Why is a Spatial Reference Model (SRM) Needed?
Traditionally the M&S community has not been consistent in the treatment of models of the earth and related coordinate systems.
Consistency is required for joint distributed simulation in order to:
- Achieve a reasonably level playing field,
- To support meaningful VV&A.
A number of different earth reference models (ERMs) are currently employed and this affects:
- Representation of the environment in simulations & authoritative data bases.
- Dynamics formulations, both kinematics and kinetics (movement).
- Acquisition modeling and processing (inter-visibility).
Approximations in coordinate transformation algorithms made to reduce processing time may introduce additional inconsistencies.
An SRM is needed to promote lossless and accurate transformations.
A nomenclature inconsistency evolves when there is no SRM
- For example, how do these variables relate?
- Altitude, elevation, height, geodetic height, ellipsoidal height, orthometric height, height above sea level, height above mean sea level, terrain height, pressure altitude, temperature altitude, nap of the earth, ...