Lukes - 4 
such as the Digital Stereo Photogrammetric Workstation (DSPW), support exploitation of digital mapping, Earth 
resources and reconnaissance imagery to manage and generate digital terrain data in several ways: 
• Assess: Determine the metric accuracy, level of generalization and currency of digital terrain data as com 
pared to controlled imagery; 
• Update: Edit digital terrain data terrain data to incorporate changes detected in more recent imagery; 
• Intensify: Incorporate additional detail to existing feature data to intensify standard products; 
• Augment: Add new classes of features to augment standard products (i.e., individual buildings or trees). 
Given the current state-of-the-art, it can be anticipated that initial value-adding capabilities for spatial 
database generation will be largely interactive and labor intensive; however, modern digital photogrammetric 
workstations provide the framework for insertion of emerging technology for automated image analysis. Assem 
bly, editing and integration of the synthetic environment from enhanced cartographic components is typically 
performed with specialized software systems such as EaSiest, Multigen, SI000 or Target operating on computer 
graphics workstations. 
3.3 Application-Specific Transformations 
Given an integrated synthetic environment, the final step is to compiled tailored versions for various applica 
tions. Within ADS exercise, application-specific transformations are performed to support a range of real-time 
3D visual systems, computer-generated forces and 2D electronic maps (“plan view displays”) for command and 
control. To train ground forces, special versions of paper Topographic Line Maps are often produced depicting 
the content of the synthetic environment. 
The nature of the Synthetic Environments challenge and available source materials is both shaped and illus 
trated by the needs of the STOW Program discussed in the following section. 
4 Synthetic Theaters of War 
As the principal application of ARPA’s ADS initiative, Synthetic Theaters of War (STOW) seeks to support 
Joint Task Force training and mission rehearsal in “seamless” distributed systems linking live, virtual and con 
structive simulation components. STOW objectives require instantiating tens of thousands combat entities (i.e., 
tanks, helicopters, planes, missiles, ships) over geographic areas as large as 800 km x 800 km in size. 
4.1 The STOW-E Demonstration 
The initial operational demonstration of STOW technology was completed in November 1994. Synthetic 
Theater of War - Europe (STOW-E), held in conjunction with the NATO Atlantic Resolve (formerly Reforger) 
Exercise, supported an intense brigade-level ground battle linking three battalions in SIMNET (virtual) simu 
lation, Brigade-Battalion Battle (constructive) Simulation (BBS) and live simulation at the Combat Maneuver 
Training Center (CMTC) in Hohenfels, Germany. Geo-specific terrain data bases for SIMNET and BBS including 
the CMTC at Hohenfels were critical to the success of this exercise. Larger tailored terrain data bases supported 
concurrent air and naval operations over the Defense Simulation Internet. Figure 2 shows two views of the virtual 
simulation for STOW-E, one modeling the buildings and roads in a small village (la) and the other (lb) showing 
forest canopies, roads, and drainage in a small valley. 
STOW-E demonstrated interactive joint simulation with over 2100 combat entities from sixteen (16) sites 
on two continents linking live ranges (air, sea and ground) into the synthetic battlespace. It is noteworthy 
that commanders and combatants ranging from AWACS controllers to attack submarine crews to the operational 
brigade commander and his staff on the ground did not react differently to the mix of live, virtual and constructive 
forces.