Protecting Airspace

Protecting Airspace

Protecting Airspace through Geospatial Technology Solutions

In Air Defense and Counter-UAS, having a well-protected airspace involves employing a combination of detection, identification, tracking, and interception capabilities to neutralize any potential threats to the airspace’s security and integrity. This includes real-time airspace coverage analysis by combining several live data sources.

As understanding airspace coverage can be very complex, visualizing the coverage of an airspace in an easy-to-understand way becomes crucial. Carmenta technology has a range of features designed to provide comprehensive visualization solutions tailored to this exact need.

Real-time Visibility Analysis

Real-time line-of-sight analysis, for both ground-based and airborne observers, provides operators with a clear understanding of sensor or effector coverage. By identifying blind spots, operators can strategically position sensors for optimal coverage.

Carmenta offers target line-of-sight calculations to determine the most appropriate sensor or effector for a given target. These calculations occur in real-time, establishing direct lines of sight between sensors and targets. With this information, operators can manually select or allow the system to automatically choose the most suitable sensor or effector for the target.

Line-of-sight Analysis

Visualize which parts of the surrounding terrain an observer can see, considering sensor characteristics. The analysis can be both 2D and 3D line-of-sight, for both ground based or flying observers. The visualization helps operators identify and analyze blind spots, and strategically place sensors to achieve good coverage

Target Line-of-sight Analysis

Quickly calculate direct line-of-sight between observers and targets. The process involves analyzing the visibility from an observer to a target, taking into account the terrain and any potential obstructions. This capability makes it possible to track manually or automatically multiple targets and determine which effector is the most suitable to engage.

Image: Target line-of-sight. Each line is the direct line-of-sight from an observer to a target, in this case drones.

Visualizing Airspace Coverage in Real–time

To protect your airspace, it is vital to enable operators to easily understand and optimize sensor positioning and rate of detection. Carmenta’s airspace coverage analysis is based on sensor position and characteristics. This allows operators to specify specific sensor setups and see the effect of these changes in real-time. This allows operators to optimize detection rates.

Airspace Coverage Analysis

Visualize sensor coverage of the surrounding airspace.
Visualize the rate of detection.
Analyze blind spots and overlapping coverage.
Configure strategic placements for sensors and effectors.

Image: By moving the sensor, coverage of the surrounding airspace (red area) is updated in real-time. (3D city model from IGI).

Placement of observers

Visibility index: A visibility analysis shows the best observer positions for a target area. It gives the operator instant feedback on what the observer covers within a target area, and helps define the best locations to cover an area.
Automated placement: Define criteria for optimal positions, such as accessibility, for automated placement of sensors.

Image: The visibility index analysis shows the best observer positions for the target area (the red rectangle). Green marks a position with good coverage, red a position with poor coverage.
Real-time line-of-sight analysis is shown in bright red within the red rectangle.

Custom coverage analysis

Make your visibility analyses more accurate by integrating custom propagation models such as:

Radio coverage
Radar coverage
Ballistic trajectories
Line-of-sight in degraded visibility conditions (such as forests)

Image: Radio propagation as an example of a custom propagation implementation. Each colour reflects how strong the radio signal is at that location.

Combining Live Data Sources

By integrating and analyzing data from live sources, air defense and C-UAS operators can further enhance their understanding of the airspace in real-time, allowing them to make informed decisions and respond effectively to any emerging threats or incidents.

Projected Live Videostreams

Overlay live videostreams from aircrafts, drones, or surveillances camera onto a 2D and 3D map in real time.
Everything that happens in the video is immediately georeferenced, which significantly increases the usability of the video.
Apply object detection algorithms to identify objects in videostreams and visualize them as static or moving objects on the map.

Image: Drone video is projected onto the map, based on the camera properties. (Aerial photo from Bing Maps).

Radar and Aircraft Data Feeds

Visualize raw radar video data in real-time.
Multicolor radars are supported, which can be used to visualize weather radar information.
Display recorded tracks of potential threats detected by radars.
Handle millions of continuously moving objects.

Image: Radar videos with radar plots on top.

Terrain and Weather Analysis

Display data as fully rendered map layers, or use the local weather information in your flight mission (for example in a performance calculation for an aircraft or drone).
Visualize weather forecasts and live weather data.
Support for widely used meteorological data formats such as GRIB (GRIdded Binary) and C-MAP.
Fast calculation of ridges, valleys, and isolines
Analysis of inaccessible slopes
Close off or secure areas with dangerous or low-visibility weather, and re-route vehicles.

Image: Example visualization of Grib weather information.

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