GEOTECHNOLOGY NEWS

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has awarded DigitalGlobe a contract to enable a “Rapid Delivery of Online Geospatial- Intelligence” (RDOG). DigitalGlobe is providing NGA with unclassified imagery-derived products and services in support of NGA’s mission to develop imagery and map-based intelligence solutions for U.S. national defense, homeland security and safety of navigation. Providing an industry-first solution that enables near real-time access to daily image collections, DigitalGlobe will utilize standard Web services to enable rapid dissemination of the latest NextView-licensed imagery of specified areas to the National System for GEOINT (NSG) within 24 hours of collection. In addition to delivering Web mapping services (WMS) for commercial imagery on a daily basis, DigitalGlobe will also provide a nearly cloud-free foundation layer of tonally balanced, countrywide, one-degree geo-cells on a new quarterly collection schedule.

Army Extends License for Data Fusion Software

The Army has purchased an enterprise license for its Analysis and eXploration of Information Sources Professional (AXIS PRO) product from Overwatch Tactical Operations, an operating unit of Textron Systems. AXIS PRO, a program of choice of the Army Forces Command and a cornerstone of the company’s software product line, allows warfighters to fuse complex and diverse data into timely, actionable intelligence in support of current missions worldwide. AXIS PRO 4.1 represents more than four years of development work and provides the Army and Marine Corps stable, dynamic and capable intelligence analysis software. AXIS PRO is in use currently by numerous Army units in Iraq and Afghanistan, and will continue to support soldiers and Marines across the spectrum of operations in the future. AXIS PRO comes with adaptors for plotting information to maps, as well as importing and exporting to both Microsoft Excel and other link analysis tools. In addition, it provides a collaborative network environment from military members to conduct SIGINT missions. AXIS PRO can be customized to work with other data sources for backward compatibility and is fully compatible with the Distributed Common Ground System-Army.

Production Solution Enables Faster Geospatial Analysis

Intergraph’s widely deployed Geospatial Intelligence Production Solution (GIPS) enables the defense and intelligence community to create higher quality geospatial analysis products faster and more efficiently. As part of Intergraph’s GIPS, Feature Topographer provides comprehensive data capture capabilities from image and map sources. Built on the GeoMedia Professional platform, Feature Topographer extends the feature collection capabilities to automate collection and validation of feature data for key digital products for the defense and intelligence community. ImageStation Stereo for GeoMedia is a GeoMedia Professional-based product that provides tools for interactively collecting and updating map feature geometry (2-D and 3-D) and attributes from aerial or satellite stereo models. The collected data is used for GIS applications and map revisions. The map features collected into GeoMedia databases can be easily utilized by third-party GIS systems.

Renee Wagner, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Ground Stations Support WorldView Satellites

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) has been awarded a multimillion-dollar contract from DigitalGlobe to upgrade an existing multi-satellite ground station solution delivered by MDA in 2007. The solution will enable the confidential customer’s system to support the WorldView-1 and WorldView-2 satellites. This contract is the fourth international ground station order to-date that MDA has received from DigitalGlobe. Under this contract, MDA will incorporate full support for DigitalGlobe’s WorldView satellites, providing a solution capable of programming, receiving and processing imagery and data from these next generation highresolution commercial satellites. MDA is responsible for developing, integrating and installing the WorldView-1/-2 information solution at the customer’s site in the first quarter of 2010.

Wendy Keyzer, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Toolkit Adds Sophisticated Location Functionality

Telogis, a global platform for enterprise location based services, has announced the launch of GeoZone, a free resource for GeoBase developers. GeoBase is the company’s geospatial engine, enabling mapping, routing and navigation on platforms ranging from mobile to server. Registered members of GeoZone gain access to the latest releases of the GeoBase SDK, sample map data, sample code, tutorials and white papers. Additionally, Telogis has assembled a premier list of partners from the Location Based Services (LBS) ecosystem to provide additional technical resources and samples of their products. GeoZone is designed to be the central resource for application developers using the GeoBase platform. Augmenting the main GeoBase Software Development Kit (SDK) resources, the GeoZone contains additional technical information, design notes, sample applications and white papers for the GeoBase platform. Premier content providers contribute sample map data, satellite imagery and real-time traffic feeds. Hardware providers and wireless carriers supply technical information on their technologies and go to market strategies. The GeoBase SDK enables organizations to add sophisticated location functionality to business applications. Designed to bridge the divide between consumer-grade mapping engines and legacy GIS tools, GeoBase combines the scalability and elegance of new location technologies with the flexibility required in the enterprise.

High-resolution Imagery Meets ISR, Mapping Needs

SPOT Image Corp. has entered into an agreement with KAI Image as the distributor of KOMPSAT-2 products to customers across North America. Through this partnership, SPOT Image can now offer users very high resolution (VHR) satellite imagery for projects requiring the detail of a 1-meter image. By signing this agreement, the company will promote, distribute, service and support data capabilities for KOMPSAT-2 in the United States. KOMPSAT-2 is a 10-bit system featuring four bands (red, green, blue and near infrared), which simultaneously collects 1-meter panchromatic and 4-meter multispectral imagery to produce a standard 1-meter natural color product. The blue band capability of KOMPSAT-2 makes it an ideal solution for mapping shallow water, differentiating soil from vegetation and water penetration studies, such as coral mapping. This will allow SPOT Image to further enhance its current high resolution satellite offerings to a broad marketplace that includes defense, homeland security and commercial applications. Covering a footprint of 15 km by 15 km, KOMPSAT-2 is capable of collecting image segments in excess of 1,000 km long. With this combination of imaging capacity and very high spatial resolution, KOMPSAT-2 is ideally suited for reconnaissance, surveillance and large-scale mapping.

Jessi Dick, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

3-D Geospecific Terrain Features Virtual Afghan Village

To meet the needs of training NATO soldiers for warfare in Afghanistan, MetaVR has built 3-D geospecific terrain covering 9,600 square kilometers, featuring a high-resolution virtual village with over 500 buildings in the Afghan province of Kabul. This virtual terrain is available in MetaVR’s round-earth and flat-earth formats for use with Virtual Reality Scene Generator for simulation and training, with particular emphasis on identifying and defeating IEDs using resources from combined military branches and nations. The terrain is also delivered with correlated SAF databases in CTDB and OTF formats. Unlike the simplified, flattened terrain used to simulate urban environments in most image generators and video games, MetaVR’s Afghan village is set within mountains, complex terrain of varying elevation, and cave complexes enabling realistic training scenarios for operations in mountainous villages. This virtual terrain, built with MetaVR Terrain Tools for ESRI ArcGIS, includes 1,120 square kilometers of 60 cm Digital Globe commercial satellite source imagery and 90-meter elevation posts and features a highly detailed 2-by-2-km inset terrain patch of a geospecific Afghan village.

W. Garth Smith, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Geolocation System Finds Ground-to-satellite Transmission Sources

The satID Geolocation System from Integral Systems is an accurate, fast, all-in-one solution for locating ground-to-satellite transmission sources. Powerful, flexible and modular, satID uniquely blends complex science and algorithms with sophisticated hardware and DSP processing, resulting in an easy-to-use package for locating and identifying sources of interference due to equipment failure, operator error and intentional jamming, as well as unauthorized users. Due to a variety of practical antenna and transmitter characteristics, a protected signal sent to satellite X is often received at extremely low power levels by nearby satellite Y. Similarly, reference signals from known locations and interfering signals (accidental or intentional) aimed at satellite X can also be received at satellite Y. As a result, downlinks from satellites X and Y often carry the protected, reference and interfering signals. Utilizing sophisticated signal analysis and DSP capabilities, along with advanced Cross Ambiguity Functions (CAF), satID precisely correlates all received signals to accurately determine Differential Time Offset (DTO) and Differential Frequency Offset (DFO) information for each. DTO and DFO information is then processed to determine the estimated ground location of the interfering signal, as well as a high confidence ellipse encompassing any uncertainties in the results.

Kathryn Herr, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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