One of L3Harris Geospatial’s key customers of the TrueTerrain™ airport operations bundle stack is SLC Associates, a leading provider of aeronautical data and aerodome surveys in over 34 countries. They use the dataset for a variety of activities including internal quality assurance. L3Harris’ products are bundled along with SLC-created surveys and delivered to airport authorities, allowing airports to fulfill their obligations to provide Electronic Terrain and Obstacle Data (eTOD) and ensure safe and efficient operations within the aerodrome.

The creation of TrueTerrain™ airport operations bundle stack products begins with a search for high-resolution optical stereo data over the defined area of interest (AOI). Timeliness of source imagery is essential for providing a current representation of the airport, and when archive data is not recent enough to meet requirements, we work with multiple imagery vendors to task and collect new stereo imagery.

Stereo scenes are triangulated using survey-quality ground control points through triangulation software. The resulting precise registration of the stereo data becomes the basis for geolocation of the TrueTerrain™ airport operations bundle stack.

Pleiades Stereo Imagery (Courtesy of Airbus)

PROCESSING MADE PERFECT

Using previously triangulated stereo scenes, TrueTerrain™ high-resolution (50cm) mosaics are orthorectified and adjusted using advanced processing techniques including pan-sharpening, atmospheric correction, tonal balancing, and cloud-removal to achieve a product recognized for its seamless, natural color.

Highly accurate engineering grade bare earth digital terrain models (DTMs) are created using automated mass points and three dimensional breaklines. High-fidelity digital surface models (DSMs) are generated to precisely capture surface features.

Digital Terrain Model (DTM)

Digital Surface Model (DSM)

AMDBs are vector layers that are key airport features digitized from the georeferenced imagery, resulting in location-specific point, line, and polygon vector feature classes. Detailed attributes are added to the vector objects using image interpretation, publicly available airport diagrams, and customer provided data. This attribution provides additional information beyond the spatial location, allowing the user to have access to specific details relating to characteristics and function of the aerodrome features.

AMDB vector layers are provided in shapefile format. Supported layers also available in AIXM and AMXM schemas.

These geospatial data products are precisely correlated and registered to real-world surveys, with typical resulting CE90 accuracies of 1m or less for 50cm imagery products. Accuracy assessment of 5m DTM and 2m DSM Elevation products have yielded a typical LE90 of 1m or less for Z-values.

Surveying Ground Control Points (Courtesy of SLC Associates)

Example Accuracies of Airport Imagery and Elevation Products