'Defence Scientific Information and Documentation Centre'
Doi
Abstract
The design of a suitable system for image data processing, analysis and applications in Defence is governed by users' requirements during peace time and prehostility/hostility period. The users need timely information and image products for decision-making. The product specifications in terms of their scale, geometrical accuracy, information content, and turnaround time among other things are crucial for the design of systems. The systems are not complete without efficient software for information extraction and analysis and for aiding decision-making process. Usually, the base data is from high resolution remote sensing systems, both airborne and spaceborne, and also from conventional sources, like topomap and other intelligence gathering mechanisms. The database thus evolved is basic and vital for a decision support system. The sensors providing input to the database creation could be airborne high resolution camera systems, high resolution synthetic aperture radar systems and thermal imaging systems operating from a stand-off range of 50 to 100 km, or from high resolution spaceborne panchromatic optical and synthetic aperture radar imagery. High resolution stereo data from airborne and spaceborne sensors are also increasingly needed for image interpretation and analysis. The digital elevation data is another important information, derived from either existing topographic maps or high resolution space stereo imagery. The system also should cater to a large information archival/retrieval system and data dissimination system for the users spread far and wide. This may call for to and fro traffic between central operational system and units spread over different locations, preferably, through high speed satellite communication channels. Finally, the total system should have reliability, data security, adequate redundancy, user-friendliness and be efficient enough to provide timely information transfer for the decision makers. This paper discusses the various application requirements, data sources, software and packages for interpretation, approach to analysis, database needs and hardware systems
