Exploratory Analysis and a Case History of Multiresolution, Multiperspective Modeling

Paul K. Davis, James H. Bigelow, Jimmie McEver

ResearchPublished 2001

The papers reprinted here originated in an effort to illustrate concretely how modeling and analysis could be used to help inform efforts by the Department of Defense to understand and evaluate advanced concepts and define critical issues worthy of experimentation. A core element of the approach is that analysis should use "families" of models and war games. For their prototype problem, the authors chose interdicting and halting an invading army through use of long-range precision fires delivered from aircraft and sea-based or air-based missiles. The first paper describes the concept of exploratory analysis, which seeks to gain a broad understanding of a problem domain before going into details for particular cases. Here, suitable low-resolution models are needed. The second paper describes how the authors informed and calibrated their low-resolution models by drawing on higher-resolution information, including results of simulation experiments, to generate data that could be analyzed in depth as though they were empirical in nature. The third paper provides an overview of how the different levels and styles of modeling relate to each other, and what lessons the authors have learned from such activities.

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Document Details

  • Copyright: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web-Only
  • Year: 2001
  • Paperback Pages: 34
  • Document Number: RP-925

Research conducted by

Originally published in: Proceedings of the 2000 Winter Simulation Conference, Jeffrey A. Joines, Russell R. Barton, K. Kang, and Paul A. Fishwick, eds., December 2000 and Proceedings of the SPIE, v. 4026, 2000.

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