0606_pathfinder_national geospatial intelligence journal
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N / D 2 0 0 8
Foundation Data
and Technology
Vol. 6 No. 6
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On My Mind
M T AIn oces, labs and orward-operating bases, talented members o the NGA team are developing innova-tive and eective ways to produce the highest-quality geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) necessary or theproblem at hand. Technology is oten given credit or revolutionizing a process, but the real credit goes tothe people behind the technology. They innovate, build and operate the tools and techniques to give ourwarghters and policymakers the inormation they need to do their jobs. But there are many actors thatinfuence how NGA approaches technology development.
Asymmetric threats, adversarial nations and rapidly expanding technologies require NGA to adapt andthink systematically about what we are doing now, what we should be doing and how we will do so in theuture. In the recently released Vision 2015: A Globally Networked and Integrated Intelligence Enterprisethe Director o National Intelligence reiterates our need or multiple, integrated collection systems, ointegrated processing, exploitation and dissemination architecture, and or collaborative analysis. Thekey design principles o Vision 2015 are adaptability, alignment and agility; these principles are guidingNGAs technology priorities. Incorporating multiple sensors into our architecture and analysis and improvingexploitation tools and techniques are two examples o how technology is improving our operations.
Sn AdvngOver the last several years, combat operations have demonstrated what ull motion video (FMV) brings to
the ght. As airborne reconnaissance advances, wide-area surveillance (WAS) enables a better view o thebattleeld and multiplies the eectiveness o each mission. The added value that airborne imagery bringsto a large number o missions and operations reinorces our need to ully support intelligence, surveillanceand reconnaissance (ISR) eorts.
Additionally, NGA and our mission partners are leveraging existing capabilities and adapting them to newapplications. Hyperspectral imagery, light detection and ranging (LIDAR) and advanced radar applicationsare providing high-resolution terrain inormation that promises eature detection, extraction and attributionIn Aghanistan, we have seen rsthand the impact o these new applications in a collaborative coalitioneort. NGA and numerous partners used hyperspectral imagery to gain a better understanding o the terraino Aghanistan, creating oundation data that assisted in a variety o mission sets. These valuable, dynamic
capabilities produce exponentially more data that require signicant storage and exploitation space andappropriate extraction tools that make sure it is used eectively.
Expn AdvncImproving our sources and using national technical means (NTM) with commercial and airborne assets
adds signicant value to our capabilities. Still, our real power resides in our ability to perorm geospatiaanalysis and work with our U.S. and allied counterparts. Our analysts require tools that enable them todiscover, exploit and share existing imagery and data. Tools like Consolidated Analytic Spatial initiative(CASi) and GEOINT Online (GO) allow or quick retrieval o vast quantities o data in a user-riendly ormatNGA is looking outward or other tools to aid in exploitation, like SOCET GXP, Adobe PDF, MicrosotVirtual Earth, ESRI Arc Explorer and Google Earth. Our analysts continue to seek out more collaborativetools as they see the power to intuitively nd the imagery and geospatial inormation that they need toproduce accurate, relevant and timely GEOINT.
To maintain our technical advantage, NGA continues to develop a diverse array o GEOINT sources,
tools and techniques. Technology has played a major role at NGA and will continue to do so, particularlyas we ocus outward and work more closely with Deense and Intelligence Community partners every dayAnd at the end o the day, we must all remember that our people drive our analysis, innovation, creativityand progress.
Robert B. MurrettV A, USN
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Contents2 LOR3 GC:TAGEOINT6 UpF:AAppLGE-1
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7 UpF:ODNIV2015ExpVwIEp
F E A T U R E S
8 NGA:GPSCCb11 EGMAGEOINT
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14 AGpEbBT16 CASpI
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18 UbFDSpWVw
19 OGbNATMF
D E P A R T M E N T S21 OH:GEOINTFEb
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Pathinder November/December 2008 Vol. 6 No. 6
On the Cover
NGA broke ground or its New Campus East (NCE) on Sept. 25, 2007. Asthe new home or geospatial intelligence (GEOINT), NCE promises tooster an improved environment or the ongoing ulllment o NGAs mis-sion. The NGA Director, Navy Vice Adm. Robert B. Murrett, recently touredthe NCE construction site at Ft. Belvoir, Va., with the Under Secretary oDeense or Intelligence, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr.,Murretts predecessor. The two surveyed the work in progress, admiringthe solid oundation being laid or the uture o GEOINT. That oundationincludes the agencys accumulating wealth o geospatial oundationdata and the technological systems used to exploit and deliver it. Agencypersonnel will begin the move to NCE in 2010. NCE will be completed in2011. Photos by Larry Franklin. Photo illustration by Carmella Bender.
M h Sy?The online Classied Pathnder, which is accessible
by members o the Intelligence Community, may in-
clude additional inormation and expanded sections
o some Pathnder articles. The Classied Pathnder
provides a orum or reading and discussing topics
at the level o Unclassied//For Ocial Use Only
or higher. For inormation please contact the editor,
Heather Cox, at 301-227-2290.
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Published by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
Oce o Corporate Communications
4600 Sangamore Road, Mail Stop D-54
Bethesda, MD 20816-5003
Telephone: (301) 227-7388,
DSN 287-7388
E-mail: [email protected]
Director
Vice Adm. Robert B. Murrett, U.S. Navy
Deputy Director
Lloyd Rowland
Oice o Corporate Communications, Director
Paul R. Weise
Internal Communications Branch, Chie
Louis J. Brune
Editor
Jason K. Michas
Managing EditorKelly M. Kemp
Graphic Designer
Carmella E. Bender
Contributing Authors
Denise Damschroeder
John A. Duncan
Glenn Forinash
Emily Kilman
Mark Munsell
Vice Adm. Robert B. Murrett, Director, NGA
Dr. Nikolaos K. Pavlis
Lloyd Rowland, Deputy Director, NGA
Wayne P. Schneider
Gregory Wagner
Dr. Gary E. Weir
GETTING PUBLISHED
All members o the geospatial intelligence community are wel-
come to submit articles o community-wide interest. Articles are
edited or style, content and length. For details on submitting
articles, send an e-mail to [email protected].
The Pathnder is the medium with which the National Geo-
spatial-Intelligence Agency enhances and promotes public
awareness and understanding o the discipline o geospatial
intelligence. The Pathnder is an authorized Department o
Deense publication or members o the Department o Deense.
Contents o this publication are not necessarily the ocial view
o, or endorsed by, the U.S. government, Department o Deense
or NGA. Articles in the Pathnder may be reproduced in whole
or in part without permission, unless stated otherwise. I they
are reproduced, please credit the author and the NationalGeospatial-Intelligence Agency, the Pathnder magazine. Any
reproduction o graphics, photographs and imagery is subject to
the original copyright.
Letter to Our Readers
F D TEvery building rests upon a oundation, everypublication begins with a blank page and every
achievement has a starting point. From concept
to product, emerging ideas oten evolve into
successul actions.
NGAs dedication to providing timely and
relevant geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) is
ueled by emerging technologies ounded
upon the structurally sound data points o
NGAs predecessor agencies. Whether as a
building, an inormation system or a class
o data, NGAs strong oundation allows theagency to succeed in ullling its mission
and supporting its partners. This Pathnder
explores the relationship o oundation data and technology and the ground-
work they lay or the agencys success.
NGA Deputy Director Lloyd Rowland reminds us o the intimate relationship
between geospatial oundation data and the work o this agency. The success-
ul launch o the GeoEye-1 satellite, a part o the NextView program, points to
the continual need to develop both data and the technology to deliver it, to
strengthen the momentum o GEOINT in the pursuit o the nations security.
Technology and oundation data magniy NGAs collaboration with and
responsibility to the Intelligence Community. These crucial elements also pre-
vent threats and protect warghters, as illustrated by NGA Director Vice Adm.
Murretts article on the importance o the Global Positioning System (GPS) to
actionable GEOINT.
Wayne Schneider and Denise Damschroeder provide insight into the Bound-
ary Technical Working Group, a critical partnership that establishes the most
accurate geospatial truth related to international boundary data in mapping and
geospatial history. No less valuable, urban eature data reinorces the GEOINT
support NGA provides to military orces, as discussed in Gregory Wagners article.
Valuable GEOINT is collected and constructively shared through the Consoli-
dated Analytic Spatial initiative (CASi). John A. Duncan and Emily Kilman intro-
duce CASi and its role in improving inormation sharing among analysts. Mark
Munsell outlines the Oce o Global Navigations eorts to achieve the uture o
GEOINT by meeting increasing requirements to seamlessly manipulate data at
the touch o a button.
Join NGA Historian Dr. Gary E. Weir as he travels through decades past, explor-
ing deep into the oundational base o gathering GEOINT. Finally, Glenn Forinash
shares his perspective on how the New Campus East (NCE) will enhance
time-dominant operations. The building o NCE continues to progress ahead o
schedule and serves as an ever-present reminder o the importance o a solid
oundation to achieving success.
Success and accomplishments come in many orms. The next issue, Janu-
ary/February 2009, will relate many o NGAs signicant accomplishments o
this past year.
Paul R. WeiseD, O C C
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Guest Column
T A GEOINTBy Lloyd Rowland, Deputy Director, NGA
M
Desert Storm, I sat down to plan a mission with a map
on my knee board. At the time, I remember thinking I
needed a used product that would allow me to see the
imagery overlay o geospatial inormation with up-to-
date imagery intelligence. Only later did I come to realize
the product was one maniestation o what we today
know as geospatial intelligence (GEOINT).
Over the years I have come to admire the commitment,fexibility and can-do spirit o the employees o NGA and
our predecessor agencies. Time and time again, they
have demonstrated the strong desire to make sure our
mission partners have the inormation they need when
they need it, in order to make key decisions and to solve
todays toughest intelligence challenges. Our people
have built more than an agency. We have led the way or
the emergence o the GEOINT discipline and ensured the
success o the GEOINT tradecrat. With the establishment
o the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) in
1996, eight separate organizations were combined to
bring together the nations most capable imagery andgeospatial assets. NIMAs creation provided a critical
usion o skills and technologies to expand the GEOINT
discipline under one mission umbrella.
In 2000, we began to experiment with using imagery,
imagery intelligence and geospatial inormation. This
conceptual experiment gained signicant momentum
ater Sept. 11, 2001. We were among the rst to answer
the call or unied intelligence operations that were at the
oreront o the nations consciousness. Today we are ex-
panding the GEOINT ootprint, pushing orward in using
GEOINT with other intelligence disciplines and exploiting
the digital environment. Our goal is to make sure policy-
makers, warghters, and other end users have the GEOINT
advantage. Whether our partners need a hardcopy map,
a physical model, 3-D visualization or used intelligence,
NGA is there to give them the critical edge.
Lkng FwdAs we move orward, GEOINT shows the way! Our uture
is extremely bright, thanks to our ability to meet the
ever-increasing need or relevant and responsive GEOINT
in a time o unprecedented global change. NGA and our
partners learn daily through the ongoing war against
violent extremism and combat operations how to cooper-
ate, share and use data. NGA has a orward-deployed
strategy that puts our people with our mission partners
on their ground and operating on their terms. The impact
o this strategy has been tremendous. As Vice Adm. Mur-
rett and I travel the world, we receive accolades and ap-
preciation or the dierence the NGA workorce, and the
relevant, timely and actionable intelligence they deliver,
is making on the rontline.That said, the GEOINT community always has room to
grow and challenges to ace, so we cannot rest on our
laurels. We must view every challenge as an opportunity
to excel and to move GEOINT into new arenas. I would like
to highlight six opportunities that will move us orward.
Balacig Missi RquimsThere is the ever-present need to balance time-domi-
nant with non-time-dominant mission requirements.
Lloyd Rowland, Deputy Director, NGA
Ph y R Cx
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This means we must maintain a constant vigilance and
reprioritize resources as needed. It also requires NGA
personnel to maintain a sense o urgency, while pacing
ourselves or the long haul. Rememberthis is not a
sprint; it is a marathon. It is entirely probable that we will
be ghting the orces o violent extremism or several
decades to come.
Icasig PasipsNGA cannot accomplish our mission alone. We need
our existing partnerships, and we need new ones. We
are managing more agreements and providing more datato more users than ever beore. The good newsGEOINT
is getting into the hands o those who need it. The bad
newsmany more users still need GEOINT and either do
not know they need it or do not yet have the capability to
get it. Spread the word!
Rcuiig, Taiig ad Raiig a Wld-Class Wkfc
As demand or GEOINT continues to grow, NGA must
keep the outstanding workorce we have and attract the
best and brightest to meet uture requirements. Over the
next 12 months, NGA will conduct an aggressive hiring
campaign to reinorce our great workorce. The insertion
o new hires will undoubtedly bring new energy, new
ideas and new talent to our agency and our mission. The
goal is to hire the right people with the right skill sets to
meet the demands o today, tomorrow and beyond.
Expad Idusy ad Acadmic EgagmGEOINTs way ahead is grounded in our people, but
it has a technological angle, too. We must continue
to expand our industry and academic engagement to
develop innovative solutions. We will put the best minds
o government together with the brightest minds in
industry and academia to solve the toughest challenges.
For example, with the exponential increase in terabytes
o inormation, one o our biggest challenges today is
managing, storing and retrieving inormation. We need
industry and academia to help us identiy ways to ad-
dress these challengesand they will.
Pc Ou Rsac ad DlpmIsm
NGA remains committed to maintaining a strong
research and development program. Our challenge is
balancing the budget to address all competing require-
ments. For example, as sources o data increase, so
does our drive to evolve to a sensor-neutral architec-
ture. NGA must stay on the oreront, ready and able
to adapt, exploit, and use the data collected rom all
possible sources, develop a common ground and com-
munity inormation technology and assist in providing
multi-intelligence (multi-INT) usion capabilities. Future
phenomenologies like hyperspectral, multispectral and
polarimetric imagery will help unlock the toughest intel-
ligence problems.
Dplyig Missi Nw Campus EasNew Campus East (NCE) provides the rst opportunity
or GEOINT to truly have a new mission home in the East.
Like our sister agencies, NGA will now benet rom bring-
ing our orces together and working with the Common-
wealth and other agency representatives in the same
acility. The next 18 months are critical to our success in
moving the GEOINT mission orward. The importance oour core sites in St. Louis and Arnold, Mo., will be even
greater during and ater our mission deployment to NCE.
These locations are key to dispersed operations, breadth
o mission and continuity o eorts.
As we move orward and address these challenges,
the GEOINT community approaches the biggest leap
orward in our tradecrat evolutionthe move to predic-
tive analysis. I am certain there will come a day when the
combination o great people, technology, and multi-INT
usion will enable an analyst to say, with a high degree
o certainty, where the next improvised explosive device
plantings will be or where the next Al Qaida cell will be
employed. This predictive analysis will allow our mis-
sion partners to move quickly to interdict with a greater
probability o success through actionable intelligence.
That is our ultimate goal, ater alloperational success,
national security and the saving o lives. Thanks to ev-
eryone who makes the power o GEOINT possible. Know
the Earth, Show the Way!
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Layers o oundation data skillully applied with theproper technology contribute to the accuracy o NGAsgeospatial products.
Ph n y Cm Bnd
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Up Front
A A L GE-1 SO S. 6, NGA
community applauded the successul launch o GeoEye-1,
a new source o high-resolution color imagery. GeoEye-1
is the second commercial imaging satellite developed
under NGAs NextView program.
GeoEye ocials report that the satellite is unction-
ing properly. Following the launch, NGA Director Vice
Adm. Robert B. Murrett commented, Everything so ar
in terms o the initial testing has been successul, it is
tracking as it should be, and we look orward to gettingthe initial images. On Oct. 8, GeoEye released the rst
image collected rom the satellite, a view o Kutztown
University in Pennsylvania. GeoEye anticipates begin-
ning commercial sales o GeoEye-1 imagery in late 2008.
NGA initiated the NextView program as a partnership
with the commercial remote sensing community to en-
sure access to commercial imagery in support o national
security. Speaking o NextView and the agencys com-
mitment to its commercial partnerships, Murrett stated,
We are the single strongest supporter o the commercial
remote sensing industry. It is absolutely integral to our
success and is a undamental building block o what wedo as an agency.
Lito o the GeoEye-1 satellite at 11:50:57 a.m. PDT rom Space LaunchComplex 2 West at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Cali.
Ph y Cn B, 2008 Bng
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Up Front
ODNI V 2015 Ex V IE
T O D N
Intelligence (ODNI) published Vision 2015: A Globally
Networked and Integrated Intelligence Enterprise to chart
a new path or how Intelligence Community (IC) agencies
will work together in the 21st century. Given that the
visions principles o integration, collaboration and in-
novation are already part o NGAs culture and strategic
planning, how will Vision 2015 change NGA?
ODNIs mission is to create decision advantage or
policymakers, warghters, homeland security ocials
and law enorcement personnel, all o whom NGA serves
daily to meet its mission. To help create decision advan-
tage as part o Vision 2015, NGA will contribute geospa-
tial intelligence (GEOINT) within the ramework o the
ICs customer-driven intelligence.
For example, NGA will
continue to use
NGAs processes with other IC processes to t into
the ODNIs operating model and result in new mission-
ocused capabilities. NGA analysts will continue to
deepen their own expertise by importing other IC exper-
tise into NGAs processes. NGA will participate in joint IC
projects as a way o lie, having ewer processes that are
conned, or stovepiped, within the agency. IC agen-
cies will work toward removing barriers to cross-agency
collaboration, training, acilities and other resources that
can be shared to achieve a net-centric inormation enter-
prise that is agile, lean and fexible enough to respond to
a dynamic environment.
To guide the way to 2015, the ODNI is implementing a
strategic roadmap to serve as the basis or planning and
budget programming. IC agencies are involved in shap-
ing the roadmap and the major actions and milestones
needed to achieve the vision. The more the vision is
discussed among IC members, the better the IC will be
integrated by 2015.
The DNI has stated that a vision without a map is justa wish. As ODNI completes the strategic roadmap and IC
agencies adopt Vision 2015, a globally networked and
integrated intelligence enterprise will become reality,
creating decision advantage with GEOINT.
The Vision 2015 document is available on the
ODNI Web site, www.odni.gov.
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NGA: GPS C CBy Vice Adm. Robert B. Murrett, Director, NGA
O , NAVSTAR G
Positioning System (GPS), managed by the U.S. Air Force
(USAF) Space Command or the Department o Deense
(DOD), has become the most exploited space-based as-
set that the U.S. government has ever developed. Since
GPS provides space-based radio navigation or anyone
with a GPS receiver, both military and civilian uses have
increased exponentially.
In act, everything geospatially oriented today is reli-ant on GPS. Most military and intelligence operations de-
pend on knowing precisely where something is located.
NGAs mission is to provide the accurate, timely and
actionable geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) to our mis-
sion partners, when and where they need it most. From
the warghter on the ront line to the local search-and-
rescue team seeking food victims, NGA provides GEOINT
to support operational and decision-making needs.
For example, we provide the geospatial products that
enable our warghterssoldiers, sailors and airmento
accurately locate and hit targets. Our analysts will build
a picture or the warghter by layering natural eatures,
such as rivers, hills and waterways, with man-made
eatures, such as roads, power lines and buildings, to
develop a 2-D or 3-D picture or common use. Knowing
that a target o interest exists is important; knowing
where exactly that target o interest is located ensures
accurate targeting and minimizes the risk o collateral
damage. To target an object, the warghter needs ac-
curate geographic coordinates. Subsequently, each data
layer used in the development o a GEOINT product is
reerenced to a standard coordinate system.
Enng Acccy nd RyU.S. national security, transportation and navigation
saety, economic interests and scientic uses all rely
on GPS. This increasing dependence demands that the
coordinate inormation and reerence system be both
accurate and accessible. NGA plays an essential role in
maintaining and improving the accuracy and reliability o
GPS by providing the DOD with precise GPS orbits, satel-
lite and station clock corrections and Earth orientation
inormation. NGA is not only a daily consumer o GPS but
a robust contributor as well.
NGA and its predecessor organizations partnered
with the DOD to develop the World Geodetic System
1984 (WGS 84) as the standard geodetic rame o reer-
ence. The WGS 84 global reerence rame provides a
mathematical representation o the Earths shape, a 3-D
coordinate system, and a gravity model that is essential
or computing satellite orbits and precise locations on,
above or below the Earths surace. WGS 84 provides a
common, standardized reerence rame or interrelating
and integrating all geospatial data, including GPS-
derived position location inormation. This global reer-
ence inormation is what allows users to determine their
locations on Earth based on the precise positions o GPS
satellites in space.
Prior to the 1950s, coordinate systems were developed
regionally. Once satellites became available in the 1950sand 1960s, we were able to establish an Earth-centered,
global coordinate system. Today, the WGS 84 coordinate
system, used by GPS, is dened by the 3-D coordinates
established by the combination o the Air Force and NGA
satellite tracking stations distributed around the world.
The more accurately we know the positions o these
tracking stations, the more accurately we can determine
the GPS satellite positions. Currently, we estimate the
accuracy o these station coordinates within a ew centi-
meters or less. As a by-product o this data processing,
Satellites like this one orm the NAVSTAR Global Positioning Systemconstellation.
DOD ph
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U.S. Nvy Ph y M Cmmncn Spc F C Rg S. Dncn
A U.S. Navy seaman practices navigational skills using a GPS unit.
we can also detect small variations in the Earths ori-
entation in space and its rotation rate. This inormation
is crucial or the accurate and precise orientation and
geopositioning o satellite imagery.
Precise timing is the key to GPSs accuracy. Every DOD
GPS tracking station and GPS satellite is equipped with
an atomic clock, each o which runs at slightly dierent
rates. NGA collocated a tracking station with our nations
master timekeepers at the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO)in Washington, D.C. This allows us to take advantage o
the stability, precision and accuracy o the USNO time by
dening it as our GPS master clock and then to adjust
all the other satellite and station clocks to the master.
Reliability o service is essential to GPS eectiveness.
Beginning in the 1980s, NGA provided personnel support
at the GPS Joint Program Oce (now the GPS Wing) at Los
Angeles Air Force Base (AFB) and the Operational Control
Station (OCS) at Schriever AFB in Colorado Springs.
Additionally, we invested in building and operating a
global network o unmanned GPS tracking stations to
augment the Air Forces permanent GPS tracking stations.
The result has been substantial benets to the entire GPS
user community. As part o a major accuracy improve-
ment initiative, NGA stations now eed real-time data to
the GPS through the OCS at Schriever AFB. These data
are incorporated into the real-time estimation process or
GPS orbit determination, resulting in increased accuracy
and integrity o GPS navigation signals or GPS users.
Lkng FwdFuture improvements and maintenance o GPS, aug-
mentations and backup capabilities are necessary to meet
growing national security, economic, commercial and
scientic requirements and opportunities. For example,
new oreign-based Global Navigation Satellite Systems
(GNSS), such as the Russian GLONASS and the European
Galileo System, provide additional options or current
and uture GPS users. These oreign systems are not yet
as robust as our GPS system but may be in uture years.
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Ph n y Cm BndOgn ph y U.S. A Fc, Amn 1 C Jnhn Snyd
With ongoing eorts to ensure interoperability among all
the systems, every system may be vulnerable to the same
intentional or unintentional intererence. The sheer num-
ber o combined GNSS satellites, upwards o 60100
in the uture, may help to mitigate these eects.
The deense community is exploring new mitigation
strategies to counter electromagnetic radiation in-
tererence caused by solar fares or geomagnetic
storms, as well as intentional and unintentional
radio jamming caused by man-made techniques.
DODs development and implementation o a
military-only code and other new satellite eatures aredesigned to protect and preserve U.S. strategic access to
GPS, even in hostile environments.
As we look toward the uture and the next evolution o
GPS, we must ensure interoperability and compatibility
in the context o geospatial inormation. NGA will con-
tinue our strong collaboration with the USAF to ensure
uture satellite procurement and technological decisions
consider GEOINT needs and capabilities. Additionally,
NGAs continued participation in the International GNSS
Service, the international organization that produces
state-o-the-art GNSS data and products or the
scientic community, will also help ensure that
NGA stays up-to-date on the latest GNSS sci-
ence and technology.
As both a consumer o and a contributor
to GPS, NGA is committed to integrating
and working collaboratively with our
mission partners as we make the best
decisions to ensure our national
security, saety and stability.
This article also appeared in the
May 2008 issue o High Frontier, a
publication o the Air Force SpaceCommand.
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E G M A GEOINT SBy Dr. Nikolaos K. Pavlis
O A 17, 2008, NGA
and most accurate global model o the Earths gravita-
tional eld: Earth Gravitational Model 2008 (EGM08).
Making this new and unrestricted model available to the
public conrms NGAs leading geospatial role within the
worldwide scientic community.
A G NdMany people may recall rom their high school physics
that on the surace o the Earth, the acceleration o grav-
ity is 9.8 meters per squared second. Most physics text-
books dont mention the act that this is only an average
value or that variations o the Earths topography, ba-
thymetry, geology and other geophysical eatures aect
the acceleration o gravity at a given spot on the Earth.
The precise determination o these gravity variations
is the ocus o the branch o science called gravimetric
geodesy. A long-standing goal o this discipline is the
determination o the gravity eld o the Earth at the high-
est possible resolution and with the highest possible
accuracy, anywhere on or above the Earth. The encap-sulation o this inormation into a set o parameters
that mathematically describe the gravity eld is called a
gravity eld model. Some models o the Earths gravity
eld are global and may be used to estimate any type o
quantity related to the eld anywhere on or above the
Earth, while others are regional or local and may be used
to estimate only certain quantities related to the eld
over a given geographic area. The accuracy o any gravity
model depends primarily on the accuracy o the data
that were used to create it and secondarily on the rigor
and expertise with which these data were treated.
Global models are inherently superior to regionalmodels, especially or NGAs interests and or NGA
customers who use this inormation or Department o
Deense (DOD) or Intelligence Community applications.
In part because they require more eort to create, global
models have historically lagged behind regional and
local models in terms o resolution by a considerable
amount. This situation changed dramatically when NGA
ocially unveiled EGM08 and made it publicly available
to all. This new global gravity model not only describes
the gravity eld or the entire planet but does that at a
resolution comparable to that o regional models and
with accuracy that in some cases surpasses the accuracy
o regional models. In the same ashion as the geometric
portion o the World Geodetic System 84 (WGS 84) reer-
ence rame has replaced the myriad o local and regional
geodetic reerence rames (datums), thus providing
much-needed uniormity and consistency among DOD
users, EGM08 now enables a dramatic advancement inNGAs quest or higher accuracy o the global vertical
reerence rame and the highly accurate targeting prod-
ucts NGA supplies to DOD customers. Since this gravity
model is unclassied, many scientic applications are
also possible. For example, scientists can use this model
to improve understanding o global ocean circulation,
which is important to global climate studies.
A G SnBeore EGM08, the global model o choice or many
applications was EGM96, which was developed jointly by
NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, the National Imag-ery and Mapping Agency (NGAs predecessor) and The
Ohio State University. EGM96 required approximately
130,000 parameters to be estimated or its numerical
realization and could support a nominal resolution
o 30 minutes o arc, which corresponds to about 55
kilometers on the equator. Within EGM96, the long wave-
length portion o the model, which describes the broad
eatures o the eld, required the processing o satellite
tracking data acquired over decades, rom tens o di-
erent spacecrat. In contrast, or EGM08, 57 months o
the highly accurate data rom the Gravity Recovery and
Climate Experiment (GRACE) missionthe rst satellite-to-satellite tracking mission ever launched where both
satellites orbit at low altitudewere enough to support
the estimation o the long wavelength portion o this
model 100 times more accurately than was possible or
EGM96. This long wavelength portion o the model is
critical or the accurate determination o the geoid sur-
ace (approximately the Earths mean sea level extended
through land). While EGM96 was capable o supporting
the determination o the geoid with an average accuracy
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o about +/- 50 centimeters and a nominal resolution o
30 minutes o arc (55 kilometers), EGM08 can support
geoid determination with an average accuracy better
than +/- 15 centimeters and a nominal resolution o 5
minutes o arc (corresponding to 9.3 kilometers on the
equator). Thus, with EGM08 NGA is now realizing more
than three times higher accuracy at six times higher
resolution, compared to EGM96.
The determination o the high-resolution component
o EGM08 over land areas depended critically on the
availability o elevation data rom the Shuttle Radar
Topography Mission (SRTM), which cover more than
80 percent o the Earths landmass. To achieve this
higher resolution, EGM08 required the estimation o
approximately 4.7 million parameters, which are neces-
sary to dene the model numerically. Most users o the
model are interested not only in the models products,
but also in reliable accuracy measures associated with
these products. This requires the estimation o errors
associated with each one o these 4.7 million parameters
within a well-dened statistical ramework. The solution
o such a large estimation problem required the develop-
ment o an estimation strategy and the implementation
o highly innovative analytical and numerical methods,
which have become the envy o many theoreticians and
practitioners within the discipline.
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Dr.NikolaosK.Pavlis
is a Project Scientist in the Geodesy andGeophysics Division o NGAs InnoVision
Directorate. His research ocuses on very highresolution global and regional gravity elddetermination.
Gravity anomalies computed rom EGM08 reveal numerous geophysicaleatures, such as oceanic trenches, ridges, subduction and racture zonesand seamount chains.
Gphc pvdd y NGA
The development o EGM08 was possible only be-
cause o the long-term close collaboration between the
Geodesy and Geophysics Division o NGAs InnoVision
Directorate and Oce o GEOINT Sciences. InnoVision
provided the research and development resources, the
technical leadership or the project and the rare analyti-
cal and numerical expertise required or global gravity
eld modeling, estimation and validation. The Oce o
GEOINT Sciences provided specialized geodetic expertise
and large, processed, careully selected unique data
sets, including a custom-developed subset o the NGA
gravity data holdings that contains more than 55 million
point gravity measurements. EGM08 required the eort
o our individuals over approximately our years, and
in this regard it has been developed at a comparatively
low cost to NGA. The worldwide interest generated by the
announcement o the initiation o this project in 2004
made it also possible to benet rom the contributions o
national and international partners. These have provided
valuable input to this eort, in the orm o gravity data
contributions, in the processing o satellite altimetry data
over the oceans, in terms o eedback rom the evaluation
o preliminary solutions, etc., all at no cost to NGA.
With EGM08, NGA has achieved a quantum leap
towards establishing a new state o aairs in gravimetric
geodesy, whereby a single model can be used to sup-
port an extremely wide variety o applications. These
include highly accurate orbit determination or articial
satellites, geoid computations necessary to achieve a
representation o mean sea level around the world, the
estimation o other gravimetric quantities known as
defections o the vertical and several others. All o
these identied applications are important to DOD and
Intelligence Community customers. Finally, the achieve-
ment o EGM08 brings an intangible, yet highly signi-
cant benet to NGAintroduction o this groundbreaking
gravity model has secured an indisputable leadership
role or the agency in applied geodetic research.
EGM08 resources can be ound on the Web at:
http://earth-ino.nga.mil/GandG/wgs84/gravitymod/
egm2008/index.html
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A G E B TBy Wayne P. Schneider and Denise Damschroeder
F
geopolitical conficts. Political boundary inorma-
tionthe location and status o international and admin-
istrative boundaries, both terrestrial and maritimeis
a undamental component o geospatial intelligence
(GEOINT). Increasingly stringent requirements or more
accurate and authoritative boundary inormation have
compelled NGA and its partners to take a more system-
atic and rigorous approach to boundary analysis.International boundaries are oten the ocus o global
problems that can incite crises. Resolving border con-
ficts and managing cross-border movement requires a
clear understanding o where a legally dened boundary
alls on the ground. Policymakers, diplomats, analysts,
coalition orces and others increasingly expect accurate
and timely GEOINT rom NGA regarding the location and
status o political boundaries.
Many modern international boundaries were delineat-
ed at a time when the geography and cultural landscape
were unknown, leading to much disharmony among
nations and sometimes to open warare. In 1890, British
Prime Minister Lord Salisbury observed:
We have been engaged in drawing lines on maps
giving away mountains and rivers and lakes to each
other, only hindered by the small impediment that
we never knew where the mountains and rivers and
lakes were.
Sorting out U.S. government policy and creating
geospatial truth related to boundary location is the
combined job o analysts at the Department o States
(DOSs) Oce o the Geographer and Global Issues,
NGA GEOINT analysts within the Source Operations
and Management Directorate and Analysis and Produc-
tion Directorate, and boundary analysts at the United
Kingdoms Deence Geographic Centre (DGC). The unied
orces o these organizations have produced the most
accurate international boundary data in mapping and
geospatial history. Known as the Boundary Technical
Working Group (BTWG), these analysts meet to discuss
boundary issues, policy, theory and processes to ensurethat only the most correct boundaries are distributed
throughout the Intelligence Community (IC). The group
is constantly searching or new technology and methods
or the dissemination o boundary inormation.
Boundary work requires an in-depth knowledge o geo-
spatial tools and research principles. To ully understand
the issues surrounding international lines, BTWG analysts
careully study national political history, international
boundary history, culture, environment and resources.
Recently the group accomplished an in-depth analysis
o the 1949 Armistice Line that separates Israel rom the
West Bank in support o the ongoing Middle East peace
process. Analysts researched and reviewed original
treaty maps augmented with current materials to depict
the line to the highest degree o accuracy to date. In ad-
dition, the group revised and updated with imagery the
depiction o the security barrier that physically separates
much o Israel rom Palestinian areas in the West Bank.
The analysts completed a series o 28 Border Image
Maps (BIMs) portraying both the Armistice Line and the
Security Barrier.
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The BIMs include explanatory notes to aid the user in
accurate boundary delineation and boundarynatural
eature association. The entire project has been a col-
laborative eort between NGA, the United Kingdom and
DOS. The BIMs and associated vector data will likely be
used during any peace talks to determine the historical
positioning o the Armistice Line. The maps and vector
lines are available to the IC via NGAs Digital Interna-
tional Boundary Database (DIBDB), the ocial repositoryo international, internal (1st, 2nd and 3rd order) and
maritime boundary data collected in cooperation and
consultation with the NGA Geographer, the NGA Political
Boundary Branch, DGC and DOS.
The reconstruction o any boundary entails the selec-
tion o the best base sources, alignment treaties and
maps. In the reconstruction process, the BTWG selects
sources or utmost accuracy and currency. These include
historical and current hardcopy sources; digital data,
such as Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED); imagery;
commodity data; and open source collateral inormation.
The group thoroughly investigates all sources to build a
picture o the intended boundary delineation.
The analysts create geospatial boundary data by align-
ing all digital vector data against the natural eatures as
understood rom their systematic study. Accurate carto-
graphic source, DTED and mono and stereo imagery are
used as the base to trace the boundary along the eatures.
In many cases, skilled analysts will collect vector data in
stereo, resulting in an exceptionally accurate boundary
vector line. I the boundary was previously demarcated,
WayneP.SchneiderandDeniseDamschroeder
are Lead Regional Geographers in the NGA GEOINT FoundationOce, providing actionable data to customers.
analysts identiy the location o boundary pillars and
transer them to stereo imagery or accurate placement.
Demarcation work does not stop at the international
level but includes the portrayal o internal administrative
boundaries along with maritime limits. GEOINT analysts
require current boundaries to the detail o the largest
scale possible.
All good scholarship requires documentation. The
BTWG authors an in-depth analysis o sources andprocess to accompany each boundary segment with
paragraphs on boundary history, geography and carto-
graphic guidance. Included are graphical presentations
and virtual scenes.
Boundary history and location are essential to under-
standing human terrain and the relationships among
local people and their neighbors. Throughout history,
land ownership has always been a divisive issue, with
invasion and conquest a common historical occurrence.
Exactly where one state ends and another begins re-
mains a point o contention and confict.
As population density increases and the world
scrambles or scarce resources, the boundaries o land
ownership become even more crucial. NGA and its BTWG
partners will continue to provide the key GEOINT per-
spective in collaborative boundary analysis.
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C A S I AS DBy John A. Duncan and Emily Kilman
F ,
valuable geospatial eatures that are oten overlooked in
standard collection. This ad hoc eature data has tended
to remain stored in shoeboxes, typically available only
to the analysts who originally noted it. Now, an NGA
initiative is expanding access to this valuable data or the
agency and its partners. The Consolidated Analytic Spatialinitiative (CASi) improves geospatial intelligence (GEOINT)
sharing among analysts within NGA, the Intelligence Com-
munity (IC) and the Department o Deense (DOD).
To an urban planner, a manhole cover is a cast-iron
disc that allows access to underground inrastructures.
But to an insurgent or terrorist, it can be a portal to insert
guerillas or explosives. To an imagery analyst, a manhole
cover can be worth noting. Yet manhole coversand
other oten overlooked commonplace eaturesare not
included in standard eature databases.
The various systems that make up CASi enable
analysts to collect, discover and share access to vastamounts o nonstandard GEOINT data. CASi incorporates
new and emerging inormation and technologies to
support the discovery, dissemination and analysis o
GEOINT eature data within a system compliant with
Open Geospatial Consortium standards.
The original call or CASi came about two years ago,
when analysts rom NGAs Analysis and Production
Directorate voiced concerns at the diculty o storing
and sharing data that did not conorm to standards,
yet had obvious value to their work. NGA Director Vice
Adm. Robert B. Murrett understood these concerns and
instructed the agency to remedy the situation, leadingto the establishment o the CASi program oce within
the Analysis and Production Directorate. While the CASi
sta put together ull processes and plans to stand up
the related systems, they also made a CASi prototype
available at NGAs Washington, D.C., and Bethesda,
Md., acilities to provide analysts an interim capability to
load data and encourage them to suggest improvements
to the CASi interaces. During the development and
implementation phases, CASi benetted greatly rom a
bridged development approach that took advantage o
the complementary skills o NGA personnel rom each
directorate, in collaboration with the program oce,to develop and maintain a system that provides data
storage, management, discovery, retrieval, analysis and
accessibility o nonstandard GEOINT eatures.
The three CASi program segmentsCASi-Internal
(CASi-I), CASi-External (CASi-E) and CASi-Forward
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(CASi-F)were created to acilitate and enhance analytic
exchange, yielding sharable knowledge or the IC. The
CASi inrastructure design promotes GEOINT interoper-
ability across networks, hardware platorms and operat-
ing systems.
CASi-I allows analysts to aggregate, manage, search,
discover and share nonstandard GEOINT data. CASi-Iservers allow analysts to utilize the data without having
to download it, saving limited computer space and deliv-
ering data consistently across the network.
CASi-E extends data-sharing capabilities to NGA, the
IC and DOD. Analysts can share their data with the wider
IC by loading it to the CASi-E servers, search or eatures
relevant to their work loaded by other analysts, and add
value to the data by rating and commenting on it.
CASi-F provides orward-deployed GEOINT analysts a
hybrid o CASi-I and CASi-E, oering data gathering and
distribution capabilities or nonstandard country datasets
and products to analysts working side by sidewith warghters. A CASi-F system was deployed to
Baghdad in June 2008, and CASi-F or Aghanistan is
currently under development.
To load data to CASi systems, users complete
a ew elements o standard geospatial metadata.
These provide the ramework or users to locate relevant
eatures, understand their history and purpose, and
contact the data producer or urther collaboration.
The program oce develops and releases CASi ele-
ments on a spiral schedule. Program segments were
initially released at 6570 percent o their intended
capability. Subsequent releases provide additional unc-
tionality several times a year. Analysts who use the CASi
systems guide this spiral development by commenting
on current capabilities and suggesting unctions that
they would like to see in uture releases.
The accuracy o GEOINT analysis only improves as
analysts more ully aggregate and share the nonstandard
eature data they each discover. At the oreront o the
eort to collect and share these important resources,
CASi eectively extends the analysts ability to support
the IC, DOD and the warghter.
JohnA.Duncan(Left)andEmilyKilman(Right)
John A. Duncan is a Regional Analyst andCASi Representative in the GEOINT Founda-
tion Oce, supporting the National System orGeospatial Intelligence.
Emily Kilman is a Geospatial Data Steward inthe GEOINT Foundation Oce, assigned to theCASi Program Oce.
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U F D S Wf VBy Gregory Wagner
U F D (UFD), NGA
products serving the warghter, has proven eective in
the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). This high-density
urban area vector data can be overlaid on imagery de-
picting areas o high interest or use by intelligence op-
eratives and special operations orces. UFD is part o an
initiative to use multiple intelligence sources, ground
movement target indicators and other data to provide
actionable intelligence to rontline operators.Since 2003, UFD has provided NGA analysts and
partners with the data needed to make better decisions
as the landscape o todays war zone transitions to
an urban environment. UFD supports urban planning
operations to help both the military and the Intelligence
Community to ght the GWOT.
UFD has helped ll the increasing demand o the
modeling and simulation community or site amiliariza-
tion and route-, mission- and target-planning data. UFDs
high-density geospatial data, when combined with other
intelligence sources, provides the necessary spatial
context or identiying key terrain, cultural, and street-level eatures required to track persons o interest. The
ollowing hypothetical example illustrates UFDs utility:
Inormation indicates that a person o interest is
staying at a hotel one block rom a government acility.
Additional inormation places the target in the vicinity
o a named road. Neither the hotel, acility nor road
can be easily identied rom imagery alone. To provide
context, UFD can be quickly overlaid on imagery that
has been georegistered to known geographic control
points. Analysts can then search the extensive UFD
attributes to nd the eatures eciently and locate the
person o interest.
Intended or use within geographic inormation sys-
tems, UFD has evolved to oer three levels o enhanced
2-D or 3-D vector data over urban and some rural areas.
The data is primarily extracted rom stereo imagery. More
current commercial imagery is used to update the data set.
Direct eedback on the product has been extremely
positive. One user remarked that Urban Feature Data or
Baghdad, Samarra, Kirkuk, Kabul and Hit will aid the user
in creating a detailed product or any mission, route and
target planning in these cities. While this is a good nd
rom a 2-D perspective, it is even more useul rom a 3-D
perspective. Because the UFD shapeles include build-
ing data along with height values or each structure, the
data can be loaded into Terra Vista [scene visualization
sotware] to create a 3-D build o the entire area.
Another user stated that UFD is a valuable tool or
tactical line-o-sight requirements in urban operations
on or near the ground, in addition to site amiliarization.
We also like its use in navigationgood representation o
landmarksand its use as an urban planning graphic.
The GEOINT Foundation Oce (SG) within NGAs
Source Operations and Management Directorate man-
ages NGAs UFD program with support rom the Oce o
Commercial Partnerships. Almost all UFD data has been
produced by commercial vendors. However, SG carto-
graphic analysts have recently begun work on NGAs rst
in-house UFD data set.
NGA aces many challenges regarding UFDs uture.
With the increasing demand or the product, NGA is in-
vestigating how best to disseminate and distribute UFD
to the user community. The program aces additional
challenges, including standardizing UFD, creating com-
mon specications among its variations, and updating
the product to remain current. Nevertheless, given its
proven benets and NGAs dedication to solving these
challenges, the ever-improving UFD will remain crucial to
the warghter or a long time to come.
Img pvdd y NGA
Individual buildings and an extensive system o walls are illustrated in thisexample o Urban Feature Data.
GregoryWagner
is a Cartographic Analyst in NGAs SourceOperations and Management Directorate,
GEOINT Foundation Oce, where he supportsthe Urban Feature Data program.
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O G N A T M FBy Mark Munsell
W (GEOINT)
analyst need to conront a world o complex threats and
rapid change? The essential requirement, in a word, is
dataabundant current and historical inormation with
which to understand a situation and draw conclusions
and the aster the better. The analyst also needs tools to
manipulate data and seamless lines o communicationto reach other analysts to collaborate.
NGAs Oce o Global Navigation is working to cre-
ate a setting that would provide all o these attributes.
Consider how a hypothetical day might unold in such
an environment:
Upon logging in, a maritime analyst receives several
messages rom collaborative partners, including some
unexpected tip-os about important changes in the navi-
gation inrastructure within the analysts geographic area
o interest. Ater a quick review, its apparent only one o
the tip-os requires immediate attention. The analyst re-
trieves resh GEOINT rom the source management systemthrough a simple and direct interace. The inrastructure
behind it can input host-country navigation publications
at a urious rate. This system contains every paper and
digital navigation product known to exist, indexed and
searchable both geospatially and via keywords.
The analyst enters a oreign port into the search eld
and, within moments, results start fowing, including:
Six host-country published, scanned nautical
charts, at various scales, coverage and dates
Two new oreign partner electronic nautical charts
Two other oreign nautical charts, scanned and
georeerenced
Two open source articles published by U.S. and
oreign newspapers on recent activity in this port,
including which contractor perormed the work and
its estimated value
The most recent commercial reports on port activity,
uel prices, piracy and trac, plus a variety o open
source inormation rom Wikipedia, Google, etc.
Two bathymetric surveys o unknown origin
A recent Notice to Mariners published by the
host country
Nothing in the source appears suspicious, but the
analyst digs deeper. Based on metadata associated with
the querys original results, the analyst clicks on the
newest chart rom a oreign partner, and it opens in a
geographic inormation system (GIS) window. The ana-
lyst repeats the process or other charts, a bathymetric
survey and an outline o a commercial image.
In the GIS, the analyst adjusts the order and transpar-ency o the data layers. The analyst then brings up layers
rom the Maritime GEOINT database and compares the
recently added source to the current database that is
transmitted to NGAs Department o Deense (DOD)
customers weekly. The comparison reveals several
signicant eature changes. The analyst then receives an
instant message rom an imagery analyst that all inbound
trac is at a halt oshore waiting entry into the port.
The analyst immediately adds the live eed and latest
airborne imagery and lays it over the current database.
U.S. Nvy ph y M Cmmncn Spc 1 C Chph Fw
U.S. Navy crews depend on accurate inormation to navigate saely. NGA isworking to accelerate the analysis and delivery o essential maritime data.
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Shockingly, much o the port is destroyed, though the
cause is unclear.
Immediately, the analyst begins a videoconerence
with the partner who provided the initial tip-o. The
analyst includes an aeronautical analyst as similar
destruction to an aireld is discovered. Then several
senior analysts join the conversation to lay out a plan
o actionone o the rst steps being to alert ships in
the area o the port closure via a broadcast warning
message. Working together, the analysts begin to data
intensiy all o the nautical and aeronautical charts in
the region or possible immediate military operations or
humanitarian relie missions.
From an operational standpoint, this scenario depicts
ar switer and deeper access to maritime source data
than analysts currently have. And it describes a quantum
leap in the ease o collaboration. Yet, rom a technical
standpoint, this scenario is not ar-etched. All o the
technologies described are available today.
This begs a critical question, namely: Why doesnt
NGA have such a system right now? The reason is that
the challenge o building such a capable system is not
just technical but logistical. The goal is in sight, but NGA
will only achieve it through the heavy liting o integrat-
ing data and systems and making total unctionality
accessible to its analysts. The ollowing will have to be
developed to realize this concept o operations:
A robust system o source ingest, archiving, index-
ing and retrieval ed by many sources.
A database that every analyst can access, with cur-
rent saety o navigation and navigation inrastruc-
ture, inormation and intelligence data. Aeronautical
and maritime analysts can update this database
dynamically, as well as nominate updates rom
outside sources. Tools to easily compare, overlay, ingest and merge
data rom the source management system.
Tools to support and use the persistent surveillance,
Web-based geospatial visualization and community
collaboration o the NGA time-dominant operating
picture or inormation development, data usion
and situational awareness.
NGA will transorm to create this uture operational
state, beginning with two ambitious pilot projects o the
Global Navigation Services (GNS) or the Aeronautical
and Maritime Domains. Currently, maritime eature data
resides on 29 CDs held in hundreds o Digital Nautical
Chart libraries. The goal is to build a database or mari-
time eature dataa groundbreaking eat in itseland
design this system to rapidly deliver Digital Nautical
Charts on demand. The present GNS-Aeronautical
database is 10 years old and strains under a sotware
architecture that is no longer supported. Beyond ensur-
ing higher reliability, the new, more robust aeronautical
database will incorporate additional eature data,
updated data standards and new product lines, such as
Stereo Aireld Collection.
Implementation o both GNS pilots will ollow a
phased approach or smooth integration into the entire
system in a service-oriented architecture that acilitates
cross-organizational publishing o inormation. Further,
both databases will employ network-attached storage to
acilitate data sharing. Compliance with Open Geospatial
Consortium standards will make these pilot databases
more interoperable and accessible to NGAs partners in
DOD and the Intelligence Community.
The ultimate goal o both pilots is to provide
one-touch maintenance o saety o navigation in a
database environment, where digital source data are
automatically ingested and used, and where products
are created directly rom the database, regardless
o whether the source material is textual, digital or
hardcopy. This environment will allow analysts to do
their jobs more eciently and will empower them to
lead the way in GEOINT-sharing capabilities with NGAs
partners. The Oce o Global Navigation pilots will start
to realize the day-in-the-lie scenario described above,bringing NGA analysts and their partners closer to
analytical nirvana.
MarkMunsell
is the Technical Executive or the Oceo Global Navigation, where he works on
transormational issues and acilitates technol-ogy insertion or the Aeronautical and MaritimeDomains.
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Our Heritage
GEOINT F E T ABy Dr. Gary E. Weir
S G W 19141918, -
shipman at the U.S. Naval Academy made a startling
discovery on a naval summer cruise. He observed that
the primary chart upon which the ships navigator relied
dated to 1839. This seemed remarkable or a number
o reasons. First, he discovered the high quality o early
19th century surveying and mapmaking and the reliabil-
ity o the oundation data gathered over 80 years earlier.
In addition, the chart ormed part o a collection thatemerged rom the U.S. Exploring Expedition that cir-
cumnavigated the globe and diverted to such places as
Antarctica between 1838 and 1842. This very successul
venture marked the rst time the young United States o
America engaged in exploration ar rom its own shores.
Not too many years ago, the Smithsonian Institution
honored the expedition with an exhibit entitled The
Magnicent Voyagers. Finally, the discovery seemed
even more remarkable and the episode more ironic to
the midshipman because Navy Lt. Charles Wilkes, com-
mander o the U.S. Exploring Expedition, prepared the
chart. As it happened, the midshipman recognized Wil-
kes as his great-grandather. As part o his proessional
naval education, this young ocer discovered at sea the
vital and eternal nature o the knowledge provided both
by his amily and the oundation tradecrats.
In preparing the reports based on the collection
compiled over our years at sea, the personnel o the
U.S. Exploring Expedition employed the considerable
treasure they brought back rom their long journey. The
six-ship squadron brought back to the United States
280 island surveys; 180 charts, maps and surveys o the
Oregon Territory coastline extending or 800 miles; and
1,500 miles worth o similar data or the Antarctic coast.
Their eorts actually validated Antarctica as the seventh
continent. The expedition eventually supplied the inant
Smithsonian with the beginning o its extraordinary
natural history collections. Combining the expeditions
Oregon maps and charts with the 1842 Rocky Mountain
work o Capt. John Frmont soon enabled the United
States to create a geodetic base or the territory between
the Mississippi River and the Pacic Ocean. Wilkes
himsel prepared observations based upon personally
gathered data or the expedition reports on the Earths
magnetic eld and its gravity.
Their eort to understand the Earth in these most
basic and essential ways places Wilkes, his expedition
sta, Frmont, and other determined explorers among
the scientic parents o the National Imagery and
Mapping Agency (NIMA) and NGA. The our years, the
six wooden ships, and the oundation research o the
U.S. Exploring Expedition clearly emerged rom the same
undamental requirement that gave birth in our own time
to the Deense Mapping Agencys (DMAs) Digital Terrain
Elevation Data, or DTED, mapping database that pro-
vides accuracy down to 300-oot intervals across a much
greater expanse o geography.
While time moved on, the need or knowing the Earth
in this way obviously did not change. Wilkes and his
company desired to know our world more intimately and
NASA ph
The Space Shuttle Endeavour collects topographical data during theShuttle Radar Topography Mission in February 2000.
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pursued that goal with a single-minded drive that con-
rmed a new continent. In the same way, DMA continued
to rene the precision o DTED by using the additional
data that came rom photo analysis and mensuration to
improve the accuracy o its products.
The U.S. Exploring Expedition wanted to visualizeas much as possible and take those physical impres-
sions back to the United States in data, charts and art.
Knowing how the Earth actually looks can make all the
dierence to peace, war, prosperity and understanding.
One o the most impressive images produced by the
expedition shows Sugarloa Mountain overlooking the
harbor o Rio de Janeiro. Expedition member Navy Lt.
John Dale composed a landscape demonstrating the
beauty o the mountain and its surroundings that both
pleased and strategically inormed. Over a century later,
DMA and the U.S. Army Topographic Engineering Center
perormed the same unction or the participants at the
Dayton Peace negotiations on Bosnia in 1995, using their
oundation data to impel the required terrain visualiza-
tions and automated cartography to tailor maps and
analyze the topography in a way that made negotiators
more comortable with their assumptions and decisions.
Just as our predecessor agencies did, NGA now provides
this service daily in the orm o geospatial intelligence
to the warghter and to allies in need o support due to
natural disasters or external aggression.
In 1999, three years ater DMA, the National Photo-
graphic Interpretation Center and other organizations
combined to orm NIMA, which became NGA, the agency
went on an exploring voyage o its own with NASA. NIMA
used the space shuttle Endeavor to dramatically improve
DTED by exploiting the radar intererometry techniques
developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
Cali. For 222.4 hours in February 2000, the Shuttle Radar
Topography Mission, or SRTM, successully surveyed 80
percent o the Earths surace and 95 percent o its popu-
lated areas. The improved DTED contributed incompara-
ble accuracy to everything rom geophysics to earthquake
research to the best location or cell phone towers to mis-
sile targeting. This voyage did not involve a wooden ship
under sail, and its techniques would have astonished
Charles Wilkes, but he would have understood the goals
and the importance o the data and the nal products to
both commerce and the national deense.
The best oundation activity lasts orever. It inorms
currently and provides the basis or an ever-deeper
understanding and a platorm upon which to build. It
never grows old or irrelevant. The need or SRTM data
and DTED products and the importance o World
Geodetic System 84 and Earth Gravitational Model 08,
which NGA recently made available to the public, testi-
es to the constant relevance o oundation data and
tradecrat. In 1943, during the island-hopping campaign
against Japan in World War II, the Allied sta planning
the landing on the island o Tarawa resorted to using a
chart composed by the U.S. Exploring Expedition rom
the oundation knowledge the expedition had gathered
in the 1840s. Having used techniques that stood the test
o time, Charles Wilkes once again stepped orward in an
essential way, this time to help American orces subdue
the Japanese in a dicult campaign. NGA oundationproessionals, past and present, regularly ollow in the
ootsteps o Wilkes and his Magnicent Voyagers.
Dr.GaryE.Weir
is the NGA Historian.
Img cy h U.S. Nv Hc Cn
Schooner Porpoise and Flying Fish in Heavy Seas by Alred T. Agate. ThePorpoise was one o several ships o the U.S. Exploring Expedition.
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New Campus East
T-D O C W MVBy Glenn Forinash
Editors Note: The Pathfnder and the New Campus East
Advocacy eort invited Glenn Forinash o the Time-Domi-
nant Operations Center to contribute this article.
T N S G I
(NSG) Strategic Concept o Operations or 2015 lays out an
expectation that Department o Deense (DOD) and Intel-
ligence Community (IC) customers will require immediategeospatial intelligence (GEOINT) with increasing urgency.
In anticipation o shortening timelines, in 2007 NGA es-
tablished the Oce o Time Dominant Operations, which
provides a persistent stream o situational awareness
data to its operations directors, analysts and customers
across the NSG. The standup o the oce and the imple-
mentation o the agencys own Time-Dominant Operations
Center (TDOC) concept o operations synchronized time-
dominant entities and provided a single NGA voice to its
broad customer base. The New Campus East (NCE) TDOC
will orm the ulcrum o NGAs time-dominant support.
NGA units involved in time-dominant operations
currently reside in a number o locations across the
United States. The NCE TDOC will consolidate NGAs
geographically and unctionally dispersed time-domi-
nant operations on the East Coast within a single,
integrated center to enhance internal collaboration
and the quality and timeliness o its GEOINT. TDOC
analysts will have ready access to inormation technol-
ogy support, and NGA leadership will have easy access
to operational inormation and personnel. A similar
plan to align agency time-dominant units in St. Louis,
Mo., is also in work. The multidirectorate entity in St.
Louis will be operational prior to the stand up o the
NCE TDOC and will be critical in providing continuity
o time-dominant operations during the relocation o
units to the NCE.
The integrated NCE TDOC design adheres to our key
concepts to better serve IC and DOD customers:
New Campus East will consolidate NGAs East Coast operations.
In pvdd y RTKL/KngSn
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Th ngn m-dmnn f c
cmpnn will be managed by NGA operations
directors (ODs) who will synchronize eorts and
marshal resources across NGA to respond to custom-
ers needs. The ODs will continue to serve as a ocal
point or NGA customers requesting time-dominant
support. The ODs will maintain their interaction with
watches and operations centers across the IC, DOD
and oreign partner organizations to ensure that
NGAs time-dominant intelligence eorts are aligned
with customers priorities and inormation needs.
Th dvpmn dc nd nng
TDOC pn will continue to enrich the eld
o time-dominant operations. NGAs current training
and certication programs or ODs ensure that they
are able to ully represent and leverage NGA capa-
bilities and respond thoroughly and consistently to
customers requirements. A training program or all
NGA proessionals perorming elements o the time-
dominant mission is currently in development and
will carry orward to the NCE environment. Th nn dy vd cmmncn
nd chngy to enable operations will acilitate
persistent collaboration and situational aware-
ness among IC sites and mission partners. The
increased situational awareness and collaboration
capabilities will enhance the quality and timeliness
o NGAs GEOINT. Inormation technology resources
will display all pertinent inormation needed by
TDOC personnel, assisting them in maintaining
analytic ocus. The ability to display large amounts
o inormation on NCE TDOCs newly engineered
GlennForinash
is an Operations Director in theOce o Time-Dominant Operations.
knowledge wall will greatly increase the situational
awareness o the ODs and TDOC components. Web-
based geospatial visualization tools will package
large volumes o data, and security technology will
provide new means or disseminating intelligence
inormation across multiple security domains.
Th mpvmn h c at NCE TDOC will
synchronize time-dominant activities and help
provide the best possible GEOINT to customers.
Time-dominant analysts ability to reach the broader
NSG elements will be enhanced. Subject matter
experts in many cases will reside in close physical
proximity, providing greater access to the deep
analytic capability ound in NGAs unctional and
regional oces. NGA and the NCE proessional sta
have ensured that time-dominant operations will be
conducted in an environment that allows persistent
collaboration and guarantees multiple-security level
access and seamless system interoperability.
NGAs critical contribution to the time-dominant mis-
sion will continue to grow as the demand rom the agen-cys customers or timely and relevant GEOINT increases.
The NCE TDOC will greatly enhance the inormation
superiority and technological advantages essential to
providing infuential time-dominant GEOINT and warning
o imminent threats.
A concept sketch anticipates the striking interior o New Campus East.
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NCE
PROGRESS
the plan
A NCE mg y NGA
the groundbreaking
on schedule
the steel signing
the nal rendering
2008 Jpmg C
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