Creating a Global Infrastructure for Virtual Aids to Navigation (V-ATON)

Not Available Today's dense and rapidly evolving threat environments have increased the requirements that are being placed on tools necessary for characterizing urban electromagnetic (EM) environments. Although effective tools for urban EM environment characterization exist for simple 2-D models, the more challenging problem of characterizing the EM environment of a large densely populated region entailing numerous heterogeneous buildings and varying terrain remains largely unsolved. Revolutionary tools are required to address the complexity of these problems. These tools must also address the optimization of competing modeling and simulation capabilities, especially at the fidelity levels of EM and computer-aided design (CAD) models. The objective of this proposed research is to initiate the development of an urban EM environment characterization tool that uses advanced 3-D computational EM algorithms and CAD modeling techniques to optimize the seemingly conflicting requirements placed on the accurate characterization of the dense urban environment encountered by today's warfighter. This urban tool will provide means to accurately characterize the EM environment of densely populated urban regions, and will thereby significantly impact the warfighter's task of surveillance, reconnaissance, and tracking. It is anticipated that successful completion of the proposed research will revolutionize current urban EM environment characterization simulation paradigms for ground, airborne, and space-based radar systems.