![]() | Look up Synthetic Natural Environment in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
A Synthetic Natural Environment (SNE) is the representation in a synthetic environment of the physical world within which all models of military systems exist and interact (i.e. climate, weather, terrain, oceans, space, etc.). It includes both data and models representing the elements of the environment, their effects on military systems, and models of the impact of military systems on environmental variables (e.g. contrails, dust clouds from moving vehicles, spoil from combat engineering). [1]
The term SNE was born out of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)'s Synthetic Theater of War "Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration," ca. 1998.
Although SNE was meant to include cultural features (see Synthetic human-made environment) [2] (e.g. buildings, bridges, roads) since its conception, the word "natural" in SNE made the term confusing. Furthermore, the original term SNE was not meant to include cultural factors (see Synthetic psychological environment). [3]
A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or process, whereas the simulation represents the evolution of the model over time. Often, computers are used to execute the simulation.
Geologic modelling,geological modelling or geomodelling is the applied science of creating computerized representations of portions of the Earth's crust based on geophysical and geological observations made on and below the Earth surface. A geomodel is the numerical equivalent of a three-dimensional geological map complemented by a description of physical quantities in the domain of interest. Geomodelling is related to the concept of Shared Earth Model; which is a multidisciplinary, interoperable and updatable knowledge base about the subsurface.
Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) is an IEEE standard for conducting real-time platform-level wargaming across multiple host computers and is used worldwide, especially by military organizations but also by other agencies such as those involved in space exploration and medicine.
SEDRIS is an international data coding standard infrastructure technology created to represent environmental data in virtual environments. Environmental data represented by SEDRIS may be concrete, such as trees and mountains, or abstract, such as the behavior of light. The infrastructure frees users to place their focus on application development and also facilitates the exchange of data for reuse and wider scrutiny. Research into shared ways to represent environmental data was begun in the 1980s in order to permit distributed simulations to work together. SEDRIS was launched in 1994 by program managers of the United States Army's Simulation Training and Instrumentation Command and the US Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
In information science, an upper ontology is an ontology which consists of very general terms that are common across all domains. An important function of an upper ontology is to support broad semantic interoperability among a large number of domain-specific ontologies by providing a common starting point for the formulation of definitions. Terms in the domain ontology are ranked under the terms in the upper ontology, e.g., the upper ontology classes are superclasses or supersets of all the classes in the domain ontologies.
A feature, in the context of geography and geographic information science, is a phenomenon that exists at a location in the space and scale of relevance to geography; that is, at or near the surface of the Earth, at a moderate to global scale. Almost all geographic information, such as that represented in maps, geographic information systems, remote sensing imagery, statistics, and other forms of geographic discourse, consists of descriptions of geographic features, including their inherent nature, their spatial form and location, and their characteristics or properties.
Modeling and simulation (M&S) is the use of models as a basis for simulations to develop data utilized for managerial or technical decision making.
A synthetic environment is a computer simulation that represents activities at a high level of realism, from simulation of theaters of war to factories and manufacturing processes. These environments may be created within a single computer or a vast distributed network connected by local and wide area networks and augmented by super-realistic special effects and accurate behavioral models. SE allows visualization of and immersion into the environment being simulated.
In a synthetic environment, the synthetic human-made environment (SHME) is the representation of buildings, bridges, roads, and other man-made structures.
In a synthetic environment, Synthetic Psychological Environment (SPE) refers to the representation of influences to individuals and groups as a result of culture ).
A Dynamic terrain is the representation of terrain together with the capability for modification during a simulation.
The Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) is an organization dedicated to the promotion of modeling and simulation interoperability and reuse for the benefit of diverse modeling and simulation communities, including developers, procurers, and users, worldwide.
Live, Virtual, & Constructive (LVC) Simulation is a broadly used taxonomy for classifying Models and Simulation (M&S). However, categorizing a simulation as a live, virtual, or constructive environment is problematic since there is no clear division between these categories. The degree of human participation in a simulation is infinitely variable, as is the degree of equipment realism. The categorization of simulations also lacks a category for simulated people working real equipment.
Synthetic data is "any production data applicable to a given situation that are not obtained by direct measurement" according to the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms; where Craig S. Mullins, an expert in data management, defines production data as "information that is persistently stored and used by professionals to conduct business processes."
In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based representation of any surface of an object in three dimensions via specialized software by manipulating edges, vertices, and polygons in a simulated 3D space.
Artificial life is a field of study wherein researchers examine systems related to natural life, its processes, and its evolution, through the use of simulations with computer models, robotics, and biochemistry. The discipline was named by Christopher Langton, an American theoretical biologist, in 1986. In 1987 Langton organized the first conference on the field, in Los Alamos, New Mexico. There are three main kinds of alife, named for their approaches: soft, from software; hard, from hardware; and wet, from biochemistry. Artificial life researchers study traditional biology by trying to recreate aspects of biological phenomena.
Parametric design is a process based on algorithmic thinking that enables the expression of parameters and rules that, together, define, encode and clarify the relationship between design intent and design response.
The Real-time Platform Reference Federation Object Model enables linking computer simulations of discrete physical entities into complex virtual worlds. It is a High Level Architecture (HLA) federation object model developed for distributed simulation applications of defense and security. RPR FOM is listed in the NATO Modelling and Simulation Standards Profile AMSP-01.
Gregory Zacharewicz is Full Professor at École des mines d'Alès in Alès, France. He recently joined the LGI2P laboratory in 2018 to develop research based on simulation. He was previously Associate Professor at the University of Bordeaux (2007-2018), where he conducted research on modeling, interoperability and simulation of business and social organization. He worked with Bruno Vallespir and Guy Doumeingts and under the direction of Claudia Frydman and Norbert Giambiasi.
The NATO Science and Technology Organization (STO) is the primary NATO organization for Defence Science and Technology. Its mission is to maintain NATO's scientific and technological advantage by generating, sharing and utilizing advanced scientific knowledge, technological developments and innovation to support the Alliance's core tasks.