Arctic GIS Workshop Poster Abstract

22-24 January 2001
Bell Harbor International Conference Center
Seattle, Washington

FAST TACTical Integration Console (FAST TACTIC) Relational Database and Display System

Paul A Bienhoff, Jeffrey H. Smart and Wayne Loschen
Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, 11100 Johns Hopkins Road Laurel, MD, Phone: 240/228-4323, Fax: 240/228-6864, paul.bienhoff@jhuapl.edu

Ships do not possess a centralized on-board database for storing and retrieving the environmental data collected while underway, such as bathymetry data, ambient noise and sound velocity or CTD profiles. The Fast TACTical Integration Console (FAST TACTIC) provides the software and hardware needed to integrate these data (and relevant historical data) into a relational database. FAST TACTIC has an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) that allows the user to:

  1. evaluate and compare historical and real-time data,
  2. make displays and charts,
  3. export environmental data to other client software systems,
  4. examine data collected for gaps in coverage, and
  5. generate electronic data reports.

The overall objective of FAST TACTIC is to automate the process of collecting, using, displaying, and disseminating environmental data. An unclassified demonstration system, the Submarine Operational And Research Environmental Database (SOARED) was developed to show how data collected on submarines could be archived in a geographic-referenced relational database, then accessed and displayed using a simple GUI. (URL: http://wood.jhuapl.edu/soared/)

FAST TACTIC can be tailored to the sensors installed on a specific ship or cruise, and thus it can be used to support the needs of a variety of customers. For example, if an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) is installed, and the customer is interested in a continuous spatial series of the current measurements in a given region, using FAST TACTIC to archive the data would allow the user to analyze and display that data. The user could use statistical evaluations of the data just collected against the historical data for the same region as a means of recognizing changes. The advantages of using a Java based application include:

Platform Independence - Mac, Windows 95/98/2000/NT, Unix, Linux, etc. can all be used with no code changes.
Database Independence - Oracle, Informix, Sybase, etc. can all be used with minimal code changes.
Object Oriented Design - Allows for easy incorporation of new configurations or displays.
The advantages of using a relational or object oriented database over typical archive techniques that use flat files include:
Powerful querying capabilities.
Tools for importing and exporting data in a variety of formats.
Multi-user access.
Indexing ability for faster access to data.
Oracle and Microsoft SQLServer relational database engines have both been used in SOARED, but database software of the client's choosing could be used. The purpose of this presentation is to provide an overview of the capabilities of the Submarine Operational And Research Environmental Database (SOARED), and its shipboard followon, the FAST TACTical Integration Console (FAST TACTIC). The advantages of this user-friendly tool, which capitalizes on the power of a relational database and an intuitive Graphical User Interface, will be demonstrated. The usefulness of SOARED and FAST TACTIC for displaying and archiving environmental data, as well as allowing a user to retrieve pertinent data for analysis and reporting will be highlighted.

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