GPS World

Tag: National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

  • Esri Launches Site to Find Open Data

    ArGIS-Open-Data-W

    Esri has launched a website to help citizens discover organizations sharing open data around the world and provide direct access to thousands of open government datasets. Citizens can search, download, filter, and visualize this data through their web browser or mobile device.

    Since July 2014, more than 1,200 organizations from all levels of government, including the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and the cities of Raleigh, North Carolina; Tampa, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Muroran, Japan, have used Esri’s ArcGIS Open Data to configure custom open data sites to serve local citizens and businesses. Now the public can search across these sites to find authoritative data by location and topic.

    “We are excited about the large number of organizations currently sharing open data and believe we have a great opportunity to boost global support for open data and open knowledge,” said Andrew Turner, CTO of Esri’s DC R&D Center. “As more of the 380,000 organizations we work with across the globe begin to contribute open data, we will be able to help foster innovation by connecting the millions of datasets created by government agencies and shared through ArcGIS Open Data.”

    Any organization can make its data available through ArcGIS Open Data, and people can now discover this data by visiting opendata.arcgis.com.

  • Image Matters to Support NGA’s Accelerating Map of the World Initiative

    The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has awarded Image Matters LLC a contract to address some of the agency’s most pressing challenges through its Accelerating Map of the World Initiative. The initiative will deliver innovative solutions that expedite and strengthen the agency’s Map of the World (MoW). MoW is foundational to the Intelligence Community’s object-based production environment.

    MoW will provide easy access to an expanded web of integrated intelligence (content within context), grounded by authoritative geospatial features, for everyday decision makers, operational users, and intelligence analysts.

    Image Matters LLC was selected for its proposed linked-data strategy addressing the integration of object-based-intelligence (OBI) with foundation geospatial intelligence. NGA seeks to enhance the capability to generate, curate, analyze and share structured OBI as linked data with originating information tracking.

    “This award builds upon a decade of advanced research and development into innovative analysis techniques for OBI,” said Harry Niedzwiadek, CEO of Image Matters LLC. “Our efforts began with NGA’s $1M Innovations in Geospatial Intelligence Award (2005), through which we pursued a vastly improved solution to what former Director James Clapper referred to as the ‘volume, velocity, variety and veracity (4V) problem’, known commonly today as the ‘Big Data problem’. Following this pioneering work, and complementary extended research with DARPA and others, we set our sights on next generation object-based production and analysis tools and services. Accelerating Map of the World has great potential to dramatically enhance the effectiveness and productivity of analysts, in a far more seamless and integrated fashion than ever before.”

  • GEOINT Coverage, Day 2: Keynotes, Airbus, Skyline

    GEOINT 2013* — Day Two

    Today was the official start of the GEOINT 2013* Symposium. Attendance was estimated at 3,500.

    Keynote speakers included James Clapper, director of National Intelligence (DNI), LTG Michael Flynn, director, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and Lettitia Long, director, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).

    The full conference guide and videos of many keynote speeches will be available through the GEOINT 2013 website in about two weeks. The full conference guide is available now as a downloadable PDF.

    I had an opportunity to attend a separate press briefing by Director Long (watch below).

    Included is a large exhibit hall, and today I started touring the booths. In the video below, I talk with Matt Harrison of Skyline as he demonstrates the company’s technology to generate 3D models from oblique imagery.

    Also, AirBus demonstrated its global DEM data set.

  • NGA’s Bryan Goltry Honored with Lt. Michael P. Murphy Award

    This morning at the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s (USGIF) GEOINT 2013* Symposium, the 2013 Lt. Michael P. Murphy Award in Geospatial Intelligence was presented to Bryan Goltry, an analyst at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). NGA Director Letitia A. Long and Dr. Todd S. Bacastow, professor of practice for geospatial intelligence at Penn State University, presented the award to Goltry on the main stage directly following Long’s keynote address.

    “The Murphy award committee felt that Bryan’s independent studies made an exceptional contribution to understanding the principle dimensions of the geospatial intelligence profession,” said Bacastow.

    Goltry is a geospatial analyst with NGA’s Analysis Directorate, and recently completed Penn State’s master’s degree program in homeland security with a GEOINT focus. Goltry began his GEOINT career with Earth Satellite Corp., where he assisted with NGA’s GeoCover project. He then served as an imagery analyst at NGA from 2002 to 2006. In 2006, he worked in the private sector with 3001 Inc. as a program manager providing imagery and geospatial analysis services to customers in the Intelligence and Defense Communities. Goltry received his bachelor’s degree in geographic sciences with concentrations in GIS, global studies, and environmental studies from James Madison University.

    “Goltry’s contributions to NGA and his tradecraft continue the high standards established by the Murphy Award,” said Mark Brender, executive director of the DigitalGlobe Foundation. “We congratulate him for his excellent work and passion for his industry.”

    The Murphy Award is named for Navy SEAL Lt. Michael P. Murphy, a distinguished Penn State alumnus. Murphy was killed June 28, 2005, by enemy forces during a reconnaissance mission in Afghanistan. For his selfless leadership and courageous actions, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. The award, in his honor, recognizes achievement by a Penn State graduate student who is serving or has served in the U.S. Armed Forces or U.S. Intelligence Community. Recipients are
    chosen based upon demonstration of exceptional contributions to the discipline after completing Penn State’s Graduate Certificate in Geospatial Intelligence, as part of the university’s Master of Geographic Information Systems program.
    The generosity of USGIF, the DigitalGlobe Foundation, and faculty, staff, and friends of Penn State fund the Murphy Award.