Terrain intervisibility-believe it or not?

Computer generated digital maps with terrain intervisibility displays are becoming a common addition to aircraft cockpits. Also known as masking plots, these displays show dangerous regions exposed to threats, highlight terrain visible from the current (or future) aircraft location, and keep track of regions hidden from view during searches with various types of sensors. High resolution displays of semi-transparent intervisibility overlaid on sharp clear digital maps are very convincing but can they be believed? Not completely. Intervisibility displays serve a valuable function. But to build and use these systems wisely, it is good to understand the errors and limitations involved. At LMFS, we have integrated digital maps from other companies into avionics systems such as Army Special Operations Aircraft and MH-53J, and have analyzed the errors associated with the use of level 1 and level 2 terrain elevation data from the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA). We have also developed a number of real-time intervisibility and probabilistic intervisibility functions using a hybrid of multiresolution techniques and algorithms to obtain the best results possible for a given set of computer resources. This paper explores some of the problems, solutions, and human/machine interface considerations associated with the generation and use of intervisibility