September 15, 2014
By Dale Lehner, Office of Corporate Communications, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (www.nga.mil), Springfield, Va. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Advanced Visualization Branch, known as ASCSV, is taking imagery to new heights of usefulness with commonly used off-the-shelf software. The branch uses advanced geospatial and 3-D modeling tools to perform precise measurements, feature extraction and high-resolution
July 21, 2014
By Jacquelyn Karpovich, Office of Corporate Communications, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (www.nga.mil), Springfield, Va. According to National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Director Letitia A. Long, the agency’s transformation from a static product provider into a dynamic resource for geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) services is happening in a variety of ways. During a speech at the U.S. Geospatial
April 9, 2014
By S. Eugene Poteat, president, Association of Former Intelligence Officers (www.afio.com), Falls Church, Va. From its early beginnings, technology has been the common thread that has advanced geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) to where it is today. The CIA’s U-2 photoreconnaissance airplane was shot down on May Day, 1960, over the Soviet Union, ending its four-year career.
March 19, 2013
By Rosemary Heiss, Office of Corporate Communications, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (www.nga.mil), Springfield, Va. More than 90 percent of the stored data in the world has been created in the last two years, according to a recent Financial Times article on big data. About 2.5 exabytes—1 billion gigabytes—of data are created every day, which is
February 6, 2013
By Laura Lundin, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (www.nga.mil), Office of Geospatial Intelligence Management, Springfield, Va. For many organizations, shrinking budgets and constrained resources mean slashing existing programs and limiting future investments. But how do decision makers determine where to cut and where to invest while limiting risks often associated with new technologies and aging legacy systems? For the
December 11, 2012
By Ken White, Office of Corporate Communications, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (www.nga.mil), Bethesda, Md. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director Letitia A. Long outlined the agency’s three-way transformation of geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) during the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s GEOINT 2012 Symposium in Orlando, Fla.,Oct. 9, 2012. Long took the stage amid applause from thousands of attendees, following a
October 4, 2012
By George Demmy , chief technical officer and co-founder, TerraGo Technologies (www.terragotech.com), Atlanta. As the defense and intelligence communities convene for this year’s GEOINT Symposium, the geospatial industry, which occupies an increasingly important role within the community, is diligently working to help its customers and partners fulfill their missions in the face of a
July 18, 2012
By Jay D. Krasnow, Office of Integrated Analytic Services, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (www.nga.mil), Springfield, Va. From Osama bin Laden’s fortress to the damage caused by the tsunami at Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, scene visualization helps National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) partners obtain situational awareness of unfamiliar terrain and develop threat analyses in 3-D and even
January 17, 2012
By Army Capt. Edward Major, formerly executive officer to the director of military support staff, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (www.nga.mil), Bethesda, Md. Simply put, the “where” is what ties everything together. Geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) helps provide the all-important context and depth to other intelligence disciplines. Only when fused together is the power of imagery intelligence, signals
December 2, 2011
By Michael Hales, technical executive, International Group, Office of International Affairs and Policy, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), Bethesda, Md. Imagine an architecture where 87 countries and 61 organizations pulled their Earth-observing resources and satellites together to share data and expertise to support decision making. Imagine if these partners worked together to develop a common
