GPS World

Tag: GEOINT

  • Scene Sharp USA to Unveil Fuze Go V2.0 Image Fusion Software at GEOINT

    Scene Sharp USA will introduce Version 2.0 of its Fuze Go universal image fusion technology April 14-17, 2014, at the GEOINT 13* Symposium in Tampa, Florida. Scene Sharp will be hosted in Global Marketing Insights booth #2091 where it will demonstrate the new Fuze Go MS Sharp and Fuze Go SAR Sharp image fusion processing tools.

    Scene Sharp is  division of PraEis Ltd., a geospatially focused technology transfer organization with offices in Ohio and New Hampshire USA.

    “Fuze Go is a fully automated technology that enables users to quickly and easily fuse data sets to add color to non-colorized satellite and aerial imagery with just a few mouse clicks,” said Scene Sharp CEO Ian Lucas. “By colorizing image data, GIS users can visualize and extract richer information content from remotely sensed data to make better informed decisions.”

    In one simple step, the Fuze Go MS Sharp software fuses high-resolution panchromatic image data with lower-resolution multispectral data to generate a high-resolution color image. The full information content of the multispectral bands is retained in the fused image. More importantly, Fuze Go MS Sharp is the only fusion software capable of simultaneously merging up to 30 bands of multispectral data with a panchromatic image.

    “Fuze Go MS Sharp runs at least five times faster and yields more consistent results than pan-sharpening applications that can only process four bands of data,” said Lucas. “As is true with the entire line of existing and planned Fuze Go products from Scene Sharp, no expertise in GIS or image processing is needed to use Fuze Go MS Sharp.”

    As a universal image fusion tool, Fuze Go MS Sharp can handle data formats from any commercial image processing and enterprise GIS software packages. In cooperation with Exelis Inc., Scene Sharp created a Fuze Go MS Sharp plugin for the popular Exelis ENVI 5.0 and 5.1 image processing package.

    “The plugin enables ENVI users to access the Fuze Go MS Sharp tool either within the ENVI workflow or outside of it so that fusion can be performed as a stand-alone application, freeing up the ENVI software license for other image processing activities,” said Lucas. “We are developing similar plugin capabilities for other major GIS and image processing packages.”

    Fuze Go SAR Sharp was designed by Scene Sharp for more effective exploitation of data captured by satellite-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors. Fuze Go SAR Sharp fuses gray-scale radar data with optical multispectral bands to colorize the SAR data set. This image fusion presents the unique SAR data, which is captured through darkness and clouds, in a color context that greatly enhances the user’s ability to interpret the radar data and extract actionable intelligence from it.

    Fuze Go MS Sharp and SAR Sharp are available for purchase for an annual license fee. Batch processing versions of the software packages are also offered to perform automatic fusion of multiple optical or SAR scenes.

    “The ease of use and attractive pricing of Fuze Go software products make them far superior solutions to any other applications in the geospatial market today,” said Dr. Shawana Johnson, President of Global Marketing Insights. “With their seamless integration into existing image exploitation workflows, Fuze Go products can have immediate impacts in defense/intelligence, homeland security, mining, agriculture, forestry and oil & gas applications.”

  • The Upcoming GEOINT Symposium

    Art Kalinski
    Art Kalinski

    The 2013* Conference, April 13-17, 2014

    This month’s column is a short one since I’m attending GEOINT 2013* in Tampa. The asterisk on 2013 is a way for USGIF to save a few bucks by not reprinting banners, displays and handouts for the 2014 date. In talking to the USGIF staff, I learned this will be the only symposium for the year, with the next GEOINT Symposium being held in the spring of 2015. The location will be announced soon.

    For your information, this is the latest list of keynote speakers:

    • The Honorable James R. Clapper, Director of National Intelligence (DNI)
    • LTG Michael T. Flynn, U.S. Army, Director, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
    • Ms. Letitia A. Long, Director, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
    • ADM William H. McRaven, U.S. Navy, Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM)
    • Ms. Betty J. Sapp, Director, National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
    • Mr. Robert Scoble & Mr. Shel Israel, Co-Authors, “Age of Context”

    While attending next week, I’m going to shoot video clips and write blogs that will be posted to this publication. If you’re attending GEOINT and see me (bald head, easy to spot), please stop me and say hello.

    If you won’t be able to attend and need eyes on a particular presentation or exhibitor, please contact me.  I’ll try my best to sit in on the session and take notes, or visit an exhibitor’s booth to get the information you need. I may shoot a video clip, or at least give you my impression of the session or booth.

  • GEOINT 2013: The Conference that Almost Was

    Tampa ConvCenter

    As you would guess, it takes a lot of planning and preparation to put on a technical conference of the scope of GEOINT. So imagine the hand wringing the USGIF staff went through deciding to postpone a conference of about 4,000 attendees and 300 exhibitors because of the untimely government shutdown. There really was no choice, with the majority of federal attendees canceling due to travel restrictions. Without their participation, holding the conference would have been futile. Since the city of Tampa was so accommodating and easy to work with, USGIF rescheduled the conference at the same Tampa venue, April 14-17. They tried their best to minimize scheduling conflicts with other geospatial and USGIF conferences such as the NGA Tech Showcase West (also scheduled for April) and USGIF’s GEOINT Community Week, including Tech Days.

    Prior to a major conference, manufacturers send out press releases and invitations to see new products being shown on the exhibit floor. So, although GEOINT 2013 was postponed, I’m still doing my column as a “virtual conference” report. This is a very broad sample of new developments that I received from vendors who planned to be at the October conference, now rescheduled for April.

    Thermopylae

    Thermopylae Sciences & Technology

    Thermopylae focuses on commercially-based knowledge-fusion capabilities in the geospatial, cloud, and mobile arenas. It has three solutions: iSpatal, a web-based collaborative framework that leverages Google Earth and Maps in a flexible, task-based approach to solve complex problems; iHarvest, a standards-based enterprise analytic service that organizes, analyzes, and reports activities to enable critical decisions; and Ubiquity, a proprietary platform for creating dynamic, customized, and geocentric native mobile applications. Thermopylae is also bringing back the popular Liquid Galaxy immersive virtual-reality display showcasing Google Glass and Leap integration, showing a unified demonstration of all of its products in the Liquid Galaxy display.

    KEYW Corporation

    KEYW’s geospatial capability exploits cyberspace as a domain for collecting, processing, and supporting actionable imagery intelligence to the warfighter and for civilian and commercial uses. The company matches aircraft to mission requirements and modify the aircraft with integrated airborne sensor systems for onboard, geospatially referenced digital imagery collection and processing. KEYW planned to showcase its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) imaging and mapping; and its Precision Geo-location via handheld, backpack and mobile solutions, along with several other innovations.

    brocadeBrocade Communications Systems, Inc.

    Brocade provides networking solutions for government agencies and has expanded its product line with a new compact, fanless switch that simplifies network operations. It’s a secure, enterprise-quality network that is responsive to the complex needs of warfighter and civilian missions. The ICX 6450-C switch is deployable outside the wiring closet, without interfering with other critical activities. Using power over Ethernet, the switch can operate in remote locations, where access to an external power source is limited or not available.

    touchshare

    TouchShare, Inc. 

    TouchShare has extended its multi-touch solutions for immersive geospatial collaboration to anyone, regardless of location or device, through the TouchShare Mobile Access. The new TouchShare Mobile Access significantly improves teamwide productivity as it gives all collaborators the ability to simultaneously view and contribute to what other team members are seeing in real-time and interact with visual geospatial information (live data, 2D imagery, video, etc.) via any device. This allows all participants to easily and quickly see the big picture for making better decisions faster.

    Surrey Satellite Technology US LLC

    Surrey Satellite Technology provides small satellite solutions, applications, and services for Earth observation, science, technology demonstration, and communications. Since 1981, Surrey has launched 41 satellites as well as provided training and development programs, consultancy services, and mission studies for NASA, the United States Air Force, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and other institutional and commercial customers.

    GameSim

    GameSim planned to show off its latest version of Conform, a software product for geospatial visualization. Conform imports, fuses and renders LiDAR content in near real time, while offering a variety of unique abilities, including an instantaneous 3D view of raw source data. Users are able to easily import large amounts of data (such as Shape Files, DTED, GeoTIFFs, LIDAR) and immediately view them in both 2D and 3D displays.

    headwallHeadwall Photonics, Inc. 

    Hyperspectral sensing offers advantages over traditional multispectral imaging with respect to the number of spectral bands being covered. Use enhances target recognition, material identification, and elimination of false positive alarms. Hyperspectral imaging yields much more spectral data than multispectral by producing a continuous spectrum of data representing the chemical composition of objects or spectral “signatures” of everything within the sensor’s field of view. Headwall’s Micro-Hyperspec have been miniaturized and optimized for deployment aboard small, tactical UAVs, including small hand-launched versions.

    orbit-all

    Orbit Communication Systems, Inc. 

    Orbit Communication Systems provides ground-station solutions for Earth observation and remote-sensing applications. It has a new product family known as the Gaia series that supports a range of antenna sizes. These ground stations offer an ideal combination of high performance in a compact footprint. “With our new Gaia family, Orbit addresses a void in the market, and opens the door to new Earth observation markets that could not afford to purchase legacy ground stations due to their size and cost,” said Ofer Greenberger, Orbit CEO.

    The antennas are designed to withstand extreme weather conditions and to handle a broad range of applications, operated anywhere on Earth. The series comprises three different sized antennas: 2.4 meters (7.9 feet); 3.7 meters (12.1 feet); and 4.5 meters (14.7 feet). Each antenna supports X-band or S-Band (both transmit and receive) feeds, as well as a dual-band (S&X) feed.

    astrium STRM 90

    astrium WorldDEM

    Astrium Services

    Astrium’s Street Factory, an advanced 3D urban mapping solution, was awarded “most valuable product in the geo-information field 2012” at the World Geospatial Developers Conference. Building on that success, Astrium planned to demonstrate WorldDEM, a high-resolution elevation data set that covers the Earth’s entire land surface, pole to pole. The accuracy of the German high-resolution radar satellites TerraSAR-X produces data intended to replace SRTM data. It has excellent ground-position accuracy with vertical accuracy of 2m (relative) / 10m (absolute) in a 12m x 12m raster GSD. WorldDEM will be available in 2014 with data less than 2.5 years old. Shown above is a comparison of STRM 90 elevation data compared to WorldDEM.

    epson 2

    Epson Plotters

    Ever since my experience supporting Katrina recovery efforts, I’ve be a strong advocate for simple low-tech hard-copy imagery plots overlaid with vector data to support emergency responders. Many times this low-tech embodiment of our high-tech capability suits the needs of first responders better than computer displays. However, paper plots ideally need to be laminated on foam core to be useful in wet and windy environments. Epson has one solution, a plotter that prints on ridged media. Epson engineers developed the SureColor T-Series printers with an all-new design that prints directly on ridged substrates that have a thickness of 1.5 mm. This is especially important to agencies that have a need for fast print output on thick media eliminating the hassle of laminating or marrying to thicker carriers for immediate use. The SureColor T-series also features Epson UltraChrome XD pigment-based ink technology for smudge and water-resistant prints.

    This is just a sample of the nearly 300 exhibitors that will be at GEOINT in April. I’ll bet you thought that GEOINT was just imagery and big data. Quite the contrary — it takes a lot diverse players and pieces to build a strong GEOINT capability.

    epson

  • USGIF Workshop Offers Preview of GEOINT 2013

    Two weeks ago, I attended a USGIF workshop in Huntsville sponsored by GEO Huntsville, through the considerable efforts of Directions Magazine Editor-in-Chief and Vice Publisher Joe Francica and his staff.  The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) is a non-profit dedicated to promoting the geospatial intelligence tradecraft across industry, academia, government, professional organizations and individual stakeholders.

    GEO Huntsville's Geospatial Intelligence (Geoint) Workshop was held August 14 at the Von Braun Center Civic Arena in Huntsville, Alabama.
    GEO Huntsville’s Geospatial Intelligence (Geoint) Workshop
    was held August 14 at the Von Braun Center Civic Arena in Huntsville, Alabama.
    Keith Masback, USGIF
    Keith Masback, USGIF chief executive officer.

    The workshop was a collection of geospatial-related presentations starting with Keith Masback, the USGIF chief executive officer, who gave an interesting history of NGA based on his extensive experience in the geospatial community.  He reviewed that NGA had a somewhat shaky start that grew out a vision of Rear Admiral Bill Owens, which was part of the 1996 “Joint Vision 2010” that formed the concept of network-centric operations. Looking at the past, the Joint Vision participants saw that the future would require a new way of doing intel business. They determined that information had to be brought near the user, not at some distant command center. It would need to be as close to real time as possible. It would have to be precise and able to ID combat targets.  It would have to be integral with missile defense and provide detailed urban data.

    So in 1996, the NIMA (National Imagery and Mapping Agency) was formed by combining the DMA (Defense Mapping Agency) and the CIO (Central Imagery Office).  The merging of mapping and imagery communities proved very difficult as the two cultures collided. Even the internal NIMA commission was bent on dissolving the marriage. Fortunately, after working through the issues, the commission came to the conclusion that the marriage was really in the best interest of the country and both communities.

    It was also at the same time that Jim Clapper took over the week of 9/11. That event sharply focused everyone’s minds. General Clapper decided that the best way to unify the command was to get rid of the separate words “imagery” and “mapping” — thus was born the new title National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, and to put it in the same company of other three-letter agencies, it was dubbed NGA. NGA really worked hard to meet the vision set in 1996.  Keith cited the Bin Laden apprehension as a good example.

    He then explained how NGA felt it needed to evolve. He cited the example that our troops needed to be as location enabled as kids are with their mobile devices. Crowd sourcing is playing an ever-increasing roll, and despite the belief that the cyber world is locationless, location is a very real aspect of cyber warfare. Users have locations as well as servers and the interconnecting framework. Asymmetrical urban warfare demands even more precise location mapping, including building interiors. Keith cited Robert Scoble’s keynote at The Next Web Conference Europe as a must-view video by everyone in the geospatial community, to place his comments in context. Robert Scoble and Shel Israel are going to be keynote speakers at GEOINT 2013.

    Additionally, although the military is taking a lion’s share of sequestration cuts, the two areas that are not seeing significant cuts because of WMDs are ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) and cyber. He said that some people question the need for geospatial capabilities in a cyber world, but he quickly cited that servers have locations, that networks have locations, and most hackers/persons of interest have locations, which also point to the growing need for indoor urban tracking of users. And all this takes on even more significance with the proliferation of WMDs.  Although not as immediate, NGA is also very supportive and promotes STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education so we maintain the pipeline of talent. He also talked about the growing drumbeat for geospatial intel certification, especially for contract work.

    Randy Jones of the Missile and Space Command spoke of the much shorter timelines of intelligence and needed action, that we have a flood of information but have a poverty of attention. That there is a growing need for “object-based intelligence” or, as some refer to it, “activity-based intelligence.”  The flood of data is overwhelming analysts, and NGA is looking for increasingly sophisticated algorithms to sort the massive data collections. The are many opportunities for small, innovative companies in this arena to help DIA, NGA, and NSA.

    Robert Zitz of SAIC gave his take on current actions in Washington. He quoted James Clapper as saying, “We’ve run out of money, so now we have to think.” He also cited Latisha Long that although DoD was seeing 5% sequestration cuts, DHS may see increases to its budget due to WMD and cyber concerns, specifically power, water and transportation. (As a side note, I harp to all my family members and friends the need to heed the DHS warning for all citizens to maintain a two-week supply of food and water in their home.)  There is also special attention being given to joint efforts of special operations, cyber security and border security.  Those intel dollars are increasing especially for real-time data collection, multi-int fusion and predictive analytics.

    A representative from Sierra Nevada and L3 talked about wide area air surveillance (WAAS), specifically Gorgon Stare and the domestic manned aircraft version Vigilant Stare, which is also being linked with full-motion video. The key issue is analytics to filter and provide timely actionable intelligence.

    MIC cameras from Bosch Security Systems feed a Coastal Remote Monitoring Program for the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
    MIC cameras from Bosch Security Systems feed a Coastal Remote Monitoring Program for the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

    A very clever use of lower cost, off-the-shelf hardware to solve a critical need was presented by Major Scott Bannon of the Alabama Marine Resources Division and Tim Erwin of Crystal Data International. Major Bannon’s small staff is tasked with monitoring more than 600 miles of Gulf Coastline. They installed a network of ruggedized video cameras, some in very remote locations, that were connected via a wireless network with all the cameras controlled by the users.  This is not much different than many systems seen in urban areas, but the challenge was building a  rugged system with some very remote locations lacking power or connectivity.  The cameras were geo-referenced on Google Earth and controllable by his staff from mobile devices.  Although the images are not directly geo-referenced, their position coupled with user knowledge permitted them to search and identify objects in the water accurately enough to task rescue assets to craft in distress. The night low-light imaging capability helped in several high-interest events.  A new version will provide accurate azimuth data recorded with the imagery.

    Dr. Michael Botts presented his work to develop common standards for web enablement of sensors. SML (Sensor Markup Language) is being backed by the OGC to permit sensor web enablement (SWE). See the OGC website for more details.

    The workshop was closed by Sandra Broadnax, the NGA Small Business Programs director.  Her presentation was probably the best received session because of her infectious enthusiasm. She explained how NGA Director Long was extremely supportive of small business innovations and contributions to the intelligence community. She explained how NGA maintains a very comprehensive list of changing requirements on both the high and low sides. She strongly encouraged all geospatial firms to monitor the NGA site, since there were many opportunities that are not published in FedBizOps. At the session she wasted no time building connections by identifying those who had SCIFs in Huntsville and those who might need access so they could view and respond to classified requirements.

    So, the key topics that I believe will dominate GEOINT 2013 are:

    • Persistent wide area air surveillance
    • Social media, big data, human geography
    • Every individual a consumer and provider of intel data
    • “Object” or “Activity” based intelligence, even inside buildings
    • Integration of real-time actionable intelligence to users in the field
    • The geospatial links of cyber threats

    As you can see, even in the short span of one year, the geospatial community continues to evolve significantly. I’m going to attend GEOINT 2013 in October and the GaTech Research Institute GIS conference Spatial Plexus in November.  If you see me, please introduce yourself.

  • GEOINT 2009

    The place to be if your job is intelligence and why what is where.

    By Art Kalinski

    When I was in graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Dr. Jerry Ingalls shared a succinct description of the “new” geography. He stated that old geography was merely the study of where everything was. However, new geography, with its spatial analysis tools, had significantly expanded the field of the study to “why what is where”  and knowing why we can start predicting new “wheres” based on known facts. That, of course, is where geospatial intelligence is today, and some of those tools and techniques identified the location of Iranian nuclear facilities long before they became public knowledge.

    IMG_0775Learning about the latest tools and techniques is the primary reason for conferences, and there is agreement in the geospatial community that GEOINT is the place to be. Organized by the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF), attendance at the San Antonio conference was the highest it has ever been, according to USGIF President Keith Masback. Even with a weak economy, the over-arching opinion of all attendees was that the intelligence business will continue to grow regardless of world politics. By its nature, this conference really had many more “chiefs” than “Indians,” and many exhibitors spared no expense at the conference, knowing that they were reaching key decision makers.

    USGIF, a nonprofit educational organization created by the geospatial intelligence community, is the organizing force behind the conferences. There is heavy participation by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and other intelligence agencies, so the conference attracts top executives in the geospatial industry. The speaker and attendee list reads like a who’s who of the geospatial and intelligence fields.

    General Clapper, the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, was a keynote speaker. He stated his belief that regardless of geopolitical decisions, he sees no decrease in the need for intelligence in Afghanistan and many other locations around the world. He further addressed the need for much faster turn-around of actionable intelligence and cited the joint efforts between the SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) and GEOINT (Geospatial Intelligence) communities.

    General Clapper discussed some of the work of the ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) Task Force, which is seeking new technology and the Holy Grail of intelligence, automated target identification in complex environments. He also spoke about the benefits of commercial imagery sources and its use in an impressive NATO Fusion Center he toured.

    The second keynote speaker was Representative C. A. Ruppersberger, D-MD, chairman of the House Technical/Tactical Intelligence Subcommittee. The congressman addressed his concern that the U.S. is in danger of losing its preeminence in space because regulations are hampering development. He specifically addressed a need to overhaul International Trade in Arms Regulations (ITAR) that are hurting the U.S. commercial satellite industry. He also stated the need for additional research and development funding like the ones that built the U.S. space program and a greater emphasis on technical education. A troubling statistic he cited is that China has 440,000 engineers compared to the USA’s 65,000.

    Vice Admiral Murret, head of NGA, then spoke of his agency’s support not only for the military but humanitarian assistance in natural disasters such as flooding and earthquakes. He talked about the new NGA facility at Fort Belvoir and about how one third of his agency now works in St. Louis.

    In the exhibit hall close to 200 exhibitors demonstrated their latest efforts. Some highlights include:

    Cogent3D and Lockheed Martin demonstrated the release of GeoSketch, a plug-in for Google Sketch Up.  GeoSketch permits military users to build 3D models using the easy to use Google Sketch Up software. The tool permits users to import military UAV video imagery, oblique imagery, and other photo sources to rapidly build 3D models even if geo-referencing data or camera models are missing. The models can then be exported in common formats such as Google, Multipatch, or OpenFlight.

    Digital Globe announced the successful launch of its newest high-resolution satellite, WorldView 2. Imagery from the new satellite will be available in a few months, doubling Digital Globe’s image-collection capability, including multi-spectral imagery.

    LEXISNEXIS news open source highlighted the tremendous wealth of data that it makes available to intelligence analysts. Appistry and NJVC had extensive information on cloud computing and their ability to deliver mission-critical data, including legacy data, to users around the world.

    Pictometry and Lockheed Martin announced their alliance and creation of a new service, Intelligence on Demand (IOD). IOD promises to be a game changer. (See October’s column for details.)

    Every conference I attend there is always a new technology that really catches my eye.  Ball Aerospace was demonstrating such a technology, Flash LIDAR. Flash LIDAR has been a laboratory curiosity for a while but Ball Aerospace has made it a functional tool. Most current LIDAR collections use a laser to scan the ground with the return being sampled resulting in a collection of points on the ground that provide elevation data from which a DEM or contour lines are created. Although this is a rapid process it is sequential and not instantaneous.  The resulting data can be very coarse or fine depending on the sampling interval.

    Flash LIDAR is what the name implies; an entire area is imaged in one nano-second flash. The laser is diffused over an area and flashed once. The resultant image is a broad but dense sample taken at the same instant rather than through a scanning process. Since the image is taken from the same point at the same instant, the data can be used to create accurate 3D models. Those models can then be draped with photographic images or even video frames. The process is so fast that 3D models can be created almost in real time.

    The below images are a practical demonstration of the Ball Aerospace process using Flash LIDAR combined with a live video camera. As each frame of the video image is taken, a simultaneous Flash LIDAR image is also taken from the co-located LIDAR unit. The photo shows the live video and point representations of the Flash LIDAR 3D surface and the resultant 3D image draped on the moving 3D model.

    It’s hard to tell from these still 2D photos but seeing this system in operation was impressive since the Flash LIDAR and resulting 3D models were continuous and perfectly registered. The only limitation of this demonstration was that human flesh is not a good “Reflective Surface.” Note that in the photo the Ball representative was very animated. This stop-action screen-capture shows him as he jumped up.  In all cases the Flash LIDAR kept up with the dynamic movements.

    Point cloud.
    Point cloud.
    Point cloud.
    Point cloud.
    Point cloud.
    Point cloud.
    Wire-frame image.
    Wire-frame image.

    This was an impressive conference that suffered from too much in too short a time.  Two tools that were very helpful was a daily newspaper, the Show Daily, that recapped the previous day along with the current day’s schedule. It was published, printed, and placed under our doors as we slept. The other useful tool was a daily video show with key presentations and interviews for those that were unable to be in two places at the same time. It was available at several break locations and on our in-room TVs. This has been done at other conferences but not as well as the execution of USGIF.

    The USGIF team deservers a “Well Done!”

  • Geo-Enabling the IC with GeoPDF

    This week, TerraGo Technologies announced that it has entered into a strategic agreement with In-Q-Tel – an independent venture capital fund tasked with identifying new technologies for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the larger intelligence community (IC) – to spark the development of new mapping solutions needed by such IC leaders as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).

    For several years now, many government agencies (including the US Army Corps of Engineers, USACE), have relied on TerraGo’s innovative GeoPDF proprietary data-sharing format to exchange geospatial data between users of varying skills levels – from engineers on the scene of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina to soldiers in the field who can use Adobe Reader to manipulate maps. The agreement between TerraGo and In-Q-Tel is expected to advance the development of GeoPDF and related technologies to meet the operational demands of these organizations, as they continue tackling such challenges as the Global War on Terror and emergency response for major natural and manmade disasters.

    Since its first MAP2PDF for Adobe Acrobat product was introduced seven years ago, TerraGo has evolved the technology that allows for the creation and sharing of digital map display files in a user-friendly format. Today’s GeoPDF format allows users to convert raster and proprietary CAD and GIS mapping and database information to text-searchable, georeferenced PDF files. It also allows for the creation of both georegistered and GIS database-embedded PDF files – hence the term GeoPDF.

    With GeoPDF, users can send complex, georegistered maps as PDF files with layers and embedded feature attributes. A GeoPDF can be distributed and used in connected or disconnected modes with the free Adobe Reader and GeoPDF Toolbar software. Users can view finished digital maps, turn layers on and off, query attributes, display coordinates, measure distances, and track locations via GPS . . . all without the need for specialized geospatial knowledge or training.

    For an example of how USACE is using the GeoPDF file format, we can look to the corps’ Topographic Engineering Center (TEC). Currently, TEC is creating unclassified/for official use only digital map displays for regions of the world where the Global War on Terror is being fought. TEC has created DVDs for five countries in support of the war, and it has distributed these DVDs to the military. The project has included taking all of the NGA standard map sheets of Korea, having them scanned and converted to GeoPDFs, and packaging them with an index sheet. By the end of the year, TEC anticipates having created 30-plus country DVDs that consist of all NGA standard products in raster GeoPDF format. The center is also awaiting NGA’s delivery of vector-based GeoPDFs for inclusion in the country DVDs.

    It’s abundantly evident that TEC and NGA have bought into the GeoPDF concept in a big way. Whether TerraGo will be the only GeoPDF name in town remains to be seen, but I think it’s inevitable that the technology itself is here to stay, in both the private and the public sector. In the intelligence community, GeoPDF is clearly a smart way to share geospatial information quickly and easily, especially when the nation’s welfare – and American lives – might be on the line.

    Editor’s Note: Eric Gakstatter, a GPS/GIS consultant with Discovery Management Group LLC, and Ray Caputo, a geographer with the US Army Corps of Engineers Topographic Engineering Center, contributed to this editorial.