GIF 13.1 (February 2015)

The Magazine of the National Intelligence Community

GEOINT Steward Robert Cardillo Director NGA

Object-Based Production O Satellite Tracking LiDAR O Weather Forecasting

www.GIF-kmi.com

February 2015

Volume 13, Issue 1

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GEOSPATIAL INTELLIGENCE FORUM Features

February 2015 Volume 13, Issue 1

Cover

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23

Organizing the “Knowns”

Faster Tasking for Satellite Imagery

Interest has grown in a series of capabilities that go hand in hand with activity-based intelligence called objectbased production, which seeks to organize intelligence around objects of interest and improve the organization of information.

By Peter Buxbaum

Leading remote sensing companies are adopting new technologies aimed at speeding up the process of specifying which new images are needed and how satellites should collect them, as well as of delivering collected images to those who need them.

By Henry Canaday

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As U.S. national security strategies and priorities shift after the end of more than a decade of combat operations, LiDAR technology will continue to evolve and find valuable new uses for the military and intelligence communities, according to executives of several leading companies in the field.

By Harrison Donnelly

With their powerful capabilities for collecting, displaying and disseminating spatial and temporal data, GIS and geospatial web technologies are playing an increasing role in the critical military tasks of tracking and forecasting the weather.

By Harrison Donnelly

LiDAR Changes Meet Evolving Missions

Geospatial Eye on the Weather

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Empowering Analytic Capability Through IT Developments

Recognizing the need for an advanced IT infrastructure that incorporates big-data concepts and facilitates data science techniques, NGA has become an intelligence community leader in implementing capabilities aligned to the director of national intelligence’s vision for an Intelligence Community Integrated Technology Environment.

By Joanna Davenport

Robert Cardillo Director National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

100% Dedicated to the Mission of the U.S. Intelligence Community

“The leaders of the defense, intelligence, industry and academic communities have a profound opportunity. That opportunity is to look at GEOINT through a new lens—the lens of consequence. This lens has four parts that I call the four Cs. That is, we must convey our exquisite content within meaningful context to our customers so they achieve the consequence they need.”

Now in our 13TH year!

—Robert Cardillo

Departments

Industry Interview Deb Davis

2 Editor’s Perspective 3 Program Notes/People 14 Industry Raster 27 Resource Center

Vice President for Geospatial Programs General Dynamics Information Technology

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Geospatial Intelligence Forum Volume 13, Issue 1 • February 2015

The Magazine of the National Intelligence Community Editorial Managing Editor

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Crystal Jones crystalj@kmimediagroup.com Jonathan Magin jonathanm@kmimediagroup.com Correspondents

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EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE During its three-year history, the initiative known as the Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise (IC ITE) has made considerable progress toward its goal of enabling greater integration, information sharing and information safeguarding through a common approach that substantially reduces costs.

But the path to a common IT structure for the intelligence agencies has not always been smooth. At a workshop on the program last summer, for example, a panel of former intelligence officials noted schedule slippages, as well as what some called a lack of strategic focus Harrison Donnelly in key aspects.

Editor Recent events suggest, however, that the undertaking is reaching a tipping point that will lead to faster implementation throughout the community and increases in both effectiveness and efficiency.

One indicator of the spreading impact of IC ITE came as this issue was going to press, with the announcement that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency would merge its chief information officer and information technology services functions.

“NGA is at a pivotal crossroads where policy and business processes must move as quickly as IT implementation,” said Director Robert Cardillo, who cited IC ITE as an important part of his agenda upon taking over at NGA last fall. “Executing new missions and leveraging new sources, along with our traditional missions and sources, require us to unify our IT management with IT delivery and sustainment. This merger will enable additional agility to accelerate IT delivery of capabilities while fully leveraging IC ITE and incorporating new data sources.”

The consolidation will also lead to several personnel changes. Douglas McGovern, currently director of the agency’s research and development arm, will lead the newly merged CIO and IT functions. David Bottom, now the director of information technology services, will direct the agency’s leader development program, while CIO David White will serve as the first NGA fellow to the recently established Intelligence and National Security Foundation.

A critical measure of the success of IC ITE will be the extent to which it facilitates concrete, practical changes, such as this one, in the way the IC conducts business.

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Corporate Offices KMI Media Group 15800 Crabbs Branch Way, Suite 300 Rockville, MD 20855-2604 USA Telephone: (301) 670-5700 Fax: (301) 670-5701 Web: www.GIF-kmi.com Major Brian Yates of the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) briefs Lieutenant Colonel Alessandro Bruzzano, 55th Wing, on a mobile weather application displaying authoritative weather information from AFW-WEBS for mission planning and execution.

(See story on p. 8) [Photo courtesy of U.S. Air Force/by Josh Plueger]

PROGRAM NOTES NGA, Air Force Improve GEOINT Collaboration Recent changes at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center in Dayton, Ohio, reflect how the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency’s support team there is working to strengthen its partnership with the Air Force in a time of decreased budgets and increased threats.

Although the geospatial intelligence team has been instrumental in the advancement of full-spectrum GEOINT within the defense and intelligence communities for some time, policy and organizational changes will further improve the capabilities there, said Ann Carbonell, Ph.D., NGA’s support team director at NASIC. Among the changes is a new joint NASIC-NGA GEOINT effort that combines the production-management priorities and associated processes for each organization into a single entity, said Carbonell. NGA and NASIC GEOINT production and requirement officers will comprise the office staff and have the authority to reach out to analysts in both organizations.

The changes demonstrate how the GEOINT team is addressing the growing and complicated space mission. The goal of this enterprise change is to focus on providing the best GEOINT solution to a customer’s request for information, said Chris Schond, NGA’s senior GEOINT officer at NASIC. The collaboration should become so mature that the lines between the two organizations are invisible. “It shouldn’t matter which part of the analysis is done by NGA staff and which part by NASIC,” said Schond.

NASIC is the Air Force’s single integrated production center and the primary producer in the Department of Defense of foreign air and space intelligence, said Colonel Thomas Dobbs, commander of NASIC’s Geospatial and Signatures Intelligence Group. All-source analysts there closely monitor worldwide air, space and missile capabilities, accessing the capabilities, threats and probability of adverse impact to U.S. interests.

The geospatial analysts at NASIC are unique in their ability to recognize systems designs, how they may be employed, and their range, detectability, speed and vulnerability, said Dobbs.

“The NGA and Air Force GEOINT analytic team has a combined average of 20 years of experience focused specifically on NASIC’s unique aerospace mission requirements, which emphasize identifying weapon or target signatures and their historical and predictive patterns,” said Carbonell.

“I wanted one GEOINT-based report that provides a holistic GEOINT perspective on the problem—whether collected from space, air or ground, and whether Air Force or NGA produced,” said Dobbs. “This will lead us to improved collaboration, better quality products and assessments and, therefore, more effective solutions.”

“All members of the NASIC GEOINT team—NGA or NASIC, military, civilian or contractor, whether they are EO, SAR, spectral, thermal, or MASINT specialists—all talk before completing their assessments and will, more importantly, now have consistent insight and the ability to inform each other’s analysis. This synergy ensures a better and faster intelligence report,” said Carbonell.

This article, by Kris Mackey of the NGA Office of Corporate Communications, appeared in the fall 2014 issue of Pathfinder. www.GIF-kmi.com

Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Imagery Via Laser The first-ever gigabit transmission via laser of imagery between the radar sensor on Sentinel-1A and Alphasat satellites has taken place successfully.

This advanced communication system based on laser communication terminal (LCT) technology is a main part of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) European Data Relay System (EDRS), also referred to as the SpaceDataHighway. It enables secure, high-data-rate communication between low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites or aerial platforms and geostationary (GEO) satellites. The LCT technology has been developed by the Airbus Defence and Space subsidiary Tesat-Spacecom with the support of the German Aerospace Center.

ESA is currently demonstrating the long-distance laser link with real content from the Sentinel-1 Earth observation satellite in LEO orbit via Alphasat communications satellite in GEO orbit to the ground. During the demonstration, data transfer reached 0.6 gigabits per second of possible 1.8 gigabits per second over 45,000 km.

The demonstration follows on successful LCT operation between two LEO satellites since 2008. With such high bandwidths possible, the SpaceDataHighway will significantly improve data latency and system reactivity, making truly global near real-time communication services available for the first time.

The SpaceDataHighway is being developed by a partnership between ESA and Airbus Defence and Space. As the prime contractor, Airbus Defence and Space builds, owns, operates and co-finances the system infrastructure both on the ground and in space.

PEOPLE

Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Cyber Command, and before that as director of intelligence for the Marine Corps.

Lieutenant General Vincent R. Stewart

Marine Corps Lieutenant General Vincent R. Stewart has become the 20th director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance.

Stewart served most recently as commander, Marine Forces

Susan M. Gordon, a 34-year veteran of the intelligence community, has taken office as deputy director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency on the retirement of Mike Rodrigue, current deputy director.

Gordon has served in senior leadership positions in all four of the CIA’s directorates. In her most recent position as director of the CIA’s information operations center, she was responsible for transforming espionage by blending human and technical solutions.

GIF 13.1 | 3

LiDAR Changes Meet Evolving Missions Improvements in technology respond to challenges that include changing national strategy and constrained budgets.

By Harrison Donnelly, GIF Editor

with the sophisticated nations bordering the Pacific Ocean, As U.S. national security strategies and priorities shift which zealously guard their national airspaces in times of after the end of more than a decade of combat operations, peace as well as war.

LiDAR technology will continue to evolve and find valuable new But experts see continuing improvements in LiDAR techuses for the military and intelligence communities, according nology responding to their challenges, which also include the to executives of several leading companies in the field. constrained budget environment. They point to such developAs the origin of its name (“light radar”) suggests, LiDAR ments as orbiting LiDAR platforms, as well as a newer form is a remote-sensing technology that determines distance from of the technology that provides more accurate images at lower an object by beaming a laser at it and analyzing the light that cost. Another key trend is the fusing of LiDAR data, combinreturns, in the process creating a 3-D “point cloud” image of ing it with other types of sensors to provide more effective the target. situational awareness.

Mounted on an aerial or orbital platform, LiDAR is wellIn addition, LiDAR systems are expected to become much suited for gathering data for detailed 3-D terrain maps, and it more common and easy to use. Just as the technology is findwas deployed extensively by the military in the recent conflicts ing uses in a host of commercial applications— in southwest Asia. In particular, its ability to crefrom automobile crash-avoidance systems to ate detailed maps of the isolated and mountainmuseum archives—LiDAR is working its way ous regions of Afghanistan provided invaluable into a wide variety of military applications. information for commanders’ decision-making.

A recent study by Transparency Market Under the Obama administration’s strategic Research predicts that the global LiDAR market pivot toward the Asia-Pacific region, however, the will exceed $600 million by 2020, up from $225 focus of future operations is expected to move million in 2013 and reflecting an average 15 perfrom the Middle East, where many areas are both cent annual growth rate. thinly populated and foliage-free, to the massive cities and thick forests and jungles of the Pacific Rim. There, the traditional type of LiDAR will be Orbiting Platforms Stuart Blundell almost as ineffective as optical sensors in peering under tree canopies.

For Stuart Blundell, general manager and director of sales Moreover, military planners do not expect to enjoy the freefor Exelis Geospatial Intelligence Solutions, the national secudom of the skies that characterized operations in the previous rity community is first and foremost looking forward to havtheaters, where UAVs and piloted aircraft could conduct data ing LiDAR data collected from orbital platforms at increasing collection without interdiction. That is unlikely to be the case spatial resolutions.

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“There are technology challenges, but they are being overcome,” Blundell observed. “That will provide global persistence of the data from a 3-D perspective for all kinds of different mapping needs, and is what people are thinking most about to augment fixed-wing and UAV collection of LiDAR.” With its background as a developer of commercial remote sensing platforms for electro-optical (EO) sensors such as DigitalGlobe’s recently launched WorldView-3 satellite, Exelis is in a good position to support the development of orbital systems for LiDAR, he added.

Another key factor will be the miniaturization of LiDAR sensors, Blundell said, noting that Exelis has worked on a project with a company seeking oil and gas in a very austere environment, where a 1-pound LiDAR sensor was flown on a small UAV platform. “We were able to get excellent data for all kinds of calculations to support facility monitoring and measurement, instead of having people out in trucks in that austere environment.”

There has also been a lot of interest in combining LiDAR with 3-D printing, he noted, as miniaturization and commercialization help reduce the cost of both. “As the commercial community discovers the value of 3-D collection from LiDAR, and pushes that toward 3-D printing, you could be looking at handheld LiDAR collections of objects. People are doing that now in reproductions of statues and other objects for museum and archival purposes.”

Blundell also pointed to the expertise of Exelis Visual Information Systems in developing analytics for multispectral data from orbital systems. “We see the collection of LiDAR data with other sensors giving a richness to analytics that is not there today because of the 3-D characteristics and accuracy of LiDAR collection. We have very powerful techniques in our algorithms to fuse together different phenomenologies, which will drive a lot of new uses for customers,” Blundell said.

Geiger Mode The future of LiDAR needs to be viewed in the context of the broader need to get information and intelligence into the hands of decision-makers, suggested Bill Gattle, vice president and general manager of the National Business Unit at Harris Government Communication Systems.

Within that goal, three key needs—continuous surveillance, access to denied areas and economic savings in light of budget constraints—are especially prominent in the current environment, suggested Gattle, adding that LiDAR has direct applications to each.

In Harris’ case, a key focus in LiDAR has been on Geiger mode, or “single photon,” development, as opposed to the linear mode technology that has traditionally been dominant.

In its essence, LiDAR is a way of determining the distance from an object by sending light energy at it, and then capturing its contours by measuring the reflection. In linear mode, beams of light are used, but in Geiger mode individual photons are transmitted and received, in the process creating a much more accurate and granular image of the object. www.GIF-kmi.com

Being able to effectively use Geiger mode would mark a transformational shift, Gattle said. “If Geiger mode could be operationalized, it would allow you to fly higher, because it’s more directional in terms of the photons you are getting. It also enables you to cover more area, and it’s more accurate because of the density of photon light that you get in return. It allows you to make much higher-fidelity imagery.

“We think that shift is now imminent,” he continued, noting that, after more than a decade of development, Harris has now flown over 950 missions overseas using the technology, and has mapped more than 500,000 square kilometers of area using Geiger mode.

That technology is well-suited to meeting the three priorities mentioned above, Gattle argued. Although continuous surveillance requires the proliferation of sensors on a wide scale, Geiger mode at least enables coverage of a wider area, because the sensor platform can operate at a much higher altitude.

“In terms of anti-denial, the single-photon capability is able to see things hidden under trees or camouflage much better than anything that’s currently out there. It also allows you to fly much higher, so you can see closer to the horizon. So you can fly in one area and see into areas that are much farther away,” he continued.

The third point is lowering the cost of ownership. “We’re working with the government to get, with Geiger mode, a reduction in cost of up to 50 percent,” Gattle said. “We have examples of how we can do this, and it can be done more cheaply.”

Data Fusion

There is a trend toward fusing data from different sensor types in order to add additional levels of confirmation to what an analyst may be seeing, observed Rex Ballard, director and general manager for BAE Systems’ Geospatial eXploitation Products.

SOCET GXP, BAE Systems’ flagship analysis product, is encompassing additional LiDAR capabilities in order meet the demand of data fusion, he explained. “The software allows analysts to take supplemental images that may have come from different sensors and embed the colors/pixels into an existing LiDAR point cloud using a single button click. They will then be able to deliver a single point cloud file to their customers that combines the advantages of spectral, panchromatic or synthetic aperture radar imagery with the 3-D nature of a point cloud.

Bill Gattle “SOCET GXP contains the ability to merge point cloud colorizations with luminance or intensity values that may be embedded in the data,” Ballard continued. “As a result, an analyst can have a point cloud displayed according to elevation ranges (or classifications, or returns), with a different color representing a particular data range, while maintaining the additional information contained in the intensity returns of that point cloud.”

In response to the growing demand for point cloud data generated by the unique benefits it provides, SOCET GXP recently delivered a capability Rex Ballard that allows users to generate high-resolution point GIF 13.1 | 5

extraction of point and line information together with estimates clouds from airborne or spaceborne stereo imagery. Thus, users of uncertainty. can obtain LiDAR-like results over areas where it may not be feasible to fly a LiDAR sensor.

“BAE Systems’ decades of creating advanced terrain extracMulti-Modal Sensing tion algorithms, including the latest, Automatic Spatial Modeler, have enabled the creation of these Due to funding and mission constraints, intelhighly accurate point clouds, which will automatligence users will require EO payloads with multiically have the pixel information from the stereo modality capability, including LiDAR, full motion images embedded—that is, a fused point cloud video and hyperspectral sensing, according to Roy product. The point clouds can then be used as Nelson, senior advanced systems manager for Ball inputs to GXP’s Automatic Feature Extraction algoAerospace. rithm, which creates accurate, true-volumetric 3-D Ball’s latest LiDAR system combines Flash building models of a scene,” Ballard explained.

LiDAR array sensors and co-boresighted context The company also continues to work on LiDAR EO cameras to provide a full-color or multi spec“triangulation,” in which LiDAR strips can be made tral 3-D point cloud/scene of the area of interest, Roy Nelson to fit together better by varying the parameters of while still providing rapid, intuitive information to the sensor models in order to reduce discrepancies between strips. the general user. “This embedded color, when using RGB context “Indeed, BAE Systems is enthusiastically embracing the Universal cameras, improves user cognition of critical 3-D information. Ball LiDAR Error Model (ULEM), so that rigorous error propagation has fused Vis, SWIR and IR sensor data to the LiDAR data, providbecomes possible,” he explained. “The results of LiDAR triangulaing multi spectral 3-D scene information,” Nelson said. tion are important inputs to this, and the widespread availability “In addition, since the context cameras usually have higher of error information regarding LiDAR point clouds is consistent pixel density than the LiDAR camera, combined with the array with both the ULEM community and ideas about including uncercharacteristic of the LiDAR sensor, rapid, real-time interpolation tainty information in the LAS format as it evolves.” between the LiDAR points can be achieved, which when combined BAE Systems is also developing more convenient measurwith the context imagery results in a point cloud having the same ing tools for use with fused LiDAR products to facilitate the resolution as the context camera—that is, high-definition (HD)

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of both data holdings and the user base will drive not only an 3-D LiDAR. This HD 3-D imagery significantly improves user recincrease in centralized LiDAR data storage capacity, but also innoognition of the scene,” he added. vation in how users interact with the data,” he said. “This innoFlash LiDAR sensors, lasers, MEMs-based INS units and sinvation will likely take the form of automatic discovery, data push gle-board computers are getting smaller and lower in cost, Nelson (versus pull), and enhanced metadata in LiDAR data files that noted, and Ball is implementing this technology in a Flash LiDAR describes accuracies and other useful and evolving information system for UAVs, with the ScanEagle as the first-use platform. about the LiDAR collection itself.”

“With remote command and control capability, the user can optiIn addition, sensor fusion will enhance LiDAR’s analytical posmize the LiDAR sensor for various missions such as general tersibilities. “LiDAR itself provides the best 3-D structural informarain mapping, line of sight or view shed, and hazard detection,” tion available as well as a spectral snapshot captured with a single Nelson said. “The LiDAR payload is modular to support rapid, inwavelength of light. Fusing rich spectral information from other field installation, thus being available when needed.” sensors, such as multispectral and hyperspectral, will compleThe increased use of UAVs, along with the higher speed of ment LiDAR data and unleash a new world of feature identificaoperations, will demand near real-time access to the collected tion and scientific analysis,” Parker contended.

LiDAR data, he predicted. Although Ball’s TotalSight LIDAR sysAs LiDAR becomes commonplace, LiDAR data will be useful tem has the capability to collect, process and provide a level 3 not only to trained intelligence analysts, but also LiDAR data product in real time, this in itself does to mission planners, civil engineers, humanitarnot meet the need for the individual user to utilize ian relief teams, road builders, beach mappers and the data in the information processing timeline. communications analysts—anyone who needs sit“To address this need, Ball is implementing a uational awareness and/or highly accurate terrain process similar to what one sees when accessing data, said Parker, adding, “This has actually been Google Earth—that is, the UAV-acquired, processed one of Applied Imagery’s primary drivers—makLiDAR data is stored on the platform in a ‘server in ing sure our Quick Terrain Modeler software is easy the sky’ configuration, where the individual user and intuitive for all types of users, from scientists can geospatially access the LiDAR data of interto analysts to far-forward DoD users.” est using software developed by Euclideon and pull that data on demand using existing data link bandChris Parker width. This data can then be immediately loaded Airborne Capabilities and analyzed on a tablet computer,” Nelson said.

Another trend is the emergence of statistical LiDAR systems, Gaps in worldwide high-resolution foundation elevation data aided by advances in both photon-counting detector arrays and are being met with more productive sensors operating on an computational processing hardware. Although these systems have increasing number of platforms, according to Joseph Seppi, been successfully demonstrated in the field for many years, he practice director of national security for Woolpert. “Perhaps the explained, “Ball believes that combining these systems with comgreatest recent advances have been in airborne LiDAR capabilputational imaging methods will usher in the next revolution in ities—sensors and processing, exploitation and dissemination LiDAR. LiDAR systems provide additional data that dramatically software—and this is where Woolpert has contributed the most.” increases the number and types of computational imaging techAspects of current and developing LiDAR technology that will niques beyond what passive systems are capable of, allowing us to be important to military and intelligence users over the five-toaddress missions that were previously impossible.

10-year horizon will be cost, availability, productivity, interopera“By mapping this data into mathematically correlated but bility, size, weight and power, and speed, he predicted, adding that easy-to-measure domains, we are no longer bound by the limmuch work is being done in research labs and in the private secitations of traditional imaging, oversized laser systems and/or tor to meet future demand. expensive camera systems,” Nelson noted. “These methods have “We will see new entrants into the market commercializing the potential to improve all LiDAR systems, from long-range government-funded solutions. Long-time commercial manufacexquisite LiDAR applications to low-cost/mass-produced commerturers will offer improved systems that increase acquisition procial applications.” ductivity without sacrificing ground sampling resolution. All of which will generate healthy competition and more options for military and intelligence customers over the next five to 10 years,” In the Hands of Users Seppi said.

Areas to watch, he added, include bathymetric LiDAR, mobile Over the past decade, noted Chris Parker, founder and presiLiDAR, human-wearable LiDAR, hyperspectral LiDAR, and 3-D dent of Applied Imagery, LiDAR has evolved from a specialized, reconstruction from imagery, which has the potential to supplant experts-only remote sensing technology to a trusted, widely availLiDAR in certain situations. O able, workhorse technology for everyone. With the help of ongoing technology developments, the future will likely see LiDAR data increasingly in the hands of users who have little or no formal remote sensing training.

Storage, discovery and retrieval of LiDAR data will continue to For more information, contact GIF Editor Harrison Donnelly improve, Parker predicted, noting that the Department of Defense at harrisond@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives community’s GRiD LiDAR data portal has already become an for related stories at www.gif-kmi.com. important part of the LiDAR exploitation process. “The expansion www.GIF-kmi.com

GIF 13.1 | 7

GIS and web technologies are playing an increasing role in the critical military tasks of tracking and forecasting the weather. services support within a single, GIS-based With their powerful capabilities for colentry point. lecting, displaying and disseminating spaNAVMETOCCOM, meanwhile, has tial and temporal data, GIS and geospatial worked with the geospatial giants as web technologies are playing an increasing well as engineering and consulting firms role in the critical military tasks of tracking such as Geocent to improve its mapping and forecasting the weather. and analytical capabilities.

Led by the Naval Meteorology “GIS provides a venue to bring in weather and Oceanography Command data and mash it up or put in other layers (NAVMETOCCOM) and Air Force Weather of data, on which you can Agency (AFWA), the U.S. then begin to do analytics,” military devotes major observed Jason Brewington, resources to understanding product manager for geospacurrent and future weather, tial solutions at Schneider which is vitally important Electric, an international not only in tactical operaenergy management comtions but also in areas such pany that offers both geoas transportation and prospatial and weather-related tection of key assets. services. “Just being able to The weather commands, have it all mashed together, as well as developers of a Jason Brewington you can see the weather on number of command and top of your assets or terrain. You can make control and situational awareness sysdecisions based on the data you are viewing, tems that incorporate weather data, have and frequently gather even more insights taken advantage of the computation-intenbased on the modeling that you do.” sive advances in meteorological science that have greatly improved forecasting accuracy.

Predicting Environments Gaps remain in abilities to analyze and act on this information, however, particuMilitary weather experts face all the larly for a military organization that must challenges of other meteorologists, as well maintain continuous coverage of global as those unique to military needs, observed weather and rapidly communicate that Dr. William H. Burnett, NAVMETOCCOM’s information to a mobile, highly dispersed deputy commander and technical director. workforce for decision-making. GIS and “A long-standing challenge for military other geospatial technologies, including weather forecasters relates to the density both off-the-shelf products, such as Esri’s and perishability of the foundational inforArcGIS and Google Earth, as well as cusmation needed to make numerical environtom-designed systems, are proving to be mental predictions,” Burnett said. “These valuable tools in that effort. predictions of the environment range from AFWA, for example, has deployed minutes into the future to weeks away, Google Earth Enterprise to integrate and and are used to identify impacts to naval synchronize weather data from different operations, ships, weapons, sensors and sources, thus smoothing the informationpeople. Therefore, the physics-based progathering process and allowing the inforduction systems running on supercomputmation to be delivered more quickly and ers require as much observation data as conveniently. The agency also operates a possible, as fast as possible. web portal providing streamlined weather “The predicted environment and its 8 | GIF 13.1

By Harrison Donnelly, GIF Editor impacts are also dense and perishable, so getting these to the warfighters is another challenge,” he continued. “Finally, the physical environment is often one of several factors that must be considered in final C2 decision-making. The ability to display the disseminated physical environment on the C2 nodes’ common operating picture (COP) or common tactical picture (CTP) requires acquisition systems with integrated capability. GIS enables this.”

Still, the key issues that challenge meteorology and oceanography extend to other areas such as intelligence and cyberspace. As a result, the Navy established the Information Dominance Forces Command, with the goal of enabling a more holistic approach that will consolidate and align missions, functions and tasks previously managed by Navy Cyber Forces Command, Fleet Cyber Command, NAVMETOCCOM and the Office of Naval Intelligence.

“The benefit from this consolidation is that addressing the key issues that impact the METOC community will not have to be borne on the back of this community.

We can now leverage GIS and geospatial web service knowledge and expertise from multiple communities to support the warfighter,” Burnett said.

“Data collection from METOC sensors and professionals located forward, particularly in data-sparse or data-denied areas, must be tagged geospatially and temporally to be useful to our weather models and the reach-back centers that assist the METOC forecasters deployed forward with tactical products and services. Reach-back scientists use GIS to understand and manipulate massive data sets in a timely manner.

Using these same systems, the forwarddeployed METOC professionals fuse predictions with C2 information to yield tactically relevant products and services,” said Burnett, adding, “Web-based geospatial services ensure that our forecasters operate on the same data and produce a www.GIF-kmi.com

forecasted ocean weather data and observations of current ocean weather data on a geospatial map so that it can be viewed on tools such as Google Earth and other Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)-based map viewers.

“Visualizing meteorology data on map platforms is one of Geocent’s core capabilities. We have been using our expertise and experience in this area to support the Navy by integrating 14 different 4-D METOC data types in six different data formats, from satellite imagery to forecast models including Web Processing Services, to generate analytical data on demand,” said Jared Ladner, SOA-certified architect for Geocent.

Sensing and Dissemination Looking ahead, experts see continued evolution in the geospatial/weather connection as providing significant benefits in areas such as sensing and dissemination.

“Weather data will start to interact with many other types of data, resulting in

better mission planning and tactical decision aids,” said Ladner. “For example, displaying the ship vectors on top of wave heights and then animating them can show the optimal fuel saving paths by bridging the these different types of data on a common view platform or map.”

At NAVMETOCCOM, “We want additional sensing capabilities that turn every platform into a METOC sensor, and we want to have that data, in the correct format, and available to forecasters and atmospheric and oceanographic model assimilation with minimal latency,” said Burnett. “METOC professionals, automated forecasts with machine-to-machine capabilities, and userdefined thresholds will update this data, and we expect decision-makers will use our data on advanced GIS systems that feed directly into C2 systems and tactical decision aids.”

The Navy’s roll-out of a mobility strategy will extend these geospatial products and services to tablets and smartphones, Burrnett predicted. “We anticipate the number of GIS capability-enabled warfare

Image Courtesy of f the DoD.

consistent forecast.”

The Navy command has several initiatives under way, from the collection of observation data to fusing predictive tactical impacts in C2 systems, Burnett explained. “One of our first initiatives was managing the proliferation of GIS systems already being used by the METOC community. Now, standardized formats and underlying technologies allow us to yield economies of scale, facilitate interoperability and make smarter decisions about where to focus our research and development funds.

“We’re exploring another promising technology called Intelligent Decision Maps, where the geospatial product is more than just an image and underlying data; it now includes mission-specific, operationally and/or tactically relevant geospatial applications embedded with the geospatial product. In essence, ‘the map is the app,’” he said.

One of the Navy’s partners in this effort has been Geocent, which signed a contract in 2013 to provide the ability to display

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GIF 13.1 | 9

Air Force Delivers Weather Web Services Through the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA), the Air Force provides relevant, timely and accurate atmospheric and space weather data, information, and products for its own operations as well as Army, intelligence community and other Department of Defense organizations. The cornerstone of providing these capabilities is Air Force Weather Web Services (AFW-WEBS), managed by AFWA’s 2nd Weather Group and available on multiple security enclaves.

AFW-WEBS is the primary weather portal used to support Air Force and Army operations, streamlining weather services support within a single, GISbased entry point. AFW-WEBS employs a service-oriented architecture (SOA) to deliver meteorological data and information through standard Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)-compliant web services for exploitation and integration into all aspects of military activities.

AFW-WEBS employs an interactive approach to deliver products and visualizations to meet operational needs. Users are empowered to generate missionthreshold-driven products from a fully configurable interface. They can also pre-arrange data and information packages to mitigate network constraints and low-bandwidth conditions. Additionally, AFW-WEBS serves as a machine-tomachine (M2M) interface for communities prepared to integrate weather data into their user applications, such as C4ISR systems.

AFWA first employed GIS software and services when the 14th Weather Squadron, the Air Force’s only unit dedicated to applied climatology, leveraged Esri’s ArcGIS desktop software in 1993 to

area COP/CTPs in the fleet will grow, and we want to ensure our ocean, atmosphere and physical battlespace decision support overlays remain compatible with them.”

“Over and above the analytical capabilities that GIS provides, a lot of the future of where this technology is going is being able to better disseminate this information across a variety of platforms,” said Brewington. “It used to be that GIS was workstation-bound, and then it was bound to the desktop PC. But we are currently seeing that it’s not about the desktop or 10 | GIF 13.1

produce basic climate products and services for the Department of Defense and IC. Since that time, AFWA has produced a full suite of GIS-based products that are far more advanced than those originally produced.

Similar to AFWA’s first use of ArcGIS desktop software, AFW-WEBS implementation was based on COTS GIS tools and services, with an early emphasis on providing Web Mapping Services (WMS).

Initially, the COTS solution required extensive tuning to support the high volume of highly perishable weather data and information.

After overcoming initial hurdles, AFWA quickly operationalized WMS and Keyhole Markup Language capabilities, easing the complexity required to integrate M2M weather capabilities into military decision support and command and control systems. The initial launch of AFW-WEBS generated immediate interest in additional services, including expanded imagery production and data processing through OGC Web Feature Services.

For example, 1st Weather Group, an operational organization within AFWA, immediately recognized the role GIS could play in visualizing weather analysis and forecast products. In addition to employing AFW-WEBS itself, the 1st Weather Group instituted a GIS-based, threat-based operations process across all subordinate operational weather squadrons. Additionally, the Air Force Tanker Airlift Control Center employs AFW-WEBS M2M capabilities to optimize planning for strategic aircraft movements around mission-limiting weather conditions.

workstation, but about providing information services so that other platforms can consume it—not just smartphones and tablets, but also being able to disseminate information on the web, via an application and browser or even something that does not use a map.

“It might be bringing in the information and analytics provided by GIS with the intersection of weather, terrain and where your people and assets are located, and putting it into a spreadsheet in a way that doesn’t use a map but provides intelligence

The AFW-WEBS solution demonstrates the benefits of a SOA for on-demand, GIS-based services. Enterprise processing is reduced, less file routing is required, and perhaps most importantly for highoperations tempo support, weather data and information is provided with reduced latency.

AFW-WEBS also includes an online information portal that permits seamless communication between system and software engineers and users with up-to-date information about AFW-WEBS capabilities and improvements. The portal contains a wealth of detailed scientific information for end-user ingest as well as information about interface and product updates. It also serves as a means for users to provide feedback to AFW-WEBS. Interactivity will be enhanced as the AFW-WEBS architecture evolves. This will allow end-users to generate robust, on-demand weather products tailored to mission execution thresholds using OGC Web Processing Services and Web Coverage Services. This capability will promote optimal decision-making in line with operational risk management principles.

The evolution of the AFW-WEBS interface and the associated M2M web services will also improve the ability to handle large volumes of highly perishable weather data and information, especially for operations in data-sparse regions of the globe where access to high-bandwidth computing resources is limited or nonexistent.

(This article was provided by the Scientific Services, Training and Standards Division, Headquarters AFWA.)

in terms of things to look at. The technology is swinging toward providing geospatially-powered information and results in a variety of media that people are already used to using. You don’t have to be a GIS person to take advantage of these analytical models. It will be delivered to you in a manner that you are used to,” he said. O For more information, contact GIF Editor Harrison Donnelly at harrisond@kmimediagroup. com or search our online archives for related stories at www.gif-kmi.com.

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Object-based production seeks to organize intelligence around objects of interest and improve the organization of known information.

By Peter Buxbaum, GIF Correspondent

nature and attributes of those objects and understand relationships The effort to make masses of data more useful to the intelligence among them. Once those relationships are identified, they also can and military communities has led to the development of a number become objects around which old or new data can be gathered, all of of methodologies and technologies designed to transform raw data which can be manipulated to produce new intelligence. into useful information. Because of the enormous volume of data The concept of object-based production has drawn increasavailable to intelligence analysts, a degree of automation to connect ing interest within the intelligence community, including the entities and events and to build relationships among data is essential National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. For example, NGA officials to better understanding threats, reducing the fog of war and more described their Map of the World initiative, which offers access to a quickly countering adversaries. number of different types of information about any particular spot A key concept in that effort has been activity-based intelligence, on the globe, as providing a foundation for the IC’s object-based prowhich uses a multi-INT approach to analyze activity and transacduction environment. tional data to develop intelligence, drive data collection and resolve what have been called the “unknown unknowns.” Activity-based intelligence can be used to develop patterns of life, Graph Databases understand the intent of bad actors and formulate responses.

One of the major technology innovations that More recently, however, interest has grown in a have facilitated object-based production has been series of capabilities that go hand in hand with activdifferent kinds of databases. Graph databases, as ity-based intelligence—object-based production. opposed to traditional relational databases, allow for As described by a Defense Intelligence Agency the storage and retrieval of large volumes of unstrucdocument, object-based production seeks to orgatured data and observations as well as linkages assonize intelligence around objects of interest and to ciated with those observations. improve the organization of information. Where Open-source intelligence and unstructured activity-based intelligence reaches into the realm of observations are key data elements that aid in objectHarry Niedzwiadek the unknowns, the goal of object-based production is based production. Graph databases make it easier to to organize the ‘knowns’ in order to improve the usequickly perform analytics on the data and their links fulness of intelligence. By improving the organizawithout the computationally difficult manipulations tion of information and its access about the knowns, necessary in relational databases. The way the data is it is more possible to extrapolate to the unknown. stored and the technology deployed allows informaWhat both methodologies also have in common tion to be queried and used across a multiplicity of is an effort to replace data-centric intelligence with systems interoperably. an analysis that is more knowledge-centric. Instead “Intelligence systems until this time have focused of swimming in a sea of raw and undifferentiated on the problem in the wrong way,” said Harry data and requiring analysts to infer the connections, Niedzwiadek, CEO of Image Matters. “They were way object-based production seeks to aggregate harvested too data-centric, meaning that they were focused data around objects—people, places, things or even on building systems that attack the big data probTim Estes events—in order to gain greater insights about the lem. The big-data problem involves separating the www.GIF-kmi.com

GIF 13.1 | 11

“Object-based production and activity-based wheat from the chaff and putting the remainder in intelligence are the left and right hands of intellifront of analysts to make inferences. We needed to gence,” said Estes. “Objects are always located in get beyond that.” time and space. If you are watching an object as “In intelligence, object-based production started it changes in time and space, that’s activity-based with a program designed to identify vehicles, equipintelligence. They work hand in hand.” ment and ships,” said Tim Estes, founder and CEO of Digital Reasoning. “We were trying to create a ‘baseball card’ for certain kinds of things—a descripIntelligent Searching tion with all of the attributes of the object in one place. When you gather the properties of an object, Object-based production posits a data model you can identify what sort of thing it is. Once you that allows the linkage of properties of objects Idriss Mekrez have created those baseball cards, you can index and derived from different intelligence sources and is search them.” built around a conceptual, semantic indexing system Object-based production also includes the capadifferent from the kind of intelligence search systems bilities of disseminating information across domains that prevail today. for information sharing and collaboration purposes.

“What we have now in the intelligence commu“Object-based production allows analysts to assemnity and Department of Defense are systems that are ble and disseminate information across a commusearch-driven,” said Estes. “The analyst enters some nity of interest,” said Idriss Mekrez, public sector type of token or search string and gets back docuchief technology officer at MarkLogic. “The idea is ments or content he can consume. This is a cumto define every physical object once and then attach bersome process, and it is difficult to scale when properties that come from different sources of inteltracking a person or a vehicle because it depends ligence, such as geospatial, human and signal intelon searching for some kind of clue and fusing data Bob Palmer ligence. Then you allow agencies to share that together manually.” information to make sure that everyone is talking about the same Beginning in 2012, databases were created in which analysts physical object.” could identify data with object tags. “This allowed systems to link “Before object-based production, intelligence products were data in forms that humans, and not just machines, could underderived from different multi-INT sources and were stored and prostand,” said Estes. “Analysts across systems and agencies could cessed in a linear fashion,” said Bob Palmer, senior director for stratagree about the existence of a given object, and all data relevant egy and innovation at SAP National Security Services. “Each analyst to that object could be tagged to it. Analysts could search for would produce a product along the lines of his own mission needs. objects, not just data, and retrieve all of the data relevant to That makes the ability to share that information and reuse it in an that object.” automated fashion very difficult. Object-based production reprePowering object-based production are technologies that allow sents a fundamental shift in how components of information prodfor the graph representation of data and search engines that enable ucts are stored, increasing productivity and efficiency and allowing the discovery of that data. “Systems have to be set up to accommoanalysts to execute their missions better.” date the way data needs to be stored and used,” said Palmer. “With Aggregating data around objects allows systems to transform a graph representation of data, the objects and their attributes are data into knowledge. “Object-based intelligence focuses on creatstored in such a way that the attributes and relationships between ing knowledge about what we know so we can to do a better job of objects and attributes are themselves persistent data objects in the discovering the needle in the haystack,” said Niedzwiadek. “But it technical system. doesn’t stop there. We are also able to infer from the needles what we “This data schema requires a graph engine to execute queries know or need to know about the haystacks. That is a key shift with against that type of data. In a conventional relational database, entiobject-based intelligence.” ties and their attributes can be stored and queried, and connections Activity-based intelligence and object-based production play between objects can be inferred. But the relationships themselves off one another. “The goal of activity-based intelligence is to disare not stored as discrete objects that can be manipulated in the cover and track dynamic activities between objects,” said Mekrez. data structure,” Palmer added.

“Activity-based intelligence makes use of object-based data because In a graph representation of data, the relationships between object-based production provides the data model that allows systems objects are first-class citizens in the data structure. They are persisto store objects not typically found in relational databases.” tent and can be queried in multiple ways, or altered and have new Object-based production supports activity-based intelligence attributes added to them. and is also informed by it. “There is a feedback loop,” said Palmer.

“That type of flexibility better represents the real world, where “The activity itself then becomes an object that can be stored in a relationships between people, places and things are constantly graph database.” changing and need to be understood for different mission needs,” “The event shows up as an object,” added Niedzwiadek. “Activitysaid Palmer. “Object-based production is a way to store intelligence based intelligence deals more with the transient nature of things. products that empowers semantic interoperability. Multiple systems There is some activity going on which we are monitoring and trycan understand the context and meaning of that information and ing to understand what it means. Objects play into activities, and act on the data in an automated fashion.” out of activities we can extract some facts about objects, so they That way, it is no longer up to the analyst alone to connect are interconnected.” the dots. “When you wrap data up like this, it becomes structured 12 | GIF 13.1

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knowledge,” said Niedzwiadek. “This represents a paradigm shift from a data-centric model to one which is knowledge-centric. The object-based production data model infuses the data with meaning and relevance.”

The ultimate goal of intelligence is to make sense out of multiple sources of information holistically. “There is intelligence coming in many different formats,” said Mekrez. “When the intelligence community started using NoSQL [a type of graph database] databases three years ago, they were able to link together multiple sources of information in multiple formats from binary to textual to highly structured data.”

Complex Data Profiles MarkLogic is currently storing data for the two biggest objectbased production applications in the intelligence community. “The main capabilities that we bring are the ability to store information in any format, to integrate very complex data profiles and to secure that information,” said Mekrez.

For example, objects of interest may be attached to different names, which are secured at different classification levels. “Our security model enables different people occupying different roles and at different security levels to get different views of an object depending on their roles and security levels,” said Mekrez. “This used to require two different databases and two different applications.”

MarkLogic is also able to store complex object profiles such as features or locations and link them together using semantic capabilities. “We also have the ability to attach a geospatial location to an object,” said Mekrez. “This is a unique feature we are providing to the intelligence community.”

Digital Reasoning first attacked object-based production from the standpoint of structured data. “We started by using signal intelligence to help identify objects,” said Estes. “We were able to abstract from the SIGINT that a certain kind of signal belongs to a specific kind of object. That was the easy part.”

The more difficult part came when the company sought to integrate human intelligence, often in the form of unstructured text, into the object-based production universe. “Intelligence agencies may receive reports about a certain person of interest, and they may have other sources that link that person to others,” said Estes. “Some of these sources may be open-source intelligence, such as newspaper articles, that mention a link between one person and another.”

In order to put that information into context, an index of data on the object of the inquiry would have to available across agencies so that the attributes of the object can be aggregated. This leads the intelligence analyst to a greater degree of confidence that the name being sought is the one being studied.

If the subject of the inquiry, who may have a common name, can be associated with other objects, such as geospatial locations or people, the analyst can conclude with a greater sense of surety that the information he is studying is relevant to his mission.

Another example of how object-based production works is in the production of specialized, mission-oriented digital maps for warfighters. “The purpose of these specialized maps is to answer questions for warfighters on their missions,” said Niedzwiadek.

“For example, if they enter an Afghan village they have never been in before, they may want to know the location of specific water sources. www.GIF-kmi.com

“The knowledge each warfighter needs is very specialized and specific. It could take thousands of conventional maps to supply this information. But object-based production changes the paradigm by allowing maps to be generated on the spot in connection with warfighter needs,” he added.

HANA, SAP’s computational platform, is “uniquely suitable for supporting and executing activity-based intelligence and the semantic organization of that information, which is object-based production,” according to Palmer. SAP has taken advances in in-memory computing to build the HANA platform, which combines database, data management, and multi-core processing capabilities. The platform also provides libraries for predictive, planning, text processing, and spatial and business analytics.

“The very rapid in-memory speeds make the platform very suitable for activity-based intelligence and object-based production,” said Palmer. “The in-memory database has a graphic engine that also has the ability to do text and geospatial analysis. All of this processing is done within a graph representation of data on a single platform.”

In-Memory Processing The in-memory processing also facilitates more accurate predictive analyses by allowing algorithms to run against entire data sets, instead of just a small sampling of data.

Intel, which co-developed the platform, wrote HANA-specific instruction sets into its newest generation of chips. HANA also provides a suite of predictive, spatial and text analytics libraries that can run across multiple data sources. “These new tools enable selfservice applications that address the needs of subject-matter experts and mission analysts,” said Palmer.

“There is a large effort to use object-based production across different tradecrafts and agencies,” said Mekrez. “Leveraging the object-based production data model is redefining data capture and dissemination. In terms of capabilities, the community is focusing on capturing objects, profiling and reporting in a way that can be used by different user communities and for different topics.”

“We are working on getting good knowledge from unstructured data,” said Estes. “The incorporation of this knowledge in objects means that it is also data that can be counted, measured and predicted from. Now, it is cumbersome to figure out what is happening in the present. The next step will be to test these models to see if we can predict what will happen next.”

Intelligence tradecraft is already shifting to accommodate an object-based production approach, according to Palmer. “The change is coming primarily in how information derived from multiple sources of intelligence is conceptualized and stored. Capabilities such as in-memory processing, graph engines, predictive analyses and natural language processing will be increasingly useful for the community. There has to be a focal point for multiple INTs to be circling around an object of interest. That object at first may be nonspecified and not well-defined.

“Object-based production can help us understand not only what we know now, but what we don’t yet know and need to find out,” he said. O For more information, contact GIF Editor Harrison Donnelly at harrisond@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.gif-kmi.com.

GIF 13.1 | 13

INDUSTRY RASTER Android Version of Mobile GIS System Released Esri has released the Android version of Explorer for ArcGIS. The native Android app offers access anywhere to data-rich, visually stunning maps. Governments, utilities, natural resources and other commercial businesses have already used Explorer for ArcGIS on iOS and OS X to brief stakeholders, tell stories and find assets. A sketch function enables highlighting and collaborating.

In addition, presentation features make map slides easy to navigate and allow teams to interact with mapped information. The app intelligently scales to device size. Any owner of an Android smartphone or tablet (version 4.0 and up) can explore Esri public

maps from anywhere. Users with an ArcGIS Online subscription or Portal for ArcGIS account consume the full power of the app.

They gain access to their own and their organization’s maps and data. Explorer for ArcGIS draws on its native Android operating system with sharing capabilities that include email, text messaging and push notifications.

Sarah Alban; press@esri.com

Spatial Data Platform Engineered for Intelligence SpaceCurve has released a spatial data platform specifically engineered to enable operational intelligence from complex spatially fused data at extreme scales. The platform delivers unprecedented timeto-value using space and time as the key indices for all associated data. SpaceCurve continuously fuses geospatial, sensor, IoT, social media, location, and other streaming and historical data while making

the data immediately available for analytics and operational intelligence. SpaceCurve has partners such as AirSage, Esri and L-3, and customers in government, defense, transportation, location analytics and telecommunications. SpaceCurve integrates every available data source in real time while allowing immediate access to the live data model using standard interfaces such as SQL, REST

and JSON, and tools such as ArcGIS and analytics interfaces. The ability of SpaceCurve to continuously index and store this data while delivering real-time parallel query execution enables fast, interactive spatial analytics that cannot be achieved using technologies currently on the market.

Rand Knight, Ph.D.; rand.knight@spacecurve.com

Information Store to Aid Access to GEOINT Products

Five Exemptions Granted for UAS Operations

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has awarded BAE Systems the Information Store (iSToRE) contract to provide advanced data management capabilities to support the National System for Geospatial Intelligence (NSG).

The iSToRE is the NSG’s knowledge management solution that consolidates, stores and archives geospatial intelligence products, making data easily accessible to multiple agencies and defense commands worldwide. Under the contract, the iSToRE will be modernized through the integration of BAE Systems’ commercial software product, GXP Xplorer, a data management software application that allows analysts to easily connect to and query remote geospatial data stores and libraries and to quickly locate, retrieve and share data across the enterprise. GXP Xplorer software licenses will be deployed globally to support the agency’s transition from legacy image product libraries to commercial-based information storage capabilities. The licenses will support worldwide intelligence operations by enhancing information sharing amongst joint task force headquarters, intelligence centers and forward-deployed warfighters.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has granted five regulatory exemptions for unmanned aircraft systems operations to four companies representing several industries.

The four companies that received exemptions want to fly UAS to perform operations for aerial surveying, construction site monitoring and oil rig flare stack inspections. The commercial entities that received exemptions are Trimble Navigation, VDOS Global, Clayco and Woolpert (two exemptions). Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx found that the UAS in the proposed operations do not need an FAA-issued certificate of airworthiness because they do not pose a threat to national airspace users or national security. The companies also asked the FAA to grant exemptions from regulations that address general flight rules, pilot certificate requirements, manuals, maintenance and equipment mandates. In their petitions, the companies said they will operate UAS weighing less than 55 pounds and keep the UAS within line-of-sight at all times.

Amanda Schildt; amanda.schildt@baesystems.com

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Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Army Contract Opens Doors to Imagery Data

Commercial Launch Completes Earth-Imaging Constellation

The Army Geospatial Center (AGC) has awarded a contract to GeoNorth to provide both optical and SAR satellite imagery on an as-needed basis for their AGC Imagery Office. The AGC Data Library/ DataDoors contract consists of two components— imagery acquisition and processing. GeoNorth will be applying its rapid satellite tasking/imagery acquisition downloading and delivery services based on AGC requirements. GeoNorth has the ability to task the entire Airbus Defense and Space satellite constellations of SPOT, Pleiades, and TerraSAR to any location on the globe for imagery acquisition. Once imagery is collected, the contract allows data to be downloaded directly to GeoNorth’s company-owned direct receiving station. The pre-processed imagery then transitions to post-capture processing before final delivery to the AGC. Upon completion, streamlined access to new collections is made available to the AGC and its customers by a seamless delivery to DataDoors, an imagery processing and delivery solution also provided

by GeoNorth once optical and radar data is captured and downloaded. Data Library services available to the AGC under this contract are web-accessible and available on a round-the-clock basis, and come with 99.5 percent uptime and hosting capabilities of 45 terabytes of imagery.

Airbus Defence and Space has announced the commercial launch of its SPOT 7 Earthobservation satellite, making its high-resolution imagery available to all users. Together with SPOT 6, Pléiades 1A & 1B, TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X, SPOT 7 makes Airbus Defence and Space the first operator in the world to offer customers a full palette of Earth-imaging data spanning multiple resolution and spectral wavelengths.

This satellite constellation opens up opportunities for many applications, providing the latest images within an unprecedented time frame. With the joined and integrated operation of SPOT 6 and SPOT 7, the acquisition capacity is boosted to 6 million square kilometers per day. This means that every day, every point on the globe can be viewed both in high-resolution by a SPOT satellite and in very high-resolution by a Pléiades satellite. While SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 cover wide areas with a resolution of 1.5 m, Pléiades 1A and 1B focus on more targeted zones with a greater level of detail (50 cm products).

Satellite Imagery Aids in Ebola Fight The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has released a series of Image City Map products, derived from DigitalGlobe satellite imagery and human geography data sets, which are playing a key role in the international effort to combat the Ebola crisis in western Africa. The satellite imagery is available via NGA’s EnhancedView program, which is helping military operators, civilian health care workers, international partner nations and volunteers understand events on the ground with daily new collections across the region. NGA has also released countryscale DigitalGlobe human geography data layers, including information on the region’s demographics, critical infrastructure, economies, ethnicities, education levels, environment, medical facilities and significant events, all of which can inform relief efforts and operational planning.

In other DigitalGlobe news, the company has extended the projected useful lives of two of its WorldView-1 and WorldView-2 satellites, and assigned an initial useful life to its newest satellite, WorldView-3, which is slightly longer than the original use lives assigned to WorldView-1 and WorldView-2.

Nancy Coleman; nancy.coleman@digitalglobe.com

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NGA World Map Hosted on Commercial Cloud The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has become the first intelligence agency to host an operational capability within Amazon Web Services’ Commercial Cloud Services (C2S) environment, following Lockheed Martin’s deployment of the interactive map for NGA’s Map of the World to the C2S environment. The Map of the World initiative acts as an interface for NGA’s most comprehensive and accurate geospatial intelligence data. Lockheed Martin’s Geospatial-Intelligence Visualization Services (GVS) program helped NGA and the intelligence community achieve this milestone by migrating the Map of the World’s interactive map and helping the community determine the processes to use the cloud environment. The deployment also consisted of the system’s accreditation in compliance with ICD-503 guidelines, which establish policy for the intelligence community’s security risk management for IT systems. The Total Application Services for Enterprise Requirements GVS contract vehicle, which was originally awarded in 2012, conveys geospatial visualization context and analytic capabilities to warfighters, intelligence officers and policymakers through classified and unclassified computer networks.

Colin Thorn; colin.thorn@lmco.com GIF 13.1 | 15

GEOINT Steward Seeing the Mission Through the Lens of Consequence Robert Cardillo Director National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Robert Cardillo is the sixth director of the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency, where he leads and directs NGA under the authorities of the secretary of defense and director of national intelligence. He became NGA’s director on October 3, 2014.

Prior to this assignment, Cardillo served as the first deputy director for intelligence integration, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, from 2010 to 2014. In addition, he served as the deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the deputy director for analysis, DIA, from 2006 to 2010.

In the summer of 2009, Cardillo served as the acting J-2, a first for a civilian, in support of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Before he moved to DIA, Cardillo led analysis and production as well as source operations and management at NGA from 2002 to 2006. His leadership assignments at NGA also included congressional affairs, public affairs and corporate relations.

Cardillo, who began his career with DIA in 1983 as an imagery analyst, was selected to the Senior Executive Service in 2000. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in government from Cornell University in 1983 and a Master of Arts in national security studies from Georgetown University in 1988.

My message to Team NGA is a simple proposition requiring complicated execution. The NGA exists for one reason: to enable mission consequence for those we serve. We exist to enable our customers’ success; nothing else will suffice.

So my key issue is to accelerate the pace of progress because the evolving threat environment and rapid technological advances demand it. The recent attacks on freedom of expression by terrorists in France and by the North Korean hacking of Sony are a clarion call to all of us.

It is a call to remember why we fight terrorism and tyranny around the world—to protect not only our own, but the fundamental freedoms of people everywhere.

And I believe that we at NGA and you, the leaders of the defense, intelligence, industry and academic communities—what I collectively call Team NGA—have a profound opportunity. That opportunity is to look at GEOINT through a new lens—the lens of consequence.

This lens has four parts that I call the four Cs. That is, we must convey our exquisite content within meaningful context to our customers so they achieve the consequence they need.

By consequence, I mean the customer’s insights, understanding and foreknowledge that enable them to obtain their desired outcomes when they need it. www.GIF-kmi.com

For a warfighter, that might mean the ability to safely navigate or the precise location of a high-value target; for a policymaker, an ability to anticipate an adversary’s next move; for a first responder, the knowledge to find survivors trapped after a natural disaster.

And all of it must be delivered at their point of decision to make the critical difference.

Many of you have heard my rather painful anecdote in which I had failed our nation’s highest-ranking military officer within my first few days as his J-2. To cut to the chase, Admiral Mullen told me I had let him down, and then provided this simple, yet profound wisdom for an intelligence professional: “Too late—too bad. Too long— too bad. Too complicated—too bad.”

So we must make the geospatial intelligence community the leader in timely, clear and concise insights from which our customers get the desired consequences. NGA is positioned to lead the IC to integrate, collaborate, innovate and visualize content and context to enable timely, successful decisions and actions.

I began to see through this lens as a young analyst when I learned that it is not the picture, but the meaning behind the picture that matters to the customer.

Throughout my career, I have learned that content not conveyed clearly within context so that the customer understands its meaning is of no consequence.

With our new focus on consequence and NGA’s great legacy of public service, I have been encouraging NGA to become even more transparent.

GIF 13.1 | 17

With more transparency, NGA is uniquely positioned to play a leading role to advance public confidence in the intelligence community.

The community understands that the challenges of the past three years may have reduced public confidence in the value of our work and our dedication to protect the public’s privacy.

What makes NGA’s position unique is what I call the “democratization” of geospatial information.

Two factors are driving this “democratization”: the rapidly spreading geography of the Internet and the “darkening of the skies” by small sats and new airborne collectors.

First, the rapidly spreading geography of the Internet—as more people carry more handheld devices to more places—and the emerging Internet of Things demonstrate what you and I have long known: Everything, everyplace, everyone exists in a time and a place.

Their dependence on their geo-reference makes what we do, spatio-temporal analysis, the bridge to the future of commerce, cooperation, transparency and security.

We look at questions from a broad geographic point of view. We use geospatial data to analyze questions with scientific methods that give unique perspectives grounded in reality.

Second, the skies—really, space—will darken with hundreds of small sats to be launched by Skybox, Planet X, BlackSky and others.

The questions that arise from the persistence of geospatial data streaming from hundreds of satellites covering the earth multiple times a day are staggering.

The challenges of taking advantage of that data are daunting.

We cannot afford, nor need, to store it all, so will we have to go to

an “imagery as a service” model and buy only what we need when we need it? This will be less about the images and more about the derived information or analytics.

And these are only the beginning of the questions we must answer—or even know to ask—about the impact of the small sat revolution. What answers can we answer with daily coverage of the planet? What choices will our adversaries make with daily coverage of the planet? How will we maintain decision advantage in such a playing field?

We are already recognized for our positive contributions to national and international humanitarian assistance and disaster recovery (HADR). We are the most open and transparent intelligence agency involved in HADR, safety of navigation, and public science and research.

And we are natural integrators. Every modern local, regional and global challenge—climate change, the future energy landscape, and many more—has geography at its heart.

NGA is the best agency to integrate all of this geospatial content and put it into exquisite context to drive consequences for our customers.

I suspect many of you would like to know what I’d like to acquire from industry, and the most straightforward answer is “I don’t know.” That said, I do know what I must provide to those who depend upon Team NGA, and that is coherence—coherence to remove noise from signal (think dark sky), coherence to provide confidence in your geo-locational dominance (safety of navigation and precision targeting), and coherence to raise confidence and offer insight into an enigmatic issue (Ukraine).

Consider Team NGA’s response to the Ebola crisis: We are the first intelligence agency to create a website with access to our

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relevant unclassified content. It is open to everyone—no passwords, no closed groups.

Since October 23, when we launched our site, we have posted one-quarter of all of our available content to the web.

In fact, 99 percent of our Ebola-related content is unclassified.

We cannot distribute most of it because of agreements we have with commercial providers and foreign partners. We are working with them to review those agreements.

Consider these numbers: Since October 23, the number of layers of feature data online has grown from 12 to 358. One hundred and thirty-five more layers are in the final stage before posting.

One hundred percent of our elevation data is available. We have publically posted 224 NGA products. Foreign partners have joined us as well. The United Kingdom has posted maps of Sierra Leone and the United Nations has posted large-scale maps of Liberia. And we are working daily to make even more of our own and our partners’ content public.

Our transparency is striking a major chord with NGOs, international health organizations and other countries as we approach 1 million clicks on our website.

I am also very proud that NGA has on the ground an analyst who deserves special mention. He is embedded with the 101st Airborne in Monrovia to help upgrade the country’s essential but out-of-date maps. Using commercial imagery, he also works directly with Liberian analysts who work for their equivalent of NGA, the Liberian Institute of Statistics-Geo-Information Services.

After proudly providing you with additional content and context that we’ve been able to convey at unprecedented levels on the World Wide Web, I will now apply my own challenge to consequence. All of our work in Liberia has resulted in increased confidence in the placement of Ebola treatment units to save time between symptom and diagnosis. That time saved lives of those with the disease and kept many others from becoming infected. That’s the short-term consequence. And we’ve provided new geospatial skillsets to the Liberians so that they can deliver their own content in context for their customers.

In addition, we are the first in the community to “crowdsource” applications development. Through the GitHub open sourcing and crowdsourcing platform, we have invited the public to help us improve our disaster response applications on 16 different topics.

In fact, we just joined with Digital Globe to release on GitHub our 16th app, MapReduce GEO. It is a toolkit that leverages the power of cloud-based architecture to solve geospatial problems. For example, first responders can use it to plan the best ways in and out of dangerous areas by taking into account terrain, land use and weather.

We also are the first IC agency to publish a free safety-of-navigation app on iTunes and Google Play. We released the Anti-Shipping Activity Message (ASAM) interactive database on iTunes and Google Play about a month ago.

The ASAM mobile app includes the geographic location and reported accounts of hostile acts—piracy, robbery, hijacking and kidnapping—against maritime ships, crews and passengers. Now, every sailor, whether a captain of a ship or sailor on a private yacht, can know where pirates are active and whether they could be sailing into dangerous waters.

In short, our successful, open disaster response partnerships with international, federal, state and local first responders have led to ground-breaking initiatives in transparency and open sourcing.

20 | GIF 13.1

That is the critical point about NGA and our public leadership role. We do all this and much more not just to protect the nation, but also to directly support the well-being of the lives of people around the world and to help give birth to revolutionary technologies.

NGA can and will take its place on the global stage as we engage with the public—both at home and abroad—more often to share our stories, offer more access to our content and our apps and, perhaps most importantly, address their concerns about our mission and our responsibility to protect their privacy.

I see many more opportunities for greater collaboration between the private sector and the entire GEOINT community that can increase our impact for the public as well as our defense and intelligence missions.

Among these opportunities are: • Taking advantage of disruptive technologies, especially the “darkening skies” revolution; this could be seen a threatening or liberating. I choose the latter.

• Creating coherence from the noise that could result from the commoditization of our business.

• Advancing security with identity and access management.

• Integrating new sources, especially social media, so we can provide more anticipatory intelligence.

• Propelling GEOINT as a force for democracy.

Let me also address a concern I know industry has: our acquisition process. NGA has begun to take a number of steps to make our acquisition processes more agile and efficient.

We have launched the Geospatial Solutions Marketplace (GSM).

In the GSM, companies can propose solutions and capabilities in a secure environment and get quick feedback from potential NGA customers.

To date, 83 companies and 128 individual users have registered.

We have received 21 submissions for solutions to problems, such as collecting open-source intelligence collection and automating automated high-speed search for video and imagery.

Finally, in March, we will advance the power of GSM as a result of our collaboration with the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, when it stands up the Industry Solutions Marketplace (ISM). ISM will provide a collaborative environment to refine and demonstrate capabilities based on NGA’s needs made known through the GSM. In closing, I want you to remember these three points from tonight: We want to cooperate with the private sector, not compete.

You are members of Team NGA. We can only succeed together.

NGA is taking a more active role to sustain the public’s confidence in our community’s integrity and dedication to their privacy and security. We must get much better at supporting crises such as Ebola.

Last, but not least, with your help, we will accelerate the pace of change to realize our vision with an intense focus on customer consequence.

In short, we will focus on our sole purpose: to convey clear, concise, timely, insightful content and context to our customers so they maximize their consequences. O (The above are edited excerpts from an address given by Cardillo to the Intelligence and National Security Alliance Leadership Dinner on January 21, 2015.) www.GIF-kmi.com

Empowering Analytic Capability Through IT Developments Connecting advanced IT with a persistent analytic mindset promotes cross-discipline thinking and fosters collaboration.

By Joanna Davenport

The art of persistent geospatial intelligence analysis requires that an analyst be provided with and master data and tools to feed warfighters and decision-makers an uninterrupted, all-encompassing understanding of the situation in enough time for them to take action. Recognizing the need for an advanced IT infrastructure that incorporates big-data concepts and facilitates data science techniques, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has become an intelligence community leader in implementing capabilities aligned to the director of national intelligence’s vision for an Intelligence Community Integrated Technology Environment (IC ITE).

www.GIF-kmi.com

GIF 13.1 | 21

Linking advanced IT and a persistent analytic mindset translates to the ability to serve up the right data from applicable sources so analysts do not spend their time looking for pieces to a puzzle, but instead putting the pieces together.

Connecting advanced IT with a persistent analytic mindset promotes crosscommunity, cross-phenomenology and cross-discipline thinking. It fosters collaboration and allows the analyst to tell not just what happened, but why it happened, how it happened, when it may happen again and how it links to other events.

As a result, decision-makers receive better, more timely intelligence to enable decision advantage.

The IC is now so adept at data collection that truly important information can be lost in the morass of various intelligence disciplines. The community has already studied concepts including upstream processing, cross-cueing and the transition from feature-based intelligence to activityor event-based intelligence. NGA’s recently realigned key directorates and functionality will help evolve and formalize the geospatial intelligence analysis tradecraft, a key NGA mission. These changes will spur the realization that analysts equipped with better tools can harness big data and data science techniques that improve intelligence production.

To accommodate the paradigm shift from feature to event- or activity-based intelligence, analysts need advanced IT and mission applications capable of addressing enormous volumes of data collected across disciplines. For example, users don’t only want to know that a crowd is massing in a square; they want to know what they are doing and where they are going before they go, which requires understanding trends and patterns.

Unfortunately, the ability to understand trends and patterns and to predict activity consumes time, as it requires research, training and interaction with functional experts, especially those focused on the same area of responsibility. Sophisticated information technology capabilities, however, can help analysts enhance the accuracy of these predictions.

The IC has progressed tremendously via IC ITE initiatives in identifying IT improvements common to various agencies. To date, the predominant focus has been standardizing networks, creating a new common domain, replicating 22 | GIF 13.1

common user services (email, security, common applications, voice, video), and implementing cloud services. The cost savings from IC ITE are important, but the improvements in data integration, availability of advanced analytic tools and implementation of new techniques for better intelligence mission management will be even more important over time.

Big Data. Big-data concepts allow the analyst to look beyond broad relational taxonomies to gain a deeper understanding of content and context to develop meaningful insight. The ability to do so requires analysts to understand the limitations of these alternative sources of information, as well as the art of the possible, then incorporate the appropriate data into a comprehensive understanding of an area that can serve as contextual atmospherics in characterizing event-based intelligence. For many years, analysts have complained about drowning in a flood of data. Analysts flooded in data, whether structured and unstructured, can use automated processes to unlock the massive amount of knowledge and hidden relationships that help them understand the world. Institutionalizing the automated processes of advanced IT capabilities, including data extraction from text files, web-crawling, database scraping and network/nodal analysis, will help analysts navigate the sea of data.

Data Science. Big data, as much as it exponentially increases the analyst’s access to all kinds of data and ultimately contributes to a higher level of assuredness in analytic judgment, also complicates the ability to make sense of it all. Important information is often buried deeply inside a mess of signals and noise varying in accuracy and relevance.

Data science, which is firmly rooted in advanced IT infrastructure, links statistical and mathematical skills, programming and modeling skills, and temporal and spatial data visualization. Data science allows analysts to identify temporal patterns, correlate events, predict outcomes and determine consequences.

Data Analytics. An advanced IT infrastructure not only improves the ability to deliver comprehensive intelligence analysis, but also helps to measure how that intelligence is used. Data analytics enables a greatly improved ability to focus scarce collection assets on the key data elements needed to derive new analytical insights.

It helps agencies ensure that all relevant data is reaching the right customers.

Most importantly, data analytics applied to dissemination, historically the weakest area of the intelligence cycle, will improve customer insights and needs, and enable efficient and assured receipt of critical knowledge.

Agile Acquisition Strategies that Reflect Mission Needs. The continuous advancements in commercial technology and virtualization, when properly designed and combined with modernization efforts, can typically achieve up to 10 times the space savings and up to 50 percent reduced manpower for IT operations and sustainment. To achieve the most cost savings, acquisitions strategies need to be agile, anticipating the rate of technological change and matching the pace and schedule of changing mission requirements.

While the range and depth of threats, the volume of data and the demand for intelligence all seem to be increasing exponentially, the arrival of new analytical tools and capabilities that is being built through IC ITE on a 21st-century, advanced IT infrastructure provides the means for success in the future. Real success, however, requires persistent collaboration between analysts, IT engineers, data scientists and the acquisition organization to continually optimize the capacity and output required for decision advantage at the national and tactical level. O

Joanna Davenport

Joanna Davenport is a senior director with General Dynamics Information Technology.

For more information, contact GIF Editor Harrison Donnelly at harrisond@kmimediagroup. com or search our online archives for related stories at www.gif-kmi.com.

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New technologies speed up the process of specifying which new images are needed and how satellites should collect them.

Satellites with amazing new capabilities are filling the sky, providing higher-quality images from different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum in vastly greater numbers.

For that progress in the skies to be most useful, however, there also has to be continuing improvement in ground systems and services so that users can order and receive the images they need on a timely and efficient basis. In response, leading companies in the field are adopting new technologies aimed at speeding up the processes of specifying which new images are needed, how satellites should collect them and delivering collected images to those who need them.

Faster and timelier tasking of image collection means much better exploitation of those expensive assets in the sky. In addition, being able to tap into rich archives of

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By Henry Canaday GIF Correspondent

past images can greatly expand that value by making it easy to understand changes over time.

Originally, civilian satellites collected images right below their tracks, and these images were only made available for users afterward in archives. “There was no chance to say where you wanted an image,� recalled Charlotte Gabriel-Robez, optical product line manager at Airbus Defence and Space.

When the first Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre, or SPOT 1, was launched in 1986 with new mirror technology, it was the first time in the civilian market that customers could decide on the area of interest and define the parameters they wished, such as angle and clouds.

The experience gained over the decades has helped company experts steadily develop greater expertise in responding to user needs, Gabriel-Robez said.

GIF 13.1 | 23

“Our new satellites are more agile than their predecessors,” she noted. SPOT 6 and 7 and Pléiades 1A and 1B are a genuine constellation, and the two pairs of twins share the same orbits. SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 are phased 180 degrees apart from each other, as are Pléiades 1A and 1B. They also share the same tasking plans.

Thanks to their control-moment gyros (CMGs), these new satellites can pitch and roll forward, backward and sideways up to 45 degrees. CMGs enable these movements very quickly, twice as fast as earlier designs such as momentum wheels. All this agility increases the number of images that can be collected during the same pass.

Instant Tasking Airbus has also developed its Instant Tasking service for optical satellite constellations. Fully embedded in a dedicated web portal, this service offers Airbus customers who are dealing with an emergency the ability to take control of either SPOT or Pléiades 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Customers can browse the next passes over their areas of interest and select the most relevant ones according to the emergency they are dealing with.

As a result, Gabriel-Robez pointed out, the lead time between tasking request and image acquisition is now very short. Work plans are uploaded to the satellites up to six times a day by two stations positioned across the globe. It is now possible to submit tasking requests only two hours before a satellite enters into a new tasking area.

These multiple work plans each day are a significant improvement over the operation of SPOT 5, which had a single daily update. Moreover, the time from data request to delivery of readyto-use data has been reduced to as little as six hours.

Other challenges are also being dealt with, including the difficulty frequently experienced in acquiring data over particular areas as a consequence of inaccurate weather forecasts. But success rates have improved, Gabriel-Robez reported, with Airbus now having the capacity to update cloud-prediction models four times a day instead of once.

This enables mission plans to be adapted to more accurate predictions of cloud cover, and provides last-minute opportunities to maximize collection of cloud-free images. Results have been dramatic, she said. “The portion of images collected with less than 10 percent cloud cover has increased from 30 percent to about 60 percent.”

These improvements in speed of tasking and quality of coverage are likely to be most important in a crisis or in dealing with a major risk. These are the cases when fast, accurate reactions are most necessary. Images of any place on Earth can now be covered in less than 24 hours, with high resolution over large areas and very high resolution to collect details from smaller areas.

All this while satellites are also providing more regular monitoring as they track the movements of ships, the progress of deforestation and even crop growth, assessing these changes day after day.

These improvements are now in place on Pléiades and SPOT satellites. On the radar side, the Spanish PAZ satellite is set to launch in the middle of 2015. PAZ is a pure clone of TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X, which means that the new modes, Staring SpotLight and Wide ScanSar, will be available more frequently.

24 | GIF 13.1

SpyMeSat from Orbit Logic tells a user via mobile device when there is a satellite overhead and allows users to find out if the satellite can capture an image of their location or has an archived image of the same area. [Image courtesy of Orbit Logic]

PAZ’s configuration will provide customers with faster access to their targets, even in case of clouds, improved monitoring, which will aid interferometric applications, and faster coverage.

The addition of PAZ will thus dramatically boost the speed of reaction as a result of revisiting most latitudes daily.

Optimized Collection On the ground, Orbit Logic offers its Collection Planning & Analysis Workstation (CPAW) as its flagship off-the-shelf collection-planning software. CPAW combines high-fidelity spacecraft modeling with advanced scheduling algorithms and a userfriendly interface to optimize collection plans for synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) or electro-optical (EO) satellites.

CPAW was upgraded several times in 2014, with enhanced frame and video imaging and more automation and planning for satellite constellations, especially constellations of small satellites. “We have also added GE01 and WV03 to our collection-planning solution for Digital Globe,” noted Alex Herz, president of Orbit Logic.

CPAW is supported by a set of models that simulate and predict the physical environment, spacecraft subsystems and target constraints. The software does planning for large numbers of all sorts of imaging satellites, SAR, EO and fully agile satellites. And it can plan for constellations that are a mixture of these types, creating a plan optimized for any target deck. Tasking specifications www.GIF-kmi.com

are respected even when multiple satellites are used to complete a single area request.

First launched a decade ago, CPAW has evolved substantially.

For example, it now supports the frame sensors, like point-andclick cameras, used by Skybox. The tool is especially suitable for small satellites, Herz noted.

CPAW uses several collection planning algorithms to generate optimized plans that are within the constraints of spacecraft systems and target collection. CPAW also provides graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and map displays to provide situational awareness in the planning process.

User-friendly GUIs let operators adjust the algorithms’ plans or perform manual planning from scratch. Manual plans can be validated by CPAW as they are built, guiding the operator to a solution within constraints. And CPAW can accept tasking from external systems or define tasking on the fly.

The company plans to further enhance CPAW. It is already automated, but algorithms and performance will be further improved. Orbit Logic will add space-to-space imaging, so CPAW can plan images for space as well as ground.

Herz says CPAW is the most advanced tool of its kind now available commercially. It puts out a plan in XML format, which can be accepted by command-and-control systems and translated into commands for satellites. “Ten years ago, it was very manual,” he remembered. “But we added algorithms to maximize the schedule of satellites or passes.”

Batch-mode planning is good for long-range planning, which can be useful for EO analysis or operations planning for SAR, since it is not influenced by changing cloud conditions. Orbit Logic has also developed just-in-time, lights-out fully automated planning to direct each satellite based on current opportunities and conditions.

“With a large constellation of EO satellites, you don’t have time to have a person in-the-loop,” said Herz.

Logical Ordering Order Logic, meanwhile, is the company’s new web-based tool for satellite imagery order management. It is an add-on to CPAW that performs the customer-facing functions of the system on the web. It allows users to browse and edit image orders, monitor the status of image collection and processing, and even estimate collection feasibility. Like CPAW, the tool can be used for both single and multiple satellites and accepts user-specified collection constraints.

Order Logic thus allows people to order and manage image collection from anywhere. It can be customized for individual users’ access and responsibility. Configurability limits editable and viewable fields or data for certain users, while allowing others more control and access. Authorizations can be required throughout the ordering process.

Orbit Logic also offers Sibyl and SpyMeSat, which are mobile applications that can be used to directly task imaging satellites and to acquire archived imagery.

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Developed with the help of a Small Business Innovative Research grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Sybil allows tasking on Android-based mobile devices and integrates with Order Logic. The application allows users to define an area of interest and submit a request to a satellite to collect an image. Sibyl even functions in areas with limited network connectivity.

Sibyl displays upcoming commercial satellite overflights with feasible imaging opportunities for the defined area and the deadline for making a tasking request. Task buttons make tasking requests and a status page reports the status of previous requests.

SpyMeSat is a mobile app, available to anyone with an iPhone or Android, that notifies the user when an imaging satellite may be taking their picture. From SpyMeSat a user can also obtain a satellite image of their location. The public SpyMeSat uses North American Aerospace Defense Command orbit data—available online at www.celestrak.com—and public information on commercial satellites to report satellite overflights. The user sets the required position with location services or by dropping a pin.

Custom solutions for SpyMeSat can be created for any satellite constellation, and include a dedicated server. Customized SpyMeSat solutions offer browsing of archive imagery and creation of new task requests.

“We have an arrangement with Digital Globe. You can get on-demand imaging of your location, [either] from archives or the latest pass,” Herz said, noting that the images are best in the United States but less detailed in other locations.

Orbit Logic also has the Onboard Autonomous Planning System (APS) under development for cases in which people on the ground have limited connectivity and a satellite is the only common node. APS is onboard software that does collection planning on the satellite.

Orbit Logic has been working with the Air Force on APS for a couple of years. It is designed for situations where a good imaging opportunity arises but there is not sufficient time to downlink to the ground and then send up orders.

APS hardware is now being tested on the ground, but is not yet flying on a satellite.

Orbit Logic is a leader in satellite collection planning, Herz said. “Either we are the leader in a product, or no one makes a similar one. Everyone who sees CPAW says it is the best.”

Streamlined Processing After spending a decade in business development for DigitalGlobe, Michael McCarthy came to feel that the real challenge in responding to customer needs was not in the satellites, but in the ground segment. Now McCarthy is general manager of GeoNorth, an Alaska-based geographic information system (GIS) company that, since 1994, has done analysis, planning, design, integration, application development, conversion, migration, map production and authorized training for a wide variety of clients, including the Air Force, the Marine Corps, Lockheed Martin and BP Exploration.

Along the way, GeoNorth acquired a ground-receiving station from Airbus. “We’re unique in having a multi-satellite station,” McCarthy said, adding that the acquisition sets his company up to serve customers better.

26 | GIF 13.1

GeoNorth can control the whole imaging process from ordering to delivery, formatting and media, McCarthy argued, and thus can easily customize its product around customer workflows. Other company do only some of these steps and often deliver images formatted according to their own systems, not for customer systems. But having control over the entire process will enable GeoNorth to streamline the imaging process, he said.

GeoNorth does not automate image tasking yet, but McCarthy said he is talking to some partners about that step and will do it if it seems suitable. Right now, he simply aims to “reduce the telescope” of the entire process by having one company in control and paying close attention to customer workflows. “We will produce images in the format and media that customers need.”

Another company in this field is Germany’s BlackBridge (formerly RapidEye), which provides end-to-end services in geospatial imaging, including satellite operations, ground stations, a data center, cloud solutions and distribution of images through more than 100 BlackBridge partners.

The company now offers a website, which allows users to search by a variety of criteria the company’s archives of 56 billion square kilometers of images collected over almost six years from a constellation of five identical satellites. “They can select by political boundaries, day or time, filter by cloud cover and receive a sample,” explained Marketing Vice President Cesar Santos.

After this search produces a sample, the user can submit an online form to BlackBridge operations, obtain a cost quote and decide whether to purchase the desired images. The company is migrating the site to an updated version, which Santos said will be “more intuitive, seamless and fast, like what you would find in an iStore.”

Another way to search BlackBridge’s massive archives is to run a program with the same search criteria. This way, customers with coders can build the search routines into their own workflows and need not visit a special website or manually enter selection criteria.

BlackBridge also has customers who subscribe to a service that monitors certain areas of interest, for which they get all the imagery available. This subscription service is now used mostly for agricultural purposes. “They have an application programming interface to get all we have published and download it directly,” Santos explained. “We would like to extend this service to all customers.”

These tools for accessing BlackBridge images are generally used for tapping image archives, but users can also submit requests for future collections of images.

The automated tools do not yet do tasking, which is managed

by BlackBridge’s operations unit. “We have considered automating tasking; it is in the parking lot of our ideas, but is not a critical initiative yet,” Santos said. “It is on the wish list.”

Right now, a higher development priority is enabling users to check on the status of an order. This feature would allow customers to easily see if an order had been scheduled or tasked and if images had been acquired and stored. O

For more information, contact GIF Editor Harrison Donnelly at harrisond@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.gif-kmi.com.

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GIF RESOURCE CENTER

Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

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NEXTISSUE

March 2015 Vol. 13, Issue 2

The Magazine of the National Intelligence Community

Cover and In-Depth Interview with

Marcel Lettre

Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Intelligence

Special Section: Homeland Security

Features • UAS Imagery and Intelligence

• Secure Borders

• Special Ops GEOINT

• Advanced Analytics

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GIF 13.1 | 27

INDUSTRY INTERVIEW

Geospatial Intelligence Forum

Deb Davis Vice President for Geospatial Programs General Dynamics Information Technology fit with your more traditional military and government customer?

Q: General Dynamics Information Technology is known for its IT support to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, in particular the stand-up and outfitting of ongoing IT operations at New Campus East.

What other ways does General Dynamics support the geospatial customer?

A: General Dynamics has been a leading provider of deployed analysts for many years, supporting CONUS and OCONUS deployments of imagery, geospatial and full motion video analysts. Our deployed support also includes SATCOM experts and IT engineers.

We also support several development programs specific to existing mission systems with testing support and other subject-matter expertise. As the lines between the infrastructure service provider and applications service provider begin to blur, we are focusing more and more on delivering the mission IT capabilities that enable and advance the new analytic environment.

Q: What is an example of these capabilities?

A: General Dynamics designed and implemented the largest single-site virtual desktop environment in the intelligence community, with over 35,000 desktops supporting a global workforce from two IC agencies. General Dynamics pushed the envelope of scale, application virtualization and resiliency with virtual desktop. While this solution enabled enhanced capability to corporate users, graphic and compute intensive workloads were not ideally suited in this environment.

To address these intensive mission workloads, General Dynamics designed and built the next tier of performance, which enables analysts around the world to collaborate on large mission data sets and produce timely and relevant intelligence.

This solution eliminates the need for a complex dissemination system, dedicates infrastructure and agency specific communications and enables mission exploitation from any device with data connection. It provides a tactical exploitation capability previously unavailable and has been used in forward-deployed locations with austere communications, on board ships and in 28 | GIF 13.1

support of special forces operations. This is a service that allows a consumer to review and manipulate information, much like when we download movies from a streaming video service. A viewer doesn’t actually download the movie to the TV. Instead, the viewer watches a stream of pixels being generated from where the movie is hosted, probably a data center. Similarly, when the viewer pauses or rewinds the movie, they are actually sending commands to where the movie is hosted, not locally to the TV. This enables a similar environment for intelligence analysts and warfighters.

Q: How does General Dynamics support key NGA customers, such as special forces?

A: General Dynamics has been entrusted with supporting critical special operations forces missions. Virtually anywhere on the planet where you find a USSOCOM SOF C2 node, you will find us there alongside.

Whether it is ensuring connectivity for special forces out on mission, or providing command and control or intelligence sharing with multinational coalition partners, General Dynamics is right there enabling mission success. As a premier provider of IT services to the warfighting community, General Dynamics stands with special operations forces warriors as they execute missions of critical national importance. With over 1,000 professionals engaged in supporting SOF missions worldwide, many of whom served in the SOF community, General Dynamics is uniquely positioned to provide innovative and cost-effective solutions for the unique, lethal strike capability that special operators bring to the fight.

Q: General Dynamics recently stood up a commercial solutions group. How does this

A: General Dynamics has provided commercial and public sector products and services to a wide array of customers for decades. Our new Commercial Solutions Group leverages General Dynamics’ expertise in cyber and IT combined with an innovative business and service delivery model tailored to meet the requirements of the commercial market. This approach allows General Dynamics Information Technology Commercial Solutions to bring lessons learned from securing our defense and intelligence clients’ most sensitive networks and infrastructure to the commercial and private-sector markets. This commercial endeavor will also increase our value to customers across the DoD, IC and commercial markets in an as-a-service model pervasive across industry today. The result allows General Dynamics to consistently remain at the forefront of emerging mission requirements across our valued customers in the DoD, IC and commercial markets.

Q: What unique benefits does your company provide its customers in comparison with other companies in your field?

A: For General Dynamics, we routinely deploy world-class, cutting-edge IT. What distinguishes General Dynamics is how we translate what we know about the customer mission (today and future) to mold largescale IT systems to optimize customer mission success. Large-scale IT systems and communications networks are the strategic and operational heart of defense, intelligence, civilian government and private business.

Everything depends on them, from ensuring mission success to transforming enterprises to navigating the challenges of the future. Achieving these goals requires more than traditional IT solutions. Strong solutions demand strong IT and mission knowledge: the integration of forward-looking technology, strategy, domain understanding and management. This is our approach at General Dynamics. O www.GIF-kmi.com

NEXTISSUE

April 2015 Vol. 13, Issue 3

The Magazine of the National Intelligence Community

Cover and In-Depth Interview with

Betty Sapp

Director National Reconnaissance Office Who’s Who in NRO The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is a joint Department of Defense-intelligence community organization responsible for developing, launching and operating America’s signals, imagery and communications intelligence satellites. Using NRO data, the National Security Agency, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and NRO mission partners produce intelligence products for the president, Congress, national policymakers, warfighters and civil users.

Special Section: Satellites

Features • • • •

3-D Imaging Video Big Data SAR Cybersecurity Resource Guide

Bonus Distribution:

Space Symposium April 13-16, 2015 Colorado Springs, Colo.

Insertion Order Deadline: March 20, 2015 | Ad Material Deadline: March 27, 2015

INNOVATION IN THE PALM OF YOUR HANDS

In today’s rapidly changing virtual environment, government agencies want to provide their end users with innovative and intuitive applications quickly, securely and cost-effectively. That’s where TASC comes in. We provide services that allow government agencies to find qualified application developers through a single source, giving end users fast and efficient access to mission-focused applications.

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