The compressed aeronautical chart database: support of naval aircraft´s digital moving map systems

The trend trend toward the electronic display of aeronautical charts for mission planning and navigation in military aircraft is discussed. With the installation of the Digital Moving Map System (DMS) in the AV-8B Harrier, the US Navy has taken the first step toward the widespread use of electronic navigational charts in its aircraft. In order to maximize the benefits from these systems, a new map image database has been specifically designed to meet the requirements of the DMS. The Naval Oceanographic Laboratory and Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NOARL) is creating a compressed aeronautical chart database by compressing and transforming scanner chart data into a format that is compatible with the aircraft DMS. Image compression techniques have been chosen to allow rapid decompression and display while maximizing image quality