DATA COMPRESSION AND DECOMPRESSION FOR DIGITAL RADAR LANDMASS SIMULATION

A unique digital radar landmass simulator (DRLMS) uses different culture data compression techniques and hardware from that used in the conventional DRLMS systems. The application of these techniques to DRLMS results in a system that is small in size and high in performance. During the data base preparation, Defense Mappinig Agency (DMA) Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED) and Digital Feature Analysis (DFAD) data are processed and compressed for elevation, reflectivity and aspect channels with different compression schemes. The compressed data is then stored on disks for each channel. Dedicated decompression hardware for each channel then retrieves, decompresses, and reconstructs the data. The culture compression and decompression hardware uses a run length compression technique that results in the capability of presenting a very detailed culture map for the terrain. The elevation compression uses a table look-up technique that generates high resolution terrain data. The coordination of the timing of the several channels in order to generate the final display is accomplished by designating one of the channels as a master channel to maintain synchronism among the channels.