EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
This document summarizes findings of WP 4.3.2 “Correlation mechanisms, database improvement and business case”. It is a synthesis of the Correlation study Internal Contribution Notes and Internal Deliverable.

This document is divided into four main chapters.

The first chapter describes the state of the art of terrain and obstacle databases.

This description comprises the acquisition and representation of terrain and obstacle data as well as the most common attributes for this data. Terrain and obstacle databases contain the location of the data set on a reference coordinate system. This topic is discussed in section “Geo-referencing”. Afterwards follows a section which describes some existing aeronautical information database systems. Following section describes the state of the art of geo-registration.

The second chapter describes the correlation process.

This description comprises the definition of the inputs i.e. the WxR ground mapping data and the Terrain and obstacle databases, of the different steps of the correlation mechanisms and of the outputs that are used for database improvement. Practical considerations such as possible limitations and orders of magnitude to keep in mind when evaluating this function are given.
The third chapter considers the potential impacts on the Database management.

These impacts are divided into two main aspects. The first one is the qualitative improvement that can be expected from the use of correlated data as compared to the use of databases singly. This should be understood in the sense of an increase in value. The second one is the quantitative aspect that is to say how the databases organisation and management could optimally take the correlation process into account.

The fourth chapter is a preliminary business case study which concludes on the potential interest of further investigating and developing the Correlation for Terrain surveillance, considering the main impacts of this correlation on WXR and DB.

For further information please contact:
Mr. Sebastien Mazuel: smazuel@rockwellcollins.com