Using GRAIL Tools to Remotely Assess Terrain Conditions for Austere Entry
Abstract
The Geospatial Remote Assessment for Ingress Locations (GRAIL) efforts under the Army Terrestrial-Environmental Modeling and Intelligence System (ARTEMIS) program have made significant advances in the remote assessment of terrain and soils for locating potential landing zone and drop zone (LZ and DZ) sites for military operations. The project identified sources of high-quality geospatial data, defined preprocessing requirements to produce global datasets for analysis, and created the GRAIL Tools software. The GRAIL Tools algorithms analyze and filter geospatial datasets to search for areas suitable for aircraft ground operations. GRAIL Tools then applies geometric criteria to determine if the required LZ/DZ will fit within the areas of suitable terrain and displays the potential LZs and DZs superimposed over geospatial imagery. Verification of the GRAIL Tools concept at Fort Hunter Liggett, California, developed and trained the suitability filter algorithms with regard to vegetation, obstructions, and soil strength. Further work served to enhance the algorithms and develop the full toolkit. Future work at a variety of sites, including work in northern regions with snow, ice, and freezing/thawing soils, will evolve the GRAIL Tools to handle the full spectrum of global terrain conditions for military operations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1064186
Entities
People
- Elke S. Ochs
- Sally A. Shoop
- Samantha N. Sinclair
- Wendy L. Wieder