Glossary
- AUTEC
Atlantic Underwater Test Facility. Data files from this facility which are to be imported into Debrief should be suffixed with "RAO". The origin of AUTEC is:
23º 26' 37.6280" N 77º 38' 6.8250" W- AFWTF
Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Facility. Data files from this facility which are to be imported into Debrief should be suffixed with "PRN". The origin of AFWTF is :
17º 38.1577' N 065º 4.2065' W- Annotation
An annotation is the generic term used to describe the graphic elements added to a plot which do not represent vehicle positions, or bearings recorded on vehicle-mounted sensors. Examples of annotations are rectangles, ellipses and lines.
- Bearing Rate
Bearing rate within the application is calculated using the following formula:
Bdot = ((Tspd * sin(Tcrse) - Ospd * sin(Ocrse)) * cos(brg) - (Tspd * cos(Tcrse) - Ospd * cos(Ocrse)) * sin(brg)) / range * 60Rdot = Range Rate (yds/min) Bdot = Bearing Rate (degs/min) Tspd, Tcrse = Target course and speed (degs & yps) Ospd, Ocrse = Ownship course and speed (degs & yps) brg = Bearing to target from ownship (degs) range = Range to target from ownship (yds)Positive and negative bearing rates are named Right and Left according to naval convention, abreviated to R and L in the tote.
- Buoyfields
A series of sonar buoys which are laid in a particular pattern during Anti-Submarine Warfare.
- Coastline File
Debrief expects to find a coastline file (named World.dat) in its installation directory. Debrief loads this file in the background as soon as it opens; regardless of whether the user has requested to add a coastline to the current plot. Once the coastline is loaded (for the standard 1.2Mb file this takes around 8 seconds) there is no further performance penalty within the application.
The coastline file should be formatted in the following way:
The coastline consists of a series of coastline segments. Each segment is drawn as a continuous polygon by the application.
Each segment begins with the # -b separator on a line of its own
Then there are a series of lines each containing a point in latitude and longitude expressed in decimal degrees (to 6 decimal places in the standard file).
# -b -7.491098 4.257159 -7.523953 4.245425 -9.112761 5.008146 -9.464786 5.339050 -9.807424 5.681688 # -b -9.807424 5.681688 -10.004558 5.845966 -11.152161 6.606341 -11.131039 6.639197 -11.163895 6.672052 -11.307052 6.761232 -11.351642 6.803475- Display Mode
Each of the display modes used on the Debrief plot represents a different method of stepping through the plot. When in the normal mode each track is shown in full, with a highlight drawn over the current point (as indicated in the Tote). When in snail mode only the current point plus an optional back-track is plotted.
- Earth Model
The Earth Model used by the application is modular and interchangeable. In the initial release of the application the calculations use the Rhumb-Line Formulae, as described in 'Admiralty Manual of Navigation, Volume 2, 1973'. Short-distance sailing is defined as "the following of a rhumb-line track for a distance not greater than 600"
- DTG
Acronym representing Date Time Group
- Highlighter
The highlighter is the graphic used to indicate the current point on a track. Use of different highlighters allows range rings or a vessel-specific symbol to be plotted at the current point
- Layer
A collection of objected plotted on the Debrief Plot. Each layer can be switched on and off individually using the Layer Manager. When written to a plot-file, each layer is stored separately - making it quite easy to copy individual layers out of a plot-file using a text-editor and collating them into a new file. (An example of this would be drawing exercise areas into one session, then moving them all into one layer, save the file to disk, copy this layer to a file of its own, then dropping this file of exercise areas into new files - an example of this is in the VPF best-practice.)
- MWC
[Extracts taken from MWC 2000 Flyer]
Under CinCFleet, the Maritime Warfare Centre (MWC) is a 'one-stop shop' for the evolution and dissemination of maritime/joint doctrine and concepts through teaching, tactical development, operational analysis, force development and wargaming.
It also provides the focus for the development and practice of operational level warfighting, planning and decision making.
The MWC was formed on 1 October 1995 merging the activities of the Maritime Warfare Development Centre at HMS Dolphin and the Maritime Tactical School at HMS Dryad to create a focal point for doctrine and tactical development.
- Narrative
A series of time-related text messages. Typically these may represent the narrative recorded in a control room during an exercise, but alternatively they may contain a series of status messages retrieved from a sensor or weapon. All that is required is that the message have a DTG attached and that it may be represented in text form.
- PFWTF
Pacific Fleet Weapons Training Facility (see AFWTF). The origin of PFWTF is :
22º 7.16646' N 159º 55.17' W- Plot
A graphic God's-eye representation of the current dataset. By default the plot has a black background but this may be altered by the user.
- Plot-File
A file containing the following:
The data originally loaded from the Replay file
Any formatting applied to the data originally loaded
The details of any features added to the plot from the toolbars
The coordinates of the current view of the data
The settings of any controls used in Debrief (time on the Tote, primary/secondary tracks, etc)
- Property Window
A GUI control which contains a list of all of the editable properties for an object within Debrief. Where applicable, custom editors are supplied (Color, Location, DTG, etc)
- Range Rate
Rage rate within the application is calculated using the following formula:
Rdot = (Tspd * cos (Tcrse - brg) - Ospd * cos(Ocrse - brg) /*60Rdot = Range Rate (yds/min) Tspd, Tcrse = Target course and speed (degs & yps) Ospd, Ocrse = Ownship course and speed (degs & yps) brg = Bearing to target from ownship (degs)- Replay
Replay is the name of the Unix application used for viewing tracks back in the early 90's at MWC
- Serial
A "block" of exercise time, typically a sub-section of an exercise. An analyst will normally analyse and exercise one serial at a time, and it is usual for the exercise data to be broken down into serials.
- Sensor
A sensor is defined as source of bearing-related information. As such, it could clearly be an acoustic sensor such as a sonar, but could also be a periscope or radar. Debrief makes no specific assumptions regarding what type of sensor is being represented.
- Session
The layers, projection details, and settings of any GUI-elements for the current view
- Snail Trail
A mode within Debrief where only the current vessel position plus a short back-track of previous positions is shown.
- Stepper Control
The Stepper Control is the collection of controls at the top of the Tote panel. The Stepper Control provides controls to move the current time backwards and forwards, controls to edit the stepper itself (edit properties and change display mode), and convenience buttons such as and .
- Symbology
This pair of text characters contained in an REP file indicate the formatting to be applied to this particular track/fix/annotation, although they can be over-ridden once the data is open in Debrief.
- T-Zero
A specific time of interest, particularly the start of a particular event. Contexts typically have their own convention of t-zero. Lightweight torpedo launches use weapon-splash time.
- Track
A series of positions recorded for a particular vehicle (ship, submarine, helo, etc). A track has its own characteristics such as colour, label and symbol frequency, and the symbol used to represent it when the symbol highlighter is in use.
- Tote
A GUI panel located by default at the lower-left hand side of the Debrief window. The Tote contains the Time Stepper, beneath which are shown the primary and secondary tracks, when assigned. When stepping forward through a serial the Tote contains data calculated from the current vessel positions.
- VPF
The Vector Product Format is the format of vectored data which may be viewed by Debrief. The main type of VPF data is the Vector Map Level 0, an unclassified global database which includes coastlines, national borders and depth contours. Its supplier (WWW.NIMA.MIL) describes it as: "The Vector Product Format (VPF) is a standard format, structure, and organization for large geographic databases that are based on a georelational data model and are intended for direct use. "
- XML
The eXtensible Markup Language, as recommend by the World Wide Web consortium. See the XML description of the Debrief reference guide
