M. Trenchard    J. M. Mehaffey
M. Gendron    M. Lohrenz
Naval Research Laboratory
Stennis Space Center, MS 39529

Abstract

The purpose of this report is to present the geographic coverages of map theaters contained on aircraft optical disks (AOD) built by the Naval Research Laboratory at Stennis Space Center's (NRLSSC) Moving Map Composer (MMC) Laboratory. The MMC team has developed the MMC system which is used to design, build, write and archive map theaters for the AN/ASQ-196 Digital Map System. AV-8B has a single MMC system deployed at each of the following locations: 1) Yuma, AZ; 2) Cherry Point, NC; 3) China Lake, CA; and 4) Indianapolis, IN. AV- 8B also maintains a developmental MMC system at the MMC Laboratory. Also, the Spanish AV-8B maintains 2 MMC systems in Rhoda, Spain and the Italian AV-8B maintains an MMC systems in Grottaglie, Italy. F/A-18 maintains two MMC systems at the MMC Laboratory. These F/A-i 8 MMC systems replace the aging and obsolete Map-Operator-Maintenance Stations (MOMS) that were previously used to build map theaters. NRLSSC only maintains records of the map theaters generated or developed at NRLSSC (which includes all F/A-18 map theaters and some AV-8B theaters). These map theaters contain selected scales of digital map data from the Compressed Aeronautical Chart (CAC) database. The fourth edition of this report includes eleven additional map theaters built since the last edition.

The CAC is a worldwide, seamless, digital map database produced at six scales and distributed by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), formerly the Defense Mapping Agency (DMA). The source data for the CAC is NIMA's ARC Digitized Raster Graphics (ADRG), which is comprised of scanned, aeronautical charts (DMA 1989). The CAC design is optimized to match the resolution of moving-map display systems on the F/A-18 Hornet and AV-8B Harrier aircraft. Map theaters are comprised of selected subsets of the CAC database (Lohrenz and Ryan 1990).

Each map theater contains CAC data for selected scales and geographic areas. The exact coverage of a given map theater is based on Fleet requirements subject to the constraints of the AOD format and media. MMC defines and builds a "master" map theater and assigns it a library number, identified as the AOD image ID. MMC then copies the master map theater onto the specified number of AODs and distributes them to the Fleet as required. Each AOD is a ruggedized Write Once, Read Many (WORM) optical disk that is used in the moving-map display system of the aircraft. Each master map theater is archived until additional AODs are required.

Sponsored by the NAVAIR AV-8B and F/A-18 programs.

Published as a memorandum report, February 9, 1998.
Naval Research Laboratory Contribution Number NRL/MR/7441 97-8072.
NRL Memorandum Report