Terrain Mesoroughness Description and Its Application to Mobility and Cover,
Abstract
The mobility of vehicles traveling off the road has always been of interest to military planners. In fact, the survivability of military vehicles on a battlefield depends to a large extent on the degree of mobility and cover afforded by the terrain. In order to develop accurate measures of the mobility and cover characteristics of terrain, a study was made of the statistical description of terrain elevation variations on a scale smaller than shown on a topographic map. This study shows that a useful set of terrain descriptors are the standard deviations of the detrended elevation and its derivatives. The probabilities of a vehicle encountering specified values of slope or finding cover in a specified interval are calculated in terms of the terrain roughness descriptors. These probabilities can be used to quantify terrain areas of a battlefield and develop map overlays showing patches which indicate the degree of slopes expected to be encountered and the amount of cover that should be available. Numerical values of the probabilities are calculated for several terrain areas. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1982
- Accession Number
- ADA128308
Entities
People
- Richard A. Weiss