Soon after his arrival as director of the
National Imagery and Mapping Agency, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James R.
Clapper Jr. promoted the term “geospatial intelligence,” now known
simply as GEOINT. Clapper’s concept of a unifying discipline and
doctrine evolved quickly into a new agency name: National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). More than the three-letter acronym
indicating sisterhood with other major intelligence agencies, the new
name represents the maturation of a new discipline and the doctrine for
its use.
What Is GEOINT?
The emerging discipline of GEOINT can best be understood within the
context of visualization. Thus, the term’s textbook definition is “the
exploitation and analysis of imagery and geospatial information to
describe, assess, and visually depict physical features and
geographically referenced activities on the Earth.” The operative
question: What is the best way for the user/customer to perceive and
grasp the particular information needed to make a decision or take
action?
For a real-world perspective, consider Lt. Gen. Clapper’s vision of
GEOINT: “Imagine layering satellite pictures with maps, topographic
information and other data, plus the latest intelligence on where the
bad guys are. Imagine seeing in advance where tracked vehicles can and
cannot go, where explosive charges are lying on highways, where the
enemy’s defensive lines have gaps, where obstacles block the way.
Imagine accessing this picture with a click of a mouse in the middle of
the desert.”
Thus, GEOINT has given the United States and its allies an unprecedented
technological edge: the first truly digital battlefield. Increasingly,
NGA’s GEOINT vision focuses on optimizing capabilities to exploit
airborne and satellite-based sensor data, imagery, imagery services,
imagery-derived products and imagery support data obtained from
commercial sources.
GEOINT’s Evolution
At the tactical level, scene visualization emerged with the
development of flight simulation. Digitized terrain and feature data
were created to support flight simulators in military training
schools, allowing pilots to fly their first missions in
well-controlled simulations rather than expensive planes. As the
price for computers decreased and processing power increased,
simulators found their way into tactical settings. In early air
campaigns in Bosnia, pilots could literally fly an intended mission
several times in realistic, desktop simulations before ever taking a
plane into hostile air space. Because current imagery and other
intelligence advancements allowed precise prediction of the limits
of anti-aircraft defenses, the pilots could plan routes and
maneuvers to most efficiently deliver weapons to targets while
minimizing the risk to themselves and their aircraft.
As for space-based imagery, the intelligence community has been
using satellite images for decades. For example, early multispectral
capabilities were useful for agricultural economic analyses,
yielding accurate harvest estimates in denied areas. The resulting
broad-area crop assessments would have been impractical by other
means and were key inputs in the development of long-term strategies
during the Cold War.
Later, commercial satellite imagery-based maps were developed as
interim, quick-response products for regions where little or no
geospatial information existed. This was particularly the case in
Sub-Saharan Africa and the Andean region of South America.
Now, with changes in policy and the advent of high-resolution
commercial imagery from companies such as DigitalGlobe (www.digitalglobe.com),
ORBIMAGE (www.orbimage.com)
and Space Imaging (www.spaceimaging.com),
image-based geospatial products have become a staple for military,
national and civilian planning and operations (see “Imagery Drives
NGA’s Homeland Security Applications,” above).
During Operation Iraqi Freedom, for example, commercial imaging
satellites became reliable, robust collectors for satisfying NGA’s
imagery needs. In addition to providing unclassified imagery to
support diplomacy, humanitarian relief and reconstruction efforts,
commercial imagery providers supplemented national sources and
provided data not otherwise available. Commercial imagery aided in
defining deployment locations for Patriot missile and air defense
batteries, assisted in mission planning for the seizure of Kirkuk in
northern Iraq, and helped locate and characterize minefields along
the Iraq/Iran border zone. It helped demonstrate that the Baghdad
oil fires weren’t the result of U.S. and allied bombing, and
provided context for strike/no-strike decisions on Iraqi industrial
sites.
Contributors and Shareholders in the Process
The intelligence community and military have made it clear that
acquisition and exploitation of commercial imagery—with its improving
resolution, now less than a meter, and increasing volume, hundreds of
square kilometers of potential coverage per day—is critical to success.
NGA is the largest single customer of commercial imagery worldwide,
buying imagery data for its own analytical and production purposes, and
to support the defined needs of its military and intelligence customers.
At the same time, an increasing number of private, public and foreign
GEOINT suppliers are found in the commercial marketplace, each with its
own standards of quality viewed in terms of currency, positional
accuracy and fidelity. Acknowledging that it is fully in the information
business, NGA cannot ignore these sources and, in fact, exploits them to
the maximum extent possible.
For example, during the early hours following Hurricane Katrina,
managers of NGA commercial imagery contracts pulled together images from
many sources to show before-and-after conditions and allow assessments
of the overall damage. Of particular value were datasets from airborne
providers whose extremely high-resolution and specialized methods
allowed collection in overcast conditions.
Just as important as collection was the timely provision of data to
personnel on the ground. NGA had, in early August, just installed a
high-volume, unclassified imagery Web portal intended for use by
government and military organizations. The portal (and a special “copy”
created for first responders outside the U.S. government) allowed fast
access to the most current imagery and a wide range of tools to
manipulate and work with the digital imagery data.
Ongoing Development
GEOINT embraces and enjoins imagery and geospatial analysis, along with
their support and production elements. Central to this emerging
intelligence discipline is scene visualization—the use of imagery and
graphic data plus other information keyed to a single frame of
reference. With this expanding capability decision makers, commanders,
planners, or implementers can readily visualize events in 3-D space and
act as needed. This combining of data from many different sources opens
the door to collaboration among analysts, operators and many others in
ways that NGA is still coming to understand.
Publisher’s Note: Thanks to the NGA Pathfinder staff for their
contributions to this article.
