DIGITAL TERRAIN MODEL SYNTHESIS (DTMS)

DIGITAL TERRAIN DATABSES ARE WIDELY USED FOR GENERATION OF THREEDIMENSIONAL SYNTHETIC IMAGES FOR APPLICATIONS RANGING FROM FLIGHT SIMULATION TO SENSOR MODELING. GENERATION OF IMAGES WITH HIGH VISUAL FIDELITY REQUIRES HIGH RESOLUTION ELEVATION DATA WITH DETAILED SURFACE CHARACTERISTIC INFORMATION. THIS REQUIREMENT FOR HIGH RESOLUTION IN TURN REQUIRES SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS OF DATA ACQUISITION AND DATA STORAGE CAPACITY REQUIREMENTS. MERIT PROPOSES TO ADDRESS THESE PROBLEMS BY USING FRACTAL TECHNIQUES TO SYNTHESIZE REALISTIC HIGH RESOLUTION TERRAIN DATA. ALGORITHMS WILL BE DESIGNED TO GENERATE DATA WHICH INCREASES THE APPARENT RESOLUTION OF ELEVATION (DTED) AND FEATURE (DFAD) DATA, AND ALSO ALLOWS TOTALLY SYNTHETIC ELEVATION DATA TO BE GENERATED. STORAGE PROBLEMS WILL BE ADDRESSED BY DESIGNING A DATABASE WHICH WILL RAPIDLY SYNTHESIZE DATA ON DEMAND, AND THEN RELEASE STORAGE WHEN DATA IS NO LONGER IN USE. DURING PHASE I MERIT WILL PRODUCE AND DEMONSTRATE SOFTWARE TO GENERATE A DATABASE CONTAINING CO-REGISTERED DTED AND DFAD. THE SOFTWARE WILL ALSO DISPLAY SYNTHETIC IMAGES GENERATED FROM THIS DATABASE. IN PHASE II MERIT WILL EXTEND THIS SOFTWARE TO PRODUCE A TERRAIN MODEL SYSTEM INCORPORATING DTED, DFAD, TEXTURE IMAGES, AND SYNTHETIC TERRAIN AND TEXTURE DATA.