The central objectives of the NATO's Rapid Response (RR) is the dissemination of time-critical data and information to war-fighters and war-fighter analysts. For RR96-98 ACT demonstrated an interactive network-based image processing system that provides high speed access and processing to large volumes of remotely stored data.

In support of RR-96, a total of 40 ERS-2 and one RADARSAT SAR images were acquired during the period of August 12 through 5 October, 1996. The raw SAR data stream was first down-linked in real-time to the receiving station in West Freugh in UK. The data was then routed via high speed links to DRA Farnborough remote sensing facilities for image formation. Then, high resolution (150m) SAR images were sent via the Internet to Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C. for post-processing and image interpretation. Finally, the annotated feature maps were sent via the Internet from NRL to the SACLANTCEN World Wide Web (WWW) homepage.                                        

The approach used during the exercise by the image analyst was to view the low resolution (1.5 km) imagery, select regions and features of interest, and post the final products on the home page for the operator. While this approach served the demonstration purpose of the RR-96 to disseminate data over the WWW, it severely restricted the end-user from interacting with the data or from choosing his/her own regions of interest. Thus it became clear that a new approach for information extraction was needed in order to realize the full benefits of high speed networking and to transform RR from a experimental concept to operational status.

During RR-97 ACT used only the ERS-2/SAR imagery which, because of its high spatial resolution, is by far the most computationally demanding sensor, requiring massive amounts of storage, network throughput and processing power. A separate GIS module for multi-layered data integration and sensor fusion that uses a "hypercube" architecture was developed. ACT is presently working on RR97-98 under which additional sensor modalities will be incorporated.