Simulation of Earth's Topography for Research and Engineering

This paper explains the present methods of simulating the earth's topography and their uses, the difficulty and time consumed in making some of these simulations, and the limitations of their uses. It then explains the need for some better method because of the greater volume of topographic information required in greater detail because of the needs of cold war, national defense, industry, road expansion, seaway expansion, airport construction, radar site construction-all to be done in a great hurry. It leads up to the automatic terrain model system. It explains quickly the several systems that were considered and why the printed circuit system was chosen. It mentions the fact that the information is stored on magnetic tape and utilized to carve a three-dimensional terrain model, and then goes into detail as to the greater information that this particular system can provide automatically that cannot be done except through extensive hand calculation with the other systems.