeting (Thales)

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commercial components in military-grade applications. The reason lies with the need, for critical defence core business (notably fire support, intelligence or targeting), to master and validate key data transformation functions, in order to certify their reliability for the most critical missions. The truth is, highly automated and “cool features” like onthe-fly mosaicking or instant building extraction out of heterogeneous map data in commercial GIS have their drawbacks; in cutting corners by equalising or simplifying loads of sensor-specific data, they blur their accuracy and traceability, which hardly complies with drastic quality control procedures of military applications. This is why higher-end military geospatial applications still rely on their own algorithms from post-sensor processing and analysis, I PRODUCT DISSEMINATION: STANDARDISED AND SERVICE-ORIENTED

Without the structuring and integrating effects of standards, the geospatial industry would still be a stovepiped collection of expert data processing and analysis, with segmented exploitation and single-use authoring of proprietary geospatial information. Beyond growing IT technology standards on which geospatial software solutions are surfing, the role of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is paramount. OGC, largely sponsored by the NGA, binds major GIS software players with system integrators and COTS-MOTS solution providers; among

“Propagation of this level of information remains highly dependent on constrained tactical networks, as well as local processing capacity of rugged embedded hardware. This is probably why the deployment of Nato core geospatial services at theatre level (e.g. for ISAF) is still pending, while paper maps (although made from digital geospatial information) still have a bright future to plan and conduct field operations.”

This stunningly sharp view of Surobi province in Afghanistan is not a photo, but a high-fidelity 3D virtual rendering which forms the terrain database of Tigre and NH90 tactical helicopters of the French Army Aviation (Thales Training & Simulation).

structuring standards, Web Map Services (WMS) or Geographic Markup Language (GML) stand out as enablers of self-describing and discovery standards. Particularly tailored to enterprise applications, service-oriented architectures (where information discovery mechanisms enable information publish and subscribe), and web services become increasingly hardware-independent. Other examples are recognised data formats, such as GeoTIFF, which enables scalability of large imagery data without compression. The role of geospatial or IT companies must also be highlighted, beyond Ionic Software, leader in OGC-compliant solutions. Adobe, the inventor of the pdf light document dissemination format, developed the geo pdf to allow georeferencing of information within documents. Esri, with its own shapefile data format, is also driving data dissemination and interoperability, with most GIS recognising their competitor’s shapefiles as a quasistandard. However, even Esri’s shapefile is being challenged by the OGC’s latest Geopackage standard (GPKG), which packs raster, vector and symbology data in an object databaseformat,toeaseinformationexchanges between heterogeneous environments.

The role of distributed architectures is also key to the generalisation of geospatial information products, where certified authoring meets user-tailored visualisation.

For example, 3D-friendly plug-ins support fast browsing and exchange of high-resolution

geospatial products such as digital terrain models and fly-through. However, their exploitation remains stuck at strategic and operational (theatre) levels, accommodating enterprises services on Web 2.0 technologies.

Propagation of this level of information remains highly dependent on constrained tactical networks, as well as local processing capacity of rugged embedded hardware. This is probably why the deployment of Nato core geospatial services at theatre level (e.g. for ISAF) is still pending, while paper maps (although made from digital geospatial information) still have a bright future to plan and conduct field operations.

The technologies behind geospatial acquisition, production and dissemination are increasingly integrated, resulting in highly automated generation of multi-sensor, multilayered geospatial information products on a speed and scale hitherto unimaginable.

However, beyond the sexy look and feel of “Google-like” geospatial displays, geospatial information production remains an expert trade, a vertical business highly dependent on sensor data and metadata, along with carefully followed workflow and quality control to build validated geospatial layers.

The current status of geospatial information shows growing availability of high-quality products, thanks to eased dissemination standards and powerful map displays. The trade behind the powerful software suites available remains difficult to manage though;

Compendium Geospatial Information 2015

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Company

Product / Solution

Type

Main features

Comments

AGI

STK 10

C4ISR modeling & analysis suite

3D viewer. Sensor modeling.

Eased integration of Esri output

Airbus Defence & Space

ACTINT

IMINT production suite

BAe Systems

Geospatial eXploitation GeoINT & IMINT Product (GXP) 5.6 production suite

TCPED suite.

Carmenta

Engine 5.6

GIS

Supports newest OGC and NATO standards.

Elbit

Mapcore

GeoINT & IMINT development component

Allows integrators to develop mission planning or C4ISR applications.

Esri

ArcGIS 10.3

GIS

Expert map workshop. Full software suite from enterprise services to mobile applications.

Exelis

Envi

IMINT production suite

Geoconcept

Geoconcept 7

GIS

GeoINT production.

Harris

FAME

Full Motion Video exploitation

Video georegistration, Wide-Area Large Format imagery exploitation.

Intergraph (Hexagon Geospatial)

Erdas Imagine 2014

IMINT production suite

Advanced imagery exploitation tools (LiDaR,SAR, hyperspectral).

Luciad

Lightspeed

Geospatial development component

Enables integrators to focus on geospatial Replaces LuciadMap exploitation in C4ISR solutions.

Replaces OPTIMINT

Formerly ITT

OverWatch Systems

RemoteView 4

IMINT production suite

Multi-sensor exploitation.

Primordial

Ground Guidance Military

Dedicated route planning software component

On-road & offroad applications.

Land cover & road/trail network extraction from raster and vector.

Saab

Rapid 3D Mapping

3D production suite

Teleplan Globe

Maria 2012 GDK

Geospatial development component

Allows integrators to develop tailored GIS applications.

Thales

GeoMaker

GeoINT production suite

TCPED suite.

what is gained in user-friendliness is often lost in new specialised modules dealing with specific sensors or tailored analysis algorithms. The range of skills to master in order to fully exploit the performance envelope of high-grade geospatial solutions is broadening. Last but not least, the reliability of information assembled from multiple providers and heterogeneous systems remains fragile, especially with cots solutions, restricting the integration of geospatial products across the sensor-commandershooter networked communities.

I BIG GEOSPATIAL DATA

The proliferation of available sensors and their growing accuracy are creating formidable store/retrieve challenges to both operators and users. As an example, the aforementioned Worldview-2 satellite downloads about 1000 gigabytes of data daily; a wide-area surveillance drone produces a flow of 2750 terabytes of data daily. The geospatial world is thus the primary candidate for cloud-ready, big data solutions. Indexing

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ArcGIS Pro replaces desktop

and tagging imagery, video and geospatial products are a must in order to provide broad and timely access to geospatial information.

Time, space and semantic analysis further complicate matters for analysts to leverage the sheer volume of sources available. Cloud technologies apply to geospatial big data to leverage distant, heterogeneous databases into a single repository of geospatial information.

To bridge the strategic and tactical levels, new

The next challenge is thus for operational users to take full ownership of available geospatial products and augment, modify, fuse or tailor them for mission-specific use, while remaining able to trace and acknowledge multiple data transformations.

High accuracy applications

High accuracy applications

solutions are being applied to feature extraction, compression or bandwidth management to provide content in a connected and disconnected environment.

Excelis Jagwire, for example, is a cloud-based solution which discovers and federates data across multiple platforms and organises distributed access to on-demand information, standardising data along the way in compliance with NGA’s Geospatial Intelligence Standards Working Group. For the American Department of Defence’s satellite imagery, Pixia software similarly handles very large datasets in singlecomposited layers.

The next challenge is thus for operational users to take full ownership of available geospatial products and augment, modify, fuse or tailor them for mission-specific use, while remaining able to trace and acknowledge multiple data transformations.

This mission-driven integration of geospatial information in C4ISR applications will be analysed in the next episodes of our geospatial information series.

Mapping the Land & Joint Battlespace Making use of digital geospatial information to prepare, infiltrate and dominate the land battlespace is still the privilege of higher echelons of command, able to access and exploit multiple sources of intelligence. But the rise of on-board or personal networked terminals is also offering rich functionalities to insert land forces in complex human and natural terrain.

A

s seen in the earlier section of this Compendium the digital battlespace has been enabled by a revolution in geospatial information technologies.

Increased resolution sensors, automated production tools, and standardised dissemination formats are shaping the way military operations are planned and led. The particularly complex land environment, obstructed by weather, elevation, vegetation and human activity, is to benefit massively from this augmented digital description.

However, this process differs widely between the higher-level generation of a god’s eye view, and the lower tactical echelon, constrained by limited connectivity and onboard information processing.

I MAP OF THE WORLD RISING

An attempt at building a cross-domain, foundation of geospatial intelligence (Geoint) from legacy and new geospatial information surfaced in mid-2014 under the ambitious Map of the World project launched

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

by the National Geospatial intelligence Agency (NGA). This initiative aims at creating a single common exchange service, acting as an anchor point to link natural and man-made features and explore semantic content attached to geospatial objects, from physical description to embedded intelligence. Later in the year, NGA awarded BAe Systems Intelligence & Security sector a $335 million contract to develop, maintain and disseminate Geoint from Map of the world; BAe had already contracted with NGA to explore activity-based intelligence to support dynamic analysis. Harris then received a $770 million, five-year contract to create geospatial data products, eliminating redundant data to store the most current representation of each geospatial feature.

NGA awarded two more millions to five companies meeting innovation challenges to

exchange large data sets using datalink technology, mitigate conflicting data from various sources, or develop a framework for data ingestion, analysis and dissemination supporting user-generated content.

The Map of the World project is a clear breakaway from static to dynamic information; in its final form in 2020, it will use big data analytics to integrate information from imagery, digital maps, maritime and air safety data, as well as social media, to generate a highly documented object of interest and thereby answer particular queries from non-specialists.

Released in summer 2004 as an initial operational capability, the project was able to integrate information from 12 heterogeneous legacy sources under a unified format, to serve Geoint requirements of 17 agencies in America. The metadata-tagged content is

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

generated across the defence and intelligence communities in a cloud-ready, web-based environment. Access is facilitated through the Globe, a web portal where accredited analysts can search an object of interest in space and time, generating layers of geospatial information around a target site or a mere individual. Published in highly standardised formats, this information is meant to be portable, with connected and disconnected users able to browse petabytes of content and update it on an on-demand, user-defined basis. A follow-on to the enterprise geospatial information projects of the early 2000s, Map of the World is the most ambitious geospatial initiative to date, and will inspire similar initiatives in other nations, already committed to unify environmental information services.

The US Army embarked in a similar endeavour with the Army’s Geospatial Center’s Common Map Background. This programme is bridging NGA and Army content, to ease access to a broad range of geospatial information products (from digital elevation models to geopdf files) from users in the field. Access will be granted through a web portal, with datasets made available in standardised format, and dissemination allowed through an FTP site, DVD, or external disk drive. Afghanistan was chosen as the first implementation, giving way to standardised data sets of the countries geospatial features.

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I THE RECOGNISED ENVIRONMENTAL PICTURE

The notion of shared situational awareness can be simply defined to answer the critical “who’s where” question in military operations. In its ultimate form, it is delivered as a Common Operational Picture (COP); but this multilayered, geo-located view has hardly become a reality in higher headquarters, challenged by a refined description of the operational environment, defined as the Recognised Environmental Picture. The REP is an ambitious endeavour to describe in digital formats all aspects of the operational environment: geography, hydrography, oceanography, and meteorology. As a byproduct of the intelligence preparation of the battlespace, it is thus capable of serving all military users (army, navy, air and special operations forces), and can be seen as the foundation of the COP. Building the Recognised Environmental Picture, however, entails leveraging the very best of terrain, water and weather generation tools; and this finding is even more acute in the land environment where natural and human features converge to load topography with surface details. REP components have been found for some time, although in a proprietary format, held by a loose community of topography, oceanography and meteorology specialists. Today, leveraging new and increasingly standardised geospatial products, REP is at hand in a handful of countries, from

where it will logically spread to most defence staffs. Due to the high volume of data, modern IT is seen as a powerful enabler to bring together environmental data: enterprise services, subscribing to distant networked communities, service-oriented architectures and Web 2.0 technologies all combine to allow access to user-defined information services and building of ad hoc information products.

This will give rise to new specialties in network-centric operations, such as a REP manager, tasked with pulling geospatial information to serve dedicated demand for such operational services as weather overlays for drone operators, helicopter landing zones for army aviation units, or route computing for logistic planners.

In America, Britain, France and within Nato, Recognised Environmental Picture is slowly being experimented to fuel planning or command and control of network-centric operations. The 2013 edition of CWIX (Coalition Warrior Interoperability eXperimentation) allowed Nato command staffs to refine requirements expressed in previous editions, and test robustness and relevance of tailored environmental information products.

The French DGA participated with Thales to show the first results of their REP advanced study, a forerunner of the several hundred million euro Geode 4D, aiming at leveraging geospatial information from geography, hydrography, oceanography and meteorology throughout the C4ISR user community by the middle of this decade. This will shape the future of current geospatial information programmes, still largely-map-driven, in key countries. Within Nato, similar requirements,

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

under the planned Nato Environmental Services, will leverage core geospatial services deployed in Nato headquarters since the early 2010s by Siemens Deutschland and Esri. As a member of the 27-nation, NGA-sponsored MGCP group (under the Nextview outsourcing contract for the NGA), the British Ministry of Defence produces its share of geospatial data; the choice made in 2012 to launch a production run on Lebanon and Syria has certainly met strategic priorities in 20132014, and these products will most likely be in high demand for dissemination throughout the coalition. In Australia, the Joint Programme 2064 (Geospatial Information Infrastructure & Services) fulfils a similar ambition. The current, fourphased JP 2064 provides dissemination of geospatial services via a web portal to distant users. Lockheed Martin Australia, under an AU$ 200 million contract, is currently delivering phase 3, allowing forward digital map dissemination.

I HUMAN TERRAIN

Beyond environmental data dominated by physical terrain features, the current operational environment has brought about the need for accurate information on human activity in places often alien to western cultures: Afghanistan, Iraq, Mali or Somalia. In these highly traditional societies, the notion of human terrain brings value to deployed forces in terms of settlement, allegiances, or centres of local power, all valuable notions for intelligence gathering, psychological operations, or

urban control. Although “human terrain” is usually associated with the intelligence preparation of the battlespace, it is valuable to police and military operations as well, as long as it enables forces in the field to better insert their actions in a complex social and cultural fabric. The US Army embarked in the Human Terrain System programme in 2007, initiated by a contract to BAe Systems to recruit and train social science specialists to serve as field scientists and advisors (human terrain teams) in Iraq and Afghanistan. Closer to a psychological operations project than geospatial intelligence, the Human Terrain System has produced anthropological data not easily integrated in a common GIS. However, it can leverage non-traditional use of geospatial exploitation, powered by new functionalities such as pattern analysis or activity-based intelligence, crossdatabase exploitation, and advanced data

Although “human terrain” is usually associated with the intelligence preparation of the battlespace, it is valuable to police and military operations as well, as long as it enables forces in the field to better insert their actions in a complex social and cultural fabric.

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

visualisation features. As a key stakeholder, the US Army’s Geospatial Center has built a cultural mapping database, which serves dedicated overlays (e.g. ethnic group coverage) in a GIS-compatible format (using Esri’s Arc GIS) for areas of interest. An ongoing effort, the CMAP geodatabase includes cultural components over 120 countries and regions with ethnic, tribal, religious or language affiliation, and contains roughly 60,000 features. Although in its early phase, human terrain analysis in counter-insurgency operations remains shrouded in controversy about the use of social sciences to “winning hearts and minds”.

armoured vehicle crews had to resort to switching on their “screens”—ruggedized computers attached to their combat net radios. To their surprise, they displayed tactical symbols on a pan-and-zoom map, showing type and position of friendly units.

Since the mid-2000s this capability has been slowly disseminated throughout land forces as Battle Management Systems (BMS).

A Battle Management Systems hosts, on a computer, several operationally useful features: message handling, tactical editor,

map management. It usually is coupled to a data communications interface for the combat net radio. This allows tactical commanders, typically from battalion command posts to individual vehicles, to prepare, exchange and display tactical orders, shifting from the legacy structured text messages (inherited from standardised voice orders) to map-based graphical situations.

From the lengthy, text-based situational awareness of the early 2000s, BMS users have shifted to largely automated dissemination of alerts and operational or fragmentary orders, based on geo-located, standardised tactical symbology known in the US military as MILSTD 2525 or in Nato as APP-6. Commanders can thus create, exchange and update tactical layers of unit, manoeuvre or volume types describing their position, course of action, and boundaries. More mature versions can tap into the limited array of army sensors, from EO/IR cameras to mini-drones.

Technically, this process inherited from the paper maps and tactical drills generalised during WWII, stumbles against a number of limitations. The most obvious one is the limited bandwidth available to share data over tactical radios; most legacy combat net radios allow either voice or data exchanges, and the most recent ones (such as the Thales PR4G

I ON-BOARD GEOSPATIAL BATTLE MANAGEMENT

The powerful, layer-based geospatial information management has found a growing demand beyond higher-level command posts, for intelligence preparation of the battlespace or mission planning. The tactical exploitation of this powerful knowledge is far less advanced, though, due to cultural and technological obstacles.

On cultural grounds, one must bear in mind that the special skills required for geospatial data exploitation are seldom found in deployed command staffs below brigade level, where mission execution leaves few seats for intelligence or geospatial analysts.

Battlespace digitisation thus comes at a slower pace for the mobile warfighter, despite his thorough skills for traditional map reading and field navigation. Northrop Grumman mission systems became famous for their use of “blue force tracking” (now a patented NG term) when severe weather conditions during the 2003 invasion in Iraq disrupted visibility (as well as voice communications) and

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

This multi-layered map of Afghanistan combines air coordination information, historised improvised explosive device information, and the day’s significant enemy activities.

Leveraging core geospatial services and user-generated content, it illustrates state-of-the-art geospatial intelligence exploitation at joint level (NATO).

F@stnet or the Harris PRC-117) allow a few tens of kilobytes of voice and data to transit between a limited number of mobile users sharing the same VHF network. This tailors tactical exchanges to friendly force tracking, or alert dissemination, while dissemination of commander’s intent can take up to a few minutes to display as a graphical map overlay in each vehicle. Another constraint is the limited computational power available on board. Rugged personal computers or multifunction tactical displays are more comfortable with static, low-resolution imagery (satellite pictures or raster maps) than heavy sets of vector data to dynamically pan, zoom, or refresh to match vehicle speed on a map. Last but not least, mobile, on-board C4I rely on IT architecture which must be able to operate as a self-contained, often disconnected heavy client, far from rich (often Web-based) client-server architectures available in headquarters.

This set of constraints explain why most tactical geospatial exploitation relies mostly on “dots and arrows on a map”, whereas advanced C4I functionalities remain absent from lower tactical echelons. The fast evolution of CPU and GPU, even on tactical computers, is easing these bottlenecks though, and the latest BMSs now embark powerful map management functionalities, featuring computation of line-of-sight, waypoints, weapon and sensor footprints; the resulting shared situational awareness is transforming army manoeuvre in the digital age. Thales Communications, concentrating most of the European integrator’s C4ISR expertise (from tactical radio to command & control information systems and cyber security), has been prompt to leverage commercial and Nato state of the art capabilities. Its Comm@nder

family of integrated C4I systems has been featuring exploitation of rich geospatial information on tactical computers since 2007.

In 2010, Comm@nder Battlegroup brought a new dimension to battle management, by integrating information from vehicle electronics (vetronics) and specific mission systems according to vehicle type (reconnaissance, infantry combat, direct or indirect fire support, etc.) into the BMS. This allows integrating tactical data and video information with geospatial analysis in three dimensions, displaying accurate navigation, vehicle status, sensor and weapon footprint

down to each combat vehicle. This solution has been selected by Malaysia for their new generation of 8x8 combat vehicles locally produced by DefTech in twelve variants, able to operate in networked battlegroups.

A steady improvement curve is also reflected by the Northrop Grumman Mission Systems series of FBCB2 battle management systems. Fielded in the early 2000s as a “Blue Force Tracker”, the Joint Capability Release version of FBCB2 common to US Army and US Marine Corps can handle imagery, video and cartography to display graphical situations and exchange tight data sets in Variable Massage Format, the datalink-like standard compatible with American combat net radios.

Although less integrated into vehicle subsystems than the Thales Comm@nder (resting on a vehicle electronics core), the FBCB2 rests on a proven, massive installed base; as a key information superiority enabler though, it is not widely exported (Australia is known to be the only Foreign Military Sales beneficiary), even if the Samsung-Thales KBMS poised to enter service in Korea looks very similar in capability.

Elbit follows a similar path, with tactical terminals displaying simple map-based tactical situations with little vehicle subsystem information (outside gun laying and target acquisition for main battle tanks) in their WIN BMS family.

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 georeferenced tactical object. This local situational awareness is highly interoperable and saves the bandwidth of constrained tactical radios (Thales).

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The French SIT (Système d’Information Terminal) installed by Nexter in combat platforms, or the Sagem SITel fitted in armoured personnel carriers and light vehicles, are contemporary solutions with similar functionalities, using mostly raster map as background. The ambitious French networked integrated battlegroup programme, Scorpion, has shifted the requirement for battle management to a higher ground with the Système d’Information de Combat Scorpion. Breaking away from the terminal level of command and control messages and situational awareness, the SICS is designed as an army equivalent to a naval combat management system; it features advanced target allocation and firing solutions computation functionalities, although its level of geospatial information management remains inherited from the legacy of map displays rather than leveraging true geospatial information power. Scheduled to equip the new generation of digitised combat vehicles around 2016, the SICS is being developed by Bull, a French software house. It will have to closely match the new generation of softwaredefined radios developed by Thales under the multi-billion euro contact programme running in parallel to Scorpion.

At the other end of the spectrum lie commercial-based software products designed to leverage the best of current enterprise GIS technologies. The Systematic SitAware family is proposed by the Danish software house in a BMS configuration; it has abandoned Esri’s Arc GIS to leverage Luciad’s Lightspeed embedded geospatial components over a Microsoft suite in a rugged commercial laptop. Although handy for deployed tactical

command posts, this solution rapidly encounters the technical bottlenecks of tactical radios and vehicle integration, especially with Systematic’s use of automated database replication mechanisms, ill-adapted to combat radio networks. This is why SitAware has been slower to satisfy truly tactical needs for mobile battlegroups, beyond its Slovenian, Irish and Romanian references.

I GEOSPATIALLY-ENABLED SOLDIER

Soldier modernisation programmes augment human eyes with day and night surveillance and target acquisition optronics. Local situational awareness in soldier C4I calls for basic but critical information: where are my vehicle, team leader and fellow riflemen?

Putting this information on a map takes a light, ruggedized form of personal digital assistant in many SMPs, with the drawback of having to look down at a small screen in a firefight. This is probably why soldier C4I comes either as a dismounted kind of BMS or

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

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The Ground Guidance software was included in the early phases of the Land Warrior programme to provide an intuitive route planning tool displaying terrain costs in terms of concealment, distances, and physical costs (Primordial software).

an enriched kind of digital compass. It can combine both, like in the Norwegian Normans programme or the British Fist both led by Thales, with the former leveraging the Teleplan Globe Maria geospatial development kit. It can also leave map-based situations for the platoon leader, like in the early Sagemdelivered Sitcomde equipping the Félin soldier suite in France. But a new approach to tactical terrain reading can also come from innovative start-ups like the Ground Guidance software from Primordial, a small Minnesota-based business created in 2002 by an MIT graduate.

Ground Guidance uses standard map-data to compute various operational features: fastest route, but also least exposed or least sloped for vehicles or foot soldiers in open or urban terrain; intervisibility, with an optical vegetation penetration model; alternate or randomised routing in urban terrain. Able to analyse terrain from the pixels of a raster map to digital elevation models and vector data, Ground Guidance also comes with its own GPU-based route computing algorithm, which is twenty-two times faster than its CPU equivalent. Used for both mission planning or mission execution by small Army units and special forces, Ground Guidance software development kit is deployed in Falcon view or XPlan, and has been included

by Lockheed Martin in the eyepiece of its Ground Soldier Ensemble.

Such innovative geospatial information solutions designed to leave headquarters to serve tactical users in the field are still few, but they are called to spread, offering missiontailored functionalities which can leverage geospatial information at a similar level to geospatial intelligence systems deployed in higher command posts.

Mapping Thin Air Airspace is probably the most demanding dimension for accurate ground and 3D positioning information. Nowhere else is extensive environmental description more in demand from fast movers and ground control alike, to provide air safety, plan navigation routes and approach in dense environments, or orchestrate complex air operations at multiple altitudes between manned and unmanned air vehicles, missiles and artillery. Today, as airspace coordination increasingly relies on merged topographic and aeronautical data, the need for digitised, integrated geospatial information rises towards Earth orbit too.

A raster aeronautical chart is augmented with a drone flight path against adverse radar detection 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 drone operations worldwide (AGI).

W

e’re all “sons” of Flight Simulator.

For a long time, we used to consider terrain information as a convenient green and brown carpet over which we could, using a few visual references to plot course and keep track of position and targets. This notion is being challenged by multiple new trends: increased density of coalition air-toground missions in permissive airspace;

increased need for accurate effects of air missions, in all weather, day and night, with a growing air-land integration and battle management; increased congestion of airspace in military operations, with multiple drones, helicopters, aircraft sharing the third dimension with occasional ballistic paths of rising or falling ordnance and last but not least,

A typical VFR air navigation chart displays procedural information over terrain description. This kind of support, in paper or digital form, provides basic air navigation tools worldwide (Jeppesen). many nations are faced with growing civil-military integration requirements to manage their airspace at all altitudes.

Digital geospatial information thus enables air control to leverage the full set of battlespace dimensions: sea, land, air, space, information, and more importantly electromagnetic spectrum and positioning, navigation and timing data.

“Air” is a key dimension for battlespace management; it provides freedom of action and higher observation positions, free from the friction of terrain obstacles (although still impacted by weather). Its command also calls for dynamic coordination between terrain features and navigation procedures. This is why aeronautical charts have little in common with topographic maps. They do leverage terrain information though, augmenting it with dedicated information to segment, navigate, and mitigate airspace use. Visual flight route air maps thus look like topographic maps at first glance, but they are laden with flight-related information about invisible volumes, corridors, visual landmarks and obstacles, and numbered information about runway approach or radio frequencies.

For instrument flight rules, topographic information disappears altogether, to centre on procedures, airways and navigation information. Aeronautical charts mark invisible walls in the sky, and display codes to enter or avoid them. Military air dominance further adds to this complexity, combining procedural control to navigate airspace, as well as positive control from sensors (radars, IFF) and weapon systems to identify, track, authorise or deny the use of particular areas. In

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

representing such multi-layered physical and semantic information, digitisation and information systems come in handy, whereas advanced information visualisation, supported by 3D display technologies, free air navigation from the flat representations of paper maps. By integrating static information (terrain features, airspace volumes, radio frequencies) with dynamic information (altitude, speed, and time computations for fast-moving air vehicles), new geospatial information products have emerged to enable aircraft pilots to focus on their mission, while planners and controllers can de-conflict and synchronise air operations at combined, joint and allied levels.

Typical aeronautical charting products, such as 1:250 000 Joint Operations Graphics or 1:500 000 Tactical Pilotage Charts, distributed by East View Geospatial (EVG), still provide the bases of air navigation; but they are used as a basic information layer, over which to integrate automation and computation features to maximise use of airspace; this is why raster air maps, with or without vector or elevation data, are the bread and butter of drone ground control stations. For on-board systems though, all electronic navigation aids require

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certification from both civil and military authorities to be granted access to the cockpit. In the US for example, the National Geospatial intelligence Agency’s aeronautical division is responsible for dissemination of aeronautical charts, themselves compliant with the Federal Aviation Administration. In the late-2000s, NGA embarked in an enterprise-scale roadmap to industrialise digitised aeronautical map production and update, to ease integration into electronic navigation systems. A new Aeronautical Information eXchange Model (AIXM) was developed to share standardised route planning, in-flight navigation or take-off and landing information update between increasingly connected devices, on-board or on the ground. On the vendor side, leading aeronautical chart providers have started to team with geospatial information companies to enhance accuracy, information content, and interoperability of their products; for example, the same East View Geospatial teamed in 2012 with the younger Planet Observer, to distribute global and up-to-date terrain data. Combined with rich aviationrelated metadata maintained in English, Arabic, Chinese and Russian, EVG is ready to move to full electronic charting.

I ELECTRONIC FLIGHT BAGS

The electronic charting revolution started in the late 1970s in the mission-critical aeronautical sector, to equip fourth generation fighter-bombers with moving maps. A sound reference is the family of Harris Flitescene digital maps, supporting vector (navaids, airways, airports, etc), vertical obstruction points, and tactical symbology. Flitescene software still equips most of the US special operations aircraft.

This level of digital information, which replaces the pilot’s kneepad map display, is already valuable to plan air missions and support in-flight navigation. In turn, standardisation and dissemination of information technologies impact defence applications, and civil aviation electronic air navigation products now changes military flight operations. Jeppesen, a Boeing company famous for its aeronautical map products, provides integrated ground and air information on mobile devices, pioneering the concept of electronic flight bags (EFB).

EFBs not only reduce paper volume taken by flight crews, they also act as computing devices, able to match aircraft performance and navigation data with terrain, airspace and airport databases to maximise an air mission. iPad-borne EFBs were thus adopted in 2012 by both US Special Operations Command and Air Mobility Command, sometimes

An electronic flight bag uses digital aeronautical charts to compute route and approach and maximise fuel consumption, combining navigation and avionics information (Jeppesen).

obstacles, navigation information, combined with heliports, helicopter landing zone, and high-resolution terrain mapping. Taking integration further with cockpit avionics and flight controls, Lockheed Martin Helisure family of integrated flight decks for critical mission helicopters combine FMS with a synthetic vision system, helicopter terrain awareness and multiple threat warning systems. A similar top-of-the range solution integrating aeronautical charts, terrain and obstacle information, is proposed by Thales for its Topdeck military helicopter avionics suite, adopted by the RAF for its upgraded CH-47 Chinook Mk 4 after an initial success on civilian Sikorsky S-70.

I AIR C2 AND BATTLE MANAGEMENT

replacing legacy moving maps. They not only replace paper maps and manuals, but some duly certified versions can be taken on board to manage flight missions in real time.

Design-controlled EFBs type C undergoing airworthiness and software certification can even replace multi-function displays.

I INTEGRATED FLIGHT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

In the mission-critical domain, flight management systems (FMS) have replaced navigators and flight engineers (and in some cases navigation computers) as the ultimate on-board aeronautical information application. FMS manage flight plan from multiple databases, updated on a monthly basis, to determine aircraft position and compute the course to follow by the pilot or

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the autopilot. Military aircraft can augment navigational sensors (radio beacons, air control radars, or differential GPS) with dedicated on-board sensors (inertial navigation systems, terrain-following radar) to provide very accurate positional information. The most demanding air missions, such as close air support or special operations (inserting commandos at night or in bad weather in radio silence and supported by passive sensors only), require high integration and automation between multiple information databases to provide very strict platform control. For example, the Garmin GTN 750/650 helicopter-specific database manages 30 000 low altitude

Geospatial information integration in tactical mission systems are key enablers of networkcentric operations. Managing the air battle calls for simultaneous sharing of terrain, navigation, and real-time tracking information about friends, neutrals and hostiles. For on-board missions, proven systems such as the Rockwell Collins Joint Moving Map Tactical Information Display System (JMMTIDS) combine networking and messaging information from tactical datalinks with navigation and terrain information (from imagery, digital terrain models, and aeronautical charts). The resulting local situational awareness enables fighter crews to focus on delivering their

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

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

aircraft and its payload over recognised targets, maintaining situational awareness while navigating around obstacles, threats and collision risks. Sharing tactical situations over tactical networks paves the way to airland-integration between fighter aircraft, tactical air control parties on the ground, and supported army or special forces units.

For ground-based air defence, latestgeneration air C2s merge multiple sensor data (radar and military navigation aids) with accurate terrain mapping to generate and manage multiple airspace volumes. The resulting positive control, arrayed on tactical communications networks between radars, missile batteries, and command centres, provides safe orchestration of complex air operations while accommodating civil aviation requirements. The Nato Air Command & Control System (ACCS) unified air C2, delivered by Thales Raytheon Systems, enjoys such capabilities. It can provide allocation and monitoring of extended airspace while performing planning and coordination of unmanned aircraft vehicles and helicopters (in so-called standard-use army aircraft flight routes) with multiple aircraft flight profiles (combat, combat support, mobility or special missions) at coalition level. Its interoperability

requirements enable the ACCS to exchange information with civil aviation authorities, army aviation or field artillery units requesting ballistic trajectory corridors for their fire missions. A few countries boast such an advanced capability as the Nato ACCS; the

Thales Skyview Air C2 can integrate with extensive Army air defence (Martha) and artillery C4I (Atlas) systems, to maximise use of airspace volumes and trajectories. The American Omnyx-10 Air C2 from Lockheed Martin Mission Systems & Sensors has been provided to Taiwan, Kazakhstan, Jordan and more recently to Iraq (through Foreign Military Sales); its cots-based, serviceoriented architecture eases interoperability

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

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Space weather, generated by cosmic rays and the solar activity cycle (solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and geomagnetic storms) can compromise communications and information systems, and also affect satellite orbits.

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

with civil air traffic management and requires a less expert operator base.

I NAVIGATING ORBITAL SPACE

The increasing integration of space assets in current operations has drawn attention on the need to better manage Earth orbit, in order to maximise access to it, ensure availability of space assets, and their survivability against the many natural or man-made threats to space vehicles. The growing congestion of low Earth orbit or geostationary positions by active or inactive satellites, and a rising number of debris posing risks to active satellites, adds to intentional threats to unattended space platforms. This congested and contested environment has given rise to space situational awareness as a new, vital component to information superiority in network-centric operations. One might be tempted to wonder about geospatial information in space though; ground references lie far below, and orbit is free from airspace restrictions on safety and sovereignty.

However, space is not without trajectories, flight paths and obstacles, even if all abide by the predictable laws of space mechanics. A space object can achieve a stabilised trajectory in orbit; but it is always subject to slight oscillations, and its orbital parameters can be

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altered to avoid slow erosion of residual atmosphere, or collision risks with space debris. Also, space weather, from cosmic radiation or solar activity (solar winds or eruptions which trigger sudden charged particle flows) can have a disrupting or even damaging impact on space systems, as well as ground communications infrastructure. Last but not least, a satellite ground footprint must be assessed with accuracy, to compute its sensor swath and point imagers accurately for observation satellites (which normally overfly a given target site once a day and for a few minutes), ground spots for communications satellites, or their line-of-sight with ground control stations for sending commands or downloading information in a narrow time and space window.

Space control is not only earmarked for commercial or government satellite operators worried with quality of service; it is also a privilege of a few space-rich military powers, whose space assets are key to information superiority: communications satellites ensure connectivity on a global scale, free from ground networks; navigation satellite maintain positioning accuracy and common time references, granting subscribers with sub-metric navigation and targeting; observation satellites provide

regular access to areas of interest, free from interference from ground or air, to map, discover or assess damage. All these strategic assets must be controlled though, not only to fulfil their individual mission (sensor and platform alignment, tracking of ground antennae) surviving the hostile orbital environment, but to synchronise flight operations as constellations (e.g. optical and radar surveillance).

This is why military space operation centres in a handful of countries (US, Russia, France, China and Israel mainly) share a mix of commercial and bespoke tools to provide situational awareness and ensure accurate control of their space assets. One such tool is the Satellite Tool Kit (STK) from AGI, augmented by a specialised space situational awareness software suite. Connected to live or simulated sensor information (ground radars or optical telescopes) and using space tracking algorithms, the STK can provide real-time tracking of space objects, analyse interaction between payload and terrain, alert on collision risks, and mitigate electromagnetic interference or degradation of signals. US Space Command in Colorado Springs is a long-time STK user; memoranda of understanding between Joint Space Operations Command in Vandenberg AFB

A conceptual rendering of the Space Fence command & control centre, which will track more than 200 000 active and inactive objects in orbit to maintain space situational awareness (Lockheed Martin).

Aerospace geospatial information requirements thus differ from classical ground mapping, integrating much more dynamic (semantic or spectrum-related) knowledge, while powerful decision support and asset optimisation potential rests on successful and accurate integration of aerospace and terrain information with weather (space or atmospheric) data, shared between fast movers and operational or tactical command centres. The trend has just begun to exploit information of aeronautical interest in all dimensions of the battlespace, and serve communities of interest with highresolution, accurately located and standardised geospatial information. Few companies combine the know-how of highand allied countries (France, Israel or ABCA allies) often rest on exchange of information managed by or compatible with the STK. The growing need to maintain space situational awareness, notably a catalogue of some 23,000 tracked objects of more than 10cm in orbit, or early detection of solar activity, has fuelled a service-based initiative from AGI and the private Space Data Association to provide commercial services to proven or emerging space powers. The recent Commercial Space Operations Centre initiative (ComSpOC) is thus challenging legacy space surveillance systems that can be tempted to augment their non-critical space tracking activity by the AGI-provided Spacebook catalogue of orbital objects, or leverage sensors on a global scale. The most ambitious space surveillance programme to establish and maintain a detailed space object catalogue is the Space Fence programme, granted under a $914 million contract to Lockheed Martin against Raytheon; from 2018 on, Space Fence will merge data from new S-band ground radars, large telescopes and spacebased surveillance satellites, to feed a space situational awareness command centre.

Since space power is increasingly linked to sovereignty though, progress may be slow before space surveillance is left to nonnational, private entities. A more pragmatic approach is a burden sharing between international bodies (e.g. the European Space Agency), national space agencies,

commercial providers or part of the scientific community, to provide common services to track hazardous objects in orbit, warn on re-entry of large objects, or anticipate and mitigate space weather. More mission-critical tasks, such as the safe operation of national satellites, or the tracking of adverse space capabilities (inorbit or through their ground footprint) can thus be left to military forces. France has recently embarked on a permanent space surveillance capability in a newly-opened facility near Lyons; manned 24/7 by air force crews, it will deploy the Système An Ikonos imaging satellite manoeuvres in low Earth orbit in a d’Information Spatiale, a space cluttered environment, displayed in terms of areas of uncertainty around each tracked orbital object. Maintaining situational awareness C2 accurate orbital parameters and anticipating collision risks in granted to a consortium led by orbit is paramount to ensure safe operations of satellites (AGI).

Thales Alenia Space end-2014; the SIS will leverage expert tracking of space grade geospatial information production, weather, as well as the modernised Graves integration into standardised, enterprisebistatic radar mapping objects in low orbit, based architectures, and dissemination of designating some to dedicated orbitography high-value services to operational users. But the growing role of geospatial information radars or optical telescopes. In any case, such capabilities are drawing interest from a systems, and the increasingly mature growing number of countries outside space interoperability standards in both the powers, either because they have recently commercial and military domains, bears a acquired valuable space assets, or because bright future in exploiting immaterial fields of they worry about the use adverse countries the battlespace to augment ground and could do of their own. atmospheric physical information.

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Mapping the Seven Seas Marine charting started in the ancient times, and the power of a navy has since been measured by the quality of its charts. On a predominantly oceanic world, mapping the maritime environment amounts to summing up all the know-how and constraints described in the previous chapters: the complexity of coastal, surface and subsurface features is augmented by specific human occupation of the littoral, the changing and dynamic nature of the seas, as well as their peculiar weather patterns; on top of this, navigational and traffic control information is adding up an extra, critical dimension.

Fortunately, digital-age information products translate this complexity into critical decision-making tools.

T

his is probably why the leading charting companies described in the air and space part, such as Jeppesen or Navionics, provide also high-grade marine charts for commercial and military users. Nautical charts, however, comply with specific requirements to describe coastlines and maritime areas, as well as ocean depths and main seabed features, natural or man-made navigational aids, marine currents and tidal

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activity. Such knowledge rests on national hydrographic offices coordinated by the International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO). Within historical naval powers, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency in America, the old British

Oceanographic Office, and the French Service Hydrographique et OcĂŠanographique de la Marine thus produce official marine charts (e.g. the famous British Admiralty charts) that updated on a regular basis.

I ADVANCED SENSORS, BETTER DATA, NEW STANDARDS

The maritime domain forms a complex interaction between the sea floor, water column, the sea surface, air column, and dynamic information about navigation, weather or obstacles. To comply with the safety and security missions of most navies, this specific battlespace is surveyed by a wide variety of subsurface, surface, air and space sensors, mostly of dual-use between governments and the military. The Nasa Jason satellite provides accurate measurement of wave height and sea levels worldwide; its data can be consumed in near real-time to plan naval escorts to pirate-threatened maritime traffic in the Horn of Africa. Airborne imaging or ranging sensors like lidars provide accurate coastal contours, or gather bathymetric information in shallow waters (using for example a blue-green laser to penetrate water and infra-red laser to measure surface height).

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

Ship-borne or submarine sonars, from single beam to multi-beam echo sounders combining sensor swathe with attitude sensors, gyrocompass, and inertial navigation, deliver bathymetric information to map deep seafloor features. Other sensors survey ocean temperature, salinity, and tidal flows. The resulting amount of data can be extremely complex to integrate on a single, standardised support such as the old paper map; the still experimental or academic use of the most advanced hydrographic or bathymetric sensors also adds to the data exploitation challenge. This is why marine charting has found the useful help of digital technologies, giving way to electronic navigational charts (ENC); departing from scanned marine charts to provide dynamic information, ENCs translate vast amount of information into sets of standardised data, producing intelligent and interactive maps able to manage and display multi-layered information, often combining raster and vector data (see first section).

The wide array of data collection sensors and their scientific orientation have slowed down standardisation, still lagging behind comparable land and air mapping products.

Commercial geospatial information systems have only recently started to cope with maritime geospatial information, both for the production and exploitation of intelligent digital maps. The most internationally recognised format in marine electronic charting is the IHO-approved S-57, along with its S-63 encrypted variant. Companies like Jeppesen provide conversion tools to bring legacy and exotic data onto S-57 maps.

However, this maritime standard is slowly being accepted in commercial GIS. Luciad was early to provide S-57 visualisation tools, thanks to its early involvement with Thales at the turn of the century to deliver shipborne and shore-based command information systems, notably for the newgeneration SIC 21 maritime C4I system-ofsystems for the French fleet command. Esri followed suit, developing its ArcGIS for maritime operations alongside its version 10.1 in the early 2010s. This suite of functionalities leverages Esri’s prior involvement in enterprise GIS for NOAA and other maritime users in America. It complements Esri’s ocean basemap services released in 2011 on ArcGISonline, filling a gap and demonstrating how poorly the world’s ocean are mapped today. Ocean basemap is planned to move in scale from today’s 1/500 000 to 1/72 000 around American coasts.

As S-57 was developed when computing power was far weaker, electronic charts soon reached their limits in incorporating marine data. So the rich metadata associated with maritime information systems have led to develop S-100 and S-101 formats, designed to replace S-57 for new-generation ENCs in the mid-2010s. These new, more open IHO standards augment pure geospatial information with marine-relevant dynamic information. The S-100 hydrographic geospatial standard for marine data and information supports multiple data sets: bathymetry, 3D and temporal information, or tracking sensor data, such as radar tracks or AIS (Automatic Identification System).

Beyond at-sea navigation, the new format enables route planning, coastal and harbour navigation, and takes into account dynamic tidal models. The S-101 implementation, tested in 2014-2015, will transform ENCs to richer Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems. ECDIS combine ENC data with positioning information, to plot course and warn of forthcoming dangers, and cross-analyse different geo-enabled information to provide a rich, multi-layered

situational awareness. Among the most awaited type of dynamic information are weather data. Already available in standardised GRIB files, they bring additional graphical layers of wind, pressure, precipitation, temperature, wave height, and tidal streams. This rich environmental information can be used to plan intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance resources, maximising sensor planning and multisensor exploitation.

I LOCAL TO COMBAT INFORMATION

Since July 2012, ECDIS are scheduled to become compulsory on-board major commercial and government ships, becoming the centrepiece of integrated bridge systems.

This growing market is populated by leaders, quickly taken over by major defence companies, such as Transas, Raytheon Anschütz or Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine. Based in St-Petersburg, Transas Marine produces a range of ECDIS (like the TRIMS integrated bridge management system, available only for Russian and CIS customers), and has teamed with the British hydrographic office to provide the Transas

An artistic rendering of NASA’s Jason ocean survey satellite, measuring in real time sea levels and wave height. The distribution of this information over web services adds up to the building of an accurate environmental picture (NASA/Thales Alenia Space).

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The USNS impeccable ocean surveillance ship is immensely valuable to monitor and map the underwater environment thanks to its towed array sensor system. It was chased from Chinese waters off the nuclear submarine base of Hainan in 2009, triggering a serious diplomatic incident (US Navy).

branch, OSI Maritime Systems provide Tactical Dive Navigation System, a Natocertified WECDIS dedicated to underwater operations. TDNS uses Vancouver-based OSI Geospatial ECPINS-W Sub software, compliant with Stanag 4564 for integration of additional military layers (a standardised catalogue of object of military interest) into maritime information systems. In April 2014, the same software was retained for the integrated bridge system on board Royal Navy T45 Class guided missile destroyers.

I MARITIME DOMAIN AWARENESS

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

Admiralty Data Service for rich, certified data content and faster update of its charts.

Raytheon Anschütz has developed the Synapsis ECDIS as a PC-based application to display both raster charts and S-57 or S-63 vector electronic charts. Synapsis is used for on-board navigation, course plotting, and track display, with weather chart overlay as an option. It is a key building block in automated bridge management systems adopted onboard Damen’s Sigma-class corvettes and light frigates in service with Maroccan, Indonesian and soon Vietnamese navies.

Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine’s VisionMaster FT ECDIS is its closest competitor, also featuring picture-in picture for visualisation of video, radar or sonar information; it is similarly a key building block in Sperry Marine’s TotalWatch single integrated bridge display. In both solutions, however, true sensor fusion (where georeferenced sensor data actually replace map information) is still not achieved. To move

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from a ship’s bridge to major combatants tactical operations centres, military applications of ECDIS need to take geospatial information one step further, by providing additional military layers (e.g. reading information from a tactical editor or a sensor track manager) and interfaces to combat management systems (which monitor and integrate a ship’s target acquisition and weapon systems). This combat application is the role of Warship ECDIS (WECDIS) described in Nato and major naval powers since the end of the 2000s. In 2011, Northrop Grumman was granted a contract to install its WECDIS version of Vision Master on the next HMS Queen Elisabeth aircraft carrier.

The very lack of a WECDIS, and the reliance on paper maps to navigate, was a key issue in the grounding of HMS Astute, the Royal Navy’s latest nuclear attack submarine, in October 2010. It led to an Admiralty recommendation to install WECDIS throughout the class. In the submarine

Bringing maritime geospatial information to bear with mission management systems is a logical step, taken by ECDIS providers in mission-specific solutions for maritime safety and security. Supporting the company’s array of coastal surveillance radars, Raytheon Anschütz provides the Smartblue C2 system to provide local situational awareness around ports, naval bases, or oil and gas facilities. Its containerised version provides a compact solution to deployment requirements in coastal and offshore environments. Smartblue can extend to Land perimeter protection, diver detection, and intrusion control, thanks to a radio frequency identification (RFID) extension module.

Transas Marine Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems equip commercial and government ships worldwide; this Russian design accepts the latest standards in maritime information services (Transas).

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 of today’s Warship Electronic Chart Display & Information Systems (General Dynamics).

Beyond point surveillance and for shorebased higher-level command & control applications, the most recent solutions come from information services providers; their level of IT, and sometimes Nato standardisation, enable system integrators to embed them in Maritime C4I applications.

Esri’s maritime operations suite combines the commercial GIS editor’s large ecosystem with their substantial reference base in the defence and intelligence areas. Noted in 2010 for a rich operational use-case for fighting piracy off the Somali coast by combining satellite imagery, open data and geospatial queries across multiple thematic layers (from maritime charts to human terrain of tribal occupation of the Somali coast), Esri have combined enterprise geospatial services and open data providers (such as IHS, owner of world-famous Jane’s and Lloyds maritime information databases).

Their ArcGIS for maritime operations suite offers operational preparation of the maritime battlespace, starting with available templates and open to customers’ intelligence databases. Multi-layer information queries lead to a rich set of analysis tools, merging geo, hydro, oceanographic and meteorological data, against which patterns of activity, coming from open sensors (such as AIS), military ISR, or commercial databases, can be displayed. The resulting time-space analytics capability showcases the extent of consistent commercial solutions open to standardised exploitation in military C4I. The first C4I system integrator to leverage this rich ecosystem was Thales, Esri Gold partner since 2010. Stepping on board their ArcGIS V10 release on the same year, Thales demonstrated integration of legacy and Web 2.0 solutions by integrating their SIC21 maritime C4I, just delivered to the French Navy, with an Esri

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server hosting gigabytes of open data (such as IHS AIS worldwide, Fairplay harbour and ships maritime databases, and oil and gas exploitation areas). Both were connected to Web-based Common Operation Picture viewer in Nato Vector Graphics (NVG) standard to manage large volumes of battlespace objects. The next year, Thales won the Nato COP project, serving the Alliance with Joint C4I (leveraging Nato core Geospatial GIS delivered by Siemens, based on Esri). Nato’s upcoming environmental and maritime functional services will make full use of latest information standards and architecture, since information association through Web map services brings maritime domain awareness one step further from the realm of military-grade information.

There seems to be virtually no limit in associating own-ship sensor information, fleet-wide situational awareness, and business applications pulling information from fisheries, customs, port authorities, coast guards and navies, all georeferenced on a set of dynamic geospatial layers. This new horizon has given birth to a new generation of Maritime C4I systems designed to connect with on-board WECDIS or Combat Management Systems, and augment them with professional information services. This complies with Nato newest requirements for their enterprise functional services, as a set of military applications resting on a serviceoriented architecture, brokering information on a pull rather than a push basis, under the so-called User-Defined Operational Pictures (UDOP). This allows operational users to consume information from multiple legacy systems and new services (e.g. the Jason 2 satellite wave height measurement, broadcast in near-real time as a web service by the

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

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

Australian Navy), and bring them onto an interoperable framework to create missiontailored information products for decision support. In this context, the release by Thales of their latest Comm@nder integrated C4I system, Comm@nder Maritime in 2013, is targeting Triton, the follow-on programme to the ageing Maritime Command & Control Information System (MCCIS) delivered to Nato by Northrop Grumman UK in the early 2000s. The Indian Navy has taken a similar path with their Trigun and Samvaad C2 software suites, designed to leverage sensor and navigation information between submarine, surface and air platforms, networked with maritime operations centres to build and share maritime across the board.

These new trends illustrate the recent move of geospatial information from platformcentric, to network-centric. New standards ease transition from electronic charting to open maritime information systems; rich maritime geospatial information provides a recognised environmental picture on which to map general surveillance (AIS, navigation radar) or mission-specific (e.g. surveillance or target acquisition) sensors. The border has become blurred between on-board and shorebased applications, since the former can leverage rich databases from fleet command, and the latter can consume locally-built tactical information to create, share and maintain a fully recognised maritime picture for the broader maritime domain.

I THE LIMITS OF DIPLAYS

The limits to this multi-layered exploitation rest in our current visualisation tools. The classical 2D displays inherited from paper charts may well be meeting their limits.

The rise of web-enabled 3D visualisation, combined to growing graphical computational power carried by standard computers or mobile devices, is fuelling a promising research and technology effort. As the maritime space is a natural candidate to multidimensional visualisation (from ocean surveillance satellites to submarine sonars), new directions are investigated to render the multiple volumes of maritime activity, maximising exploitation of congested shores, or opening new horizons for blue water operations. Marine Cadastre is a civil project, started in the early 2010s by NOAA and the US Bureau of Energy Management, to present maritime information as an on-demand set of information layers, visualised in 2D or 3D.

“There is no doubt that such innovation will transform the way we look at the complex maritime domain, relegating electronic charts to the past as surely as they replaced century-old paper charts.”

Another promising direction is being investigated by the defence industry.

Battlespace Vista is an advanced concept technology demonstrator (ACTD) showcased by Thales in 2014 as an innovation initiative, pooling the group’s advanced C4I solutions between Thales Secure Information & Communication Systems, Thales Raytheon Systems, Thales Underwater Systems, and Thales Research and Technology. Battlespace Vista application to Maritime Domain Awareness for the 2014 Euronaval exhibition demonstrated a three-dimensional immersive and interactive environment (thanks to active 3D glasses tracked by sensors to slave the display to the commander’s motion) to visualise an integrated battlespace from the ocean bottom to the higher atmosphere on highgrade geospatial data, complete with every ship position and ID, sensor footprints, and communications links. There is no doubt that such innovation will transform the way we look at the complex maritime domain, relegating electronic charts to the past as surely as they replaced century-old paper charts. As more reliable and open geospatial information becomes available for new situational understanding solutions, naval powers of today and tomorrow will demand these new information superiority tools as surely as their ancestors craved admiralty charts.

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US Army servicemen examine a holographic map of an Iraqi city. Innovative ways of representing urban areas are demanding new sensors and highresolution 3D data (Zebra Imaging)

Mapping Urban Canyons Urban areas severely complicate situational awareness and threat identification, requiring a specific, timeconsuming intelligence preparation of the battlespace (IPB). Besides, the peculiar human nature of urban terrain combines with today’s stringent rules of engagement, which tend to minimise friendly fire and collateral damage risks. Such constraints call for data accuracy and availability in large volume; new solutions which are breaking away from classical geospatial information production processes, leveraging 2D/3D data processing to describe urban complexity.

U

rban terrain poses a formidable challenge to military operations. No need to look back as far as Stalingrad for lessons learned; combats in Beirut, Mogadishu, Grozny, Jenin or Fallujah all share a considerable cost and a common

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finding: understanding the complex, compartmented and obstructed urban environment is critical to ensure the success of operations in built-up areas. Urban mapping is a branch of human geography and is challenging too by its very large, or human

scale (1:10 000 to 1:5 000 ideally), whereas most military maps deal with strategic, operational or tactical scales. Beyond surveying population and social habitat, the amount of artificial features range from transportation infrastructures to built-up superstructures, and an increasingly complex network of utilities: water, sewage, power and phone lines, and more recently digital communications, either based on ground cables or radio relays.

Ironically, this massive information exists in documented and often updated formats; it was needed from the start to build any city, for urban planning or cadastre and utility layout. However, this data comes in multiple, fragmented and proprietary sources, from archaeological surveys to power distribution charts, and incidentally, urban paper maps.

Digital information for urban applications thus still forms a minor part of available mapping information, compared to land survey or maritime and aeronautical charting; information standardisation and integration about cities are still at an embryonic stage. These shortcomings

A satellite overhead view of Falluja, Iraq.

Space maps are the primary feed of urban mapping, but a small contribution to the description of the human and physical complexity of cities (Digital Globe).

breakthroughs in payload miniaturisation, multi-sensor processing and big data exploitation. The new capabilities arising from network-centric operations conducted by highly-digitised and connected forces also bring new requirements to accommodate precision navigation, targeting and communication needs.

I CURRENT SOLUTIONS

painfully appear during every disaster relief operation, as recent crises have shown from New Orleans to Bangkok. Each time, responders struggle to aggregate data owned by multiple stakeholders; they are critically short in any military operation in urban areas, whether cities are orderly planned or resulting from anarchic urban growth.

This is probably why most Geographical Information Systems (GIS) vendors propose dedicated 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 urban planning applications; newer ones provide advanced tools to produce fine-grain information for navigation, horizontal and vertical planning, or rationalisation of overlapping utility networks. In this process, classical 2D descriptions are giving in to innovative 3D representations of urban information, with a growing contribution of high-resolution, multi-sensor imagery, modelling and simulation, and layers after layers of semantic information, from mere postal data to qualitative features about habitat, business, and residents patterns of life.

IPB for Military Operations in Urban Terrain (Mout) hardly benefit from this increasingly rich information content, though. Since combat or disaster relief operations often develop in poor countries or even failed states, with little or no cooperation from local authorities, modern

armies spend a considerable amount of effort to survey, map and describe urban areas of operations in a hardly permissive environment. The long haul of producing upto-date urban maps for military operations, ill-adapted to operational tempo, is thus increasingly giving way to more automated urban feature description, leveraging recent

Urban areas are captured primarily through remote sensing. In peacetime, aerial imagery provides the best compromise between high ground resolution and large area coverage, and can be augmented by ground surveys. In nonpermissive areas, satellite coverage, at the expense of multiple revisit, provides accurate capture of urban areas, with fused radar and panchromatic imagery producing medium to high accuracy elevation data. Vricon Systems, a subsidiary of Saab Dynamics, offer such aerial or satellite (in partnership with Digital Globe) mapping services. The Image City Map (ICM) format is the primary way to transform space maps into the base layer of urban maps.

GIS tools can then edit maps, creating the relevant overlays for street names, area

Visualising complexity: a combat route planning displayed against multiple constraints in city displaying line of sight from one of the convoy’s vehicle viewpoint. Digital geospatial solutions provide both proven and innovative tools to exploit multiple geospatial formats in a hybrid 2D-3D environment (Luciad).

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Raw lidar data read natively in Luciad Lightspeed at a very large scale. Lidar data is the best source of urban 3D mapping since it can capture the smallest artificial features which hamper line of sight and vehicle mobility (Luciad & GeoEye).

classification, buildings of interest, public works and obstacles. Additional modules provide bespoke urban feature description, notably computer-aided 3D extrusion to compute and extract building shapes. Esri’s ArcGIS City Engine, for example, provides such computer-aided functionalities from imagery, including point cloud conversion from lidar data (a laser radar that produce millions of georeferenced points accurately measured in x-y-z). Luciad’s Lightspeed saves pre-processing time by reading data in their native format, and offers a simultaneous, hybrid 2D-3D view, instead of dedicated 3D modules of traditional GIS. Such dedicated functionalities for defence users are proposed in Overwatch Geospatial’s RV3D, part of their RemoteView suite; Urban Analyst combines various feature extraction and measurement tools tailored to perform terrain analysis within a geospatially accurate terrain environment. It can be imported from a commercial GIS (Esri’s ArcMap) desktop project.

The proven MapIt! Software, from the Sarnoff Corporation, provides a somewhat more generic suite for defence and security applications; it combines imagery and lidar point clouds to generate very high resolution digital elevation models (DEM). The resulting ortho-mosaics and 3D site models supports IPB in urban areas, from intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to targeting and damage assessment. Last but not least, the latest release of BAe Systems Socet GXP (Geospatial eXploitation Program, see the

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“detailed 3D models of more than 450 locations in 21 countries, covering either critical infrastructures like stadiums, airports and refineries or entire cities, with before-and-after disaster area models like Port-au-Prince in Haiti or Ishinomaki in Japan”

first chapter of this Compendium) features the next-generation automatic terrain extraction (NGATE), which uses dedicated algorithms to create precise digital elevation models from imagery. All these bespoke applications deliver advanced results at the cost of expert skills, though.

Producing high-fidelity 3D city models has become a trade in itself, and specialised businesses born out of urban planning requirements are now offering geospatiallyenabled products earmarked for defence and security. PLW Modelworks in America, for example, produces detailed 3D models of more than 450 locations in 21 countries, covering either critical infrastructures like stadiums, airports and refineries or entire cities, with before-and-after disaster area models like Port-au-Prince in Haiti or Ishinomaki in Japan. On a more modest scale, Vectuel’s Virtual City, in France, has built georeferenced 3D models of cities like Abu Dhabi or critical sites like the Kremlin in Moscow.

Such products result from specific contracts which render their output proprietary to the user; but the tools and technology used are GIS-compatible and can meet the stringent requirements of urban analysis for critical missions. Georeferenced 3D data in city models can also support further analysis

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

compatible with information and navigation warfare. Additional, highly specialised software modules can compute radio or GPS propagation between buildings. This aspect of urban modelling is often overlooked in military and security operations; however, poor spectrum planning has resulted in the past in catastrophic failure, as experienced

by Russian forces in their first operation in Grozny in 1994, where urban canyons produced masks and multi-paths which impaired tactical radio exchanges. Luciad solutions take this into account by allowing exploitation of large urban datasets (the new GeoPackage open format defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium) on disconnected mobile devices, as demonstrated in their Astute project for Belgian firefighters. Similarly, GPS data in high-rise cities are often degraded by the

buildings’ glass and metal structures, calling for innovative ways to provide highaccuracy positioning information. Locata Corporation, an Australian company specialising in positioning solutions in poor or non-GPS environment, has demonstrated LocataNet in White Sands missile range for the US Air Force, using a network of groundbased transceivers to allow air combat missions over the range in GPS-denied conditions. The Air Force 746th Test Squadron is expected to draw significant experience in navigation warfare from this project. The denials of service experimented by both American and Russian GNSS constellations over the Ukrainian crisis clearly point position, navigation and time (PNT) signals as a single point of failure in future information-centric, networkenabled operations, calling for increased

attention paid to navigation warfare in areas where positioning information is either degraded or suppressed.

I NEW AIRBORNE SENSORS

The legacy process of producing validated geospatial information from skilled users and expert tools before dissemination in-theatre is ill-adapted to the human resource and operational tempo in the current theatres of operations. This finding has led to an initial stopgap measure, which consisted in fielding in-theatre geospatial production workshops to support soldiers. It was still deemed illadapted to unit-of-action requirements for persistent surveillance and near-real time extraction of terrain features for immediate tactical exploitation.

The solution has come out as a development 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 Gorgon Stare leverages the latest hardware and software improvements from DARPA and BAe Systems (DARPA).

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The Vigilant Stare airborne sensor payload combines the latest improvements in day and night motion imagery sensor integration with intelligence bandwidth management to serve multiple deployed users in near-real time (Exelis).

drones in Afghanistan and Iraq. Platforms like the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator and its sensor delivered full-motion video (FMV) feed to ground stations, and portable terminals such as the L-3 Rover (see Armada 1-2014). In parallel, America began to equip modified business aircraft to carry highresolution imaging payloads, such as lidars.

This was the aim of the US Army Geospatial Center’s Buckeye programme which has revived combat mapping since 2004. The Buckeye pioneered the collection of highresolution 3D (HR3D) imagery over (air) permissive areas of operations, combining 10cm colour imagery and one-metre post spacing lidar into unclassified data, shareable at coalition level. The resulting, human-scale HR3D feed was immediately grasped by special operation forces to plan and execute delicate, small-scale direct action missions in urban areas. Obstacles, cover, concealment, weapon placement, ingress and egress routes, became available out of near-real time geospatial information about urban targets.

Deep urban canyon understanding enabled by this high-resolution colour imagery and accurate elevation data acted as a gamechanger in the non-traditional ISR and

counter-insurgency warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq. Buckeye and its associated suite of lidar exploitation and terrain modelling software quickly proved able to serve military intelligence, special operations, and topographic/geospatial communities at national and coalition levels. Its 3D foundation layer, built by Applied Imagery, supports the most demanding urban terrain analysis, such as sniper/counter-sniper operations or detailed road clearance against road bombs. After more than ten years in operation, Buckeye has been responsible for mapping most population centres and lines of communications in both countries. In early 2014, as American forces began to withdraw from Iraq, the entire Buckeye dataset was given to the new government, a much-appreciated gift in the renewed fighting against radical Islam in northern Iraq by mid-year.

The full-motion video feed delivered by traditional drone sensors is either in widefield of view or higher-resolution narrow field of view; it produces a frustrating “looking through a soda straw” effect that is ill-suited to a large, complex urban area, where the user loses context rapidly. The solution was offered by latest wide-area persistent surveillance programs; Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Gorgon Stare delivered to the US Air Force for its Reaper drones in a first increment is a podded sensor system from Exelis combining nine cameras. It began operations in Afghanistan in March 2011, despite poor initial operational assessment during Air Force testing at Eglin in Florida, followed by on-the-fly improvements. The 16km2 area surveyed by the Gorgon Stare’s visible spectrum and infrared sensors can be broken simultaneously into multiple spot surveillance vignettes and despatched to ten users on the ground equipped with portable ground terminals networked to the Gorgon Stare ground station. Advanced on-board compression and storage hardware and software packed by Mercury Federal Systems in the unmanned aircraft pod overcame the traditional limitations of on-board processing and air-ground communications bottleneck.

Gorgon Stare Increment 1 has since logged nearly 12,000 flying hours over Afghanistan terrain. The follow-on Increment 2 passed initial operational capability in July 2014, adding a four-fold increase in area coverage and a two-fold one in resolution. The optronics sensor, delivered from a joint Darpa and BAe Systems Argus technology development, combines with the largest

infrared sensor array to date (delivered by Exelis), enabling a single drone to monitor a 100 km2 area for several hours. The resulting scene fuses 368 camera images, creating a 1.8 billion-pixel composite video image at twelve frames per second. Increased imaging performance allows users to find smaller targets over larger areas. Dissemination uses commercial standards (e.g. JPEG 2000 for image compression, or GeoPDF for inclusion of imagery and its metadata in digital documents). The Buckeye and Gorgon Stare programmes have acted as force multipliers; they can let future theatre commanders expect near real-time coverage and mapping of the largest urban areas from a single aircraft.

I ADVANCED EXPLOITATION TOOLS

The increased availability and accuracy of HR3D data have brought three-dimensional mapping technologies to the tactical level, allowing deeper understanding of the complex urban environment. These technologies call for new ways of visualising information to produce better situational awareness. Draping imagery over elevation data, which used to be the way to represent 3D features in 2D, is reaching its limits in urban terrain combining topographic and human features. New applications can render 3D data in a dynamic and immersive way to better fuse physical and semantic information, an attractive advantage in visualising urban environments. These applications can produce various 3D supports, turning maps to holograms.

Holographic maps are the main output of the US Army Tactical Battlefield Visualization programme, using technology from the Texas-based Zebra Imaging. Such representation of urban terrain bridges the gap between geospatial community and tactical users, since untrained personnel can understand a complex environment without particular map training. Zebra Imaging’s hologram maps can be printed, with 3D rendering triggered by a source of light (e.g.

“Such representations of urban terrain bridge the gap between geospatial community and tactical users, since untrained personnel can understand a complex environment without particular map training.”

Compendium Geospatial Information 2015

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ON THE COVER: The old situation tables with models of tanks or ships pushed around with long poles and their electronically displayed equivalents have had their time. Full immersion systems providing a four-dimensional rendering of real-time situations are taking over, with full “identity card” of every blue or red force item given as exemplified by this Thales display, part of the firm’s Battlespace Vista advanced concept technology demonstrator.

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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 scene can be slaved to the user’s point of view for maximum situational understanding and decision support (Thales).

a flashlight) over the film-like map. Viewers don’t need any glasses to read the 3D features and can take the custom-made holographic maps with them in the field.

The next step is going to see real-time 2D/3D display, allowing real-time data to be fed into the hologram.

Another new technology being explored to leverage HR3D fused with other information overlays (such as C2-related tactical situations, space volumes, or sensor footprint) is being investigated by Thales under its 2014 innovation projects initiative. Released during the company’s TechDays in March in Paris, it was shown during Eurosatory as Battlespace Vista, an advanced concept technology demonstrator (ACTD) focusing on air-land integration in Afghanistan. Merging Thales integrated C4I technology with commercial software, Battlespace Vista displayed immersive and interactive information fusing terrain, tactical situation, and semantic

information about own and enemy forces, down to the soldier level. Northrop Grumman Information Technology are also investigating similar solutions at a lower technology readiness level, having patented a method combining located video streams with geospatial information.

With these latest breakthroughs fed by technical and operational advances, urban terrain is now reaching a higher level of representation, bringing peculiar situational understanding to non-geospatial experts in a fraction of the time and effort required to build legacy urban maps. Urban and tactical features are just starting to merge in order to present a thematic, layer-based situation to answer mission-driven requirements at a very high scale. This step will pave the way to integration of ever richer urban information coming from civil and military sources, producing a very high fidelity rendering of all the constraints of urban landscapes.

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