The GEO Belt

Geospatial Intelligence - Foundation

United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s purpose is to promote the geospatial intelligence tradecraft and to develop a stronger community of interest between government, industry, academia, professional organizations and individuals who share a mission focused around the development and application of geospatial intelligence to address national security objectives.

Toward this end, the Foundation shall seek to accomplish the following broad objectives:

• To sponsor, conduct and support public discussion groups, panels, lectures and forum, to which will be invited members of the public, scientists, governmental leaders and others for an interchange of views and the instruction of the public on the topics under review.

• To publish and distribute educational publications relevant to civic associations, governmental bodies, libraries, schools, universities and other interested groups (educational activities shall be designed and presented in a manner that will enable the listener or reader to draw his or her own conclusions) In doing so, the Foundation shall not espouse policies of positions the accomplishment of which may only be achieved by the passage or defeat of legislation.

• To conduct sponsor or promote educational programs including, but not limited to, programs for teachers, administrators and students.

• To award scholarships to students at accredited institutions of higher education to pursue geospatial intelligence disciplines, to include such areas as: geographic information systems, remote sensing, intelligence analysis, and other related topical areas.

Geospatial intelligence

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency building at the Fort Belvoir North Area in Springfield.

Geospatial intelligence, GEOINT (GEOspatial INTelligence), GeoIntel (Geospatial Intelligence), or GSI (GeoSpatial Intelligence) is intelligence derived from the exploitation and analysis of imagery and geospatial information that describes, assesses, and visually depicts physical features and geographically referenced activities on the Earth. GEOINT consists of imagery, imagery intelligence (IMINT) and geospatial information.

GEOINT encompasses all aspects of imagery (including capabilities formerly referred to as Advanced Geospatial Intelligence and imagery-derived MASINT) and geospatial information and services (GI&S); formerly referred to as mapping, charting, and geodesy). It includes, but is not limited to, data ranging from the ultraviolet through the microwave portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, as well as information derived from the analysis of literal imagery; geospatial data; and information technically derived from the processing, exploitation, literal, and non-literal analysis of spectral, spatial, temporal, radiometric, phase history, polarimetric data, fused products (that is products created out of two or more data sources), and the ancillary data needed for data processing and exploitation, and signature information (to include development, validation, simulation, data archival, and dissemination). These types of data can be collected on stationary and moving targets by electro-optical (to include IR, MWIR, SWIR TIR, Spectral, MSI, HSI, HD), SAR (to include MTI), related sensor programs (both active and passive) and non-technical means (to include geospatial information acquired by personnel in the field).

Here Geospatial Intelligence, or the frequently used term GEOINT, is an intelligence discipline comprising the exploitation and analysis of geospatial data and information to describe, assess, and visually depict physical features (both natural and constructed) and geographically referenced activities on the Earth. Geospatial Intelligence data sources include imagery and mapping data, whether collected by commercial satellite, government satellite, aircraft (such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles [UAV] or reconnaissance aircraft), or by other means, such as maps and commercial databases, census information, GPS waypoints, utility schematics, or any discrete data that have locations on earth. There is an emerging recognition that "this legal definition paints with a broad brushstroke an idea of the width and depth of GEOINT" and “GEOINT must evolve even further to integrate forms of intelligence and information beyond the traditional sources of geospatial information and imagery, and must move from an emphasis on data and analysis to an emphasis on knowledge.”

Geospatial data, information, and knowledge

It should be noted that the definitions and usage of the terms geospatial data, geospatial information, and geospatial knowledge are not used consistently or unambiguously further exacerbating the situation. Geospatial data can (usually) be applied to the output of a collector or collection system before it is processed, i.e., data that was sensed. Geospatial Information is geospatial data that has been processed or had value added to it by a human or machine process. Geospatial knowledge is a structuring of geospatial information, accompanied by an interpretation or analysis. The terms Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom (DIKW) are difficult to define, but cannot be used interchangeably.

Quite simply, geospatial intelligence could be more readily defined as, data, information, and knowledge gathered about enemies (or potential enemies) that can be referenced to a particular location on, above, or below the earth's surface. The intelligence gathering method could include imagery, signals, measurements and signatures, and human sources, i.e., IMINT, SIGINT, MASINT, and HUMINT, as long as a geo-location can be associated with the intelligence.

Relationship to other "INTs"

Thus, rather than being a peer to the other "INTs", geospatial intelligence might better be viewed as the unifying structure of the earth's natural and constructed features (including elevations and depths)—whether as individual layers in a GIS or as composited into a map or chart, imagery representations of the earth, AND, the presentation of the existence of data, information, and knowledge derived from analysis of IMINT, SIGINT, MASINT, HUMINT, and other intelligence sources and disciplines.

The Intelligence, Defense, Homeland Security, and natural disaster assistance communities would all benefit from this unifying structure of foundation feature data, current and historical imagery, and the data, information and knowledge that each intelligence discipline gathers, analyzes, assesses, and presents on a globe. This unifying aspect of geospatial intelligence can be viewed as a global extent Geographic Information System (GIS) to which all community members contribute by geo-tagging their content.

Other factors

It has been suggested that GEOINT is just a new term used to identify a broad range of outputs from intelligence organizations that use a variety of existing spatial skills and disciplines including photogrammetry, cartography, imagery analysis, remote sensing, and terrain analysis. However, GEOINT is more than the sum of these parts. Spatial thinking as applied in Geospatial Intelligence can synthesize any intelligence or other data that can be conceptualized in a geographic spatial context. Geospatial Intelligence can be derived entirely independent of any satellite or aerial imagery and can be clearly differentiated from IMINT (imagery intelligence). Confusion and dissension is caused by Title 10 U.S. Code §467's separation of "imagery" or "satellite information" from "geospatial information" as imagery is generally considered just one of the forms which geospatial information might take or be derived from.

It has also been suggested[by whom?] that geospatial intelligence can be described as a product occurring at the point of delivery, i.e., by the amount of analysis which occurs to resolve particular problems, not by the type of data used. For example, a database containing a list of measurements of bridges obtained from imagery is 'information' while the development of an output using analysis to determine those bridges that are able to be utilized for specific purposes could be termed 'intelligence'. Similarly, the simple measurement of beach profiles is a classical geographic information-gathering activity, while the process of selecting a beach that matches a certain profile for a specific purpose is an analytical activity, and the output could be termed an intelligence product. In this form it is considered to be generally used by agencies requiring definitions of their outputs for descriptive and capability development purposes (or, more cynically, as a marketing strategy).

Geospatial intelligence analysis has been light-heartedly defined as “seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” However, these perspectives affirm that creating geospatial knowledge is an effortful cognitive process the analyst undertakes; it is an intellectual endeavor that arrives at a conclusion through reasoning. Geospatial reasoning creates the objective connection between a geospatial problem representation and geospatial evidence. Here one set of activities, information foraging, focuses around finding information while another set of activities, sensemaking, focuses on giving meaning to the information. The activities of foraging and sense making in geospatial analysis have been incorporated in the Structured Geospatial Analytic Method.

Mini Satellites

FITSAT-1 (NIWAKA)

Tiny Satellites Leave Station
ISS033-E-009458 (4 Oct. 2012) --- Several tiny satellites are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 33 crew member on the International Space Station. The satellites were released outside the Kibo laboratory using a Small Satellite Orbital Deployer attached to the Japanese module's robotic arm on Oct. 4, 2012. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Aki Hoshide, flight engineer, set up the satellite deployment gear inside the lab and placed it in the Kibo airlock. The Japanese robotic arm then grappled the deployment system and its satellites from the airlock for deployment.

FITSAT-1 (NIWAKA)

Has been developed as a 5.8GHz high speed transmitter for artificial satellites. It consists of an exciter module with a 115.2kbps FSK modulator and a liner amplifier which amplifies a 10mW signal to 4W. We are now developing a small artificial satellite named FITSAT-1. It also has the nickname “NIWAKA”. The shape is a 10cm cube, and the weight is 1.33kg.
The main mission of this satellite is to demonstrate the high speed transmitter developed. It can send a jpeg VGA-picture(480×640) within 6 seconds.
FITSAT-1, will write messages in the night sky with Morse code, helping researchers test out optical communication techniques for satellites. After its deployment from the orbiting lab, the cubesat’s high-output LEDs will blink in flash mode, generating a Morse code beacon signal. The flashing light from FITSAT-1 will be received by a Fukuoka Institute of Technology ground station that has a telescope and a photo-multiplier device linked to an antenna.
(The others are classified )

National Reconnaissance Office - Vigilance from Above

A new U.S. spy satellite launched into orbit Wednesday, kicking off a clandestine national security mission for the National Reconnaissance Office.

The NROL-38 reconnaissance spacecraft lifted off at 8:28 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket. It marked a milestone flight for the rocket company, a partnership between Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

"Congratulations to the NRO and to all the mission partners involved in this critical national security launch," Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president for Mission Operations, said in a statement.

"This launch marks an important milestone as we celebrate the 50th successful Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) mission, with 31 Atlas 5 and 19 Delta 4 missions flown since August 2002."

The Chantilly, Va.-based NRO manages the design, construction and operation of the United States' network of intelligence-gathering spy satellites.

ULA officials broadcast the initial liftoff of the Atlas 5 rocket and spy satellite live via satellite and webcast, but cut off the video stream several minutes after launch due to the classified nature of the mission. 

The NROL-38 mission will contribute toward the military's national defense program, though the details of how will be kept under wraps. Few specifics of the satellite's deign and purpose are publicly available, and the mission went into a media blackout shortly after liftoff.

The launch comes just days after the end of another secret government mission, the second flight of the Air Force's classified X-37B space plane.

The robotic vehicle, also known as Orbital Test Vehicle-2 (OTV-2), landed June 16 at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, ending a 15-month mission kept largely confidential.

Today's mission is the first of three NRO launches on ULA vehicles planned for the next two months. Next in line is the NROL-15 mission due to launch on a Delta 4 rocket June 28 from Space Launch Complex-37, also at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

"Twelve of the 50 EELV launches have been NRO missions and these have been vital to our overall mission of delivering on commitments critical to our national security," said Bruce Carlson, director of the National Reconnaissance Office. "I thank and congratulate ULA and the EELV program for the tremendous performance and achievement of this very impressive and noteworthy milestone."

The Atlas 5 rocket that launched today stands 191.2 feet (58.3 meters) tall and includes one main booster powered by the RD AMROSS RD-180 engine. Its Centaur upper stage was powered by a single Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RL10A-4 engine.

Advanced Extremely High Frequency Satellite II

The United States Air Force launched an advanced communications satellite Friday, the second in a new fleet of spacecraft that should improve American and allied military commanders' ability to control their forces around the globe.

The Air Force's Advanced Extremely High Frequency 2 (AEHF 2) satellite lifted off at 2:42 p.m. EDT from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, riding toward a preliminary orbit aboard an Atlas 5 rocket. The spacecraft will work its way toward its final geosynchronous orbit, about 22,300 miles (35,888 kilometers) up, over the next three months or so, officials have said.

The launch was originally slated for Thursday, but a flow problem in one of the Atlas 5's systems pushed things back a day.

The $1.7 billion satellite is part of the AEHF network, which could ultimately include up to six spacecraft. The new constellation is an upgrade over the military's current Milstar system of five functioning satellites, the first of which launched in 1994.

"The second AEHF spacecraft will provide greater connectivity, flexibility and control to U.S. and international partner forces," said Col. Michael Sarchet, the government's AEHF program manager, in a statement. "The AEHF constellation will augment and replace the venerable Milstar constellation, improving on many capabilities to include 10 times greater throughput."

AEHF will provide global, secure, jam-resistant communications for military operations on land, sea and air, officials said. The network features the highest levels of encryption, and it will allow commanders to control their forces "at all levels of conflict through general nuclear war," according to an Air Force fact sheet.

As its name implies, AEHF 2 is the second satellite in the fleet to launch. AEHF 1 blasted off in August 2010, but its main engine failed to fire as planned to lift it to its final orbit. The spacecraft's controllers managed to save it, however, using secondary thrusters to boost it to the correct location over a span of 14 months.

Aerospace firm Lockheed Martin builds the AEHF spacecraft for the Air Force. The satellites weigh about 7 tons and have power-generating solar panels 89 feet long (27 meters). They're designed to operate for at least 14 years in orbit.

The Air Force's current plan calls for launching a total of four AEHF satellites, though negotiations to add two more spacecraft to the fleet are ongoing, Air Force officials said.

The NROL-25 Mission

Within the enclosed confines of the massive Space Launch Complex 6 pad at the southern end of California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, a site once envisioned to fly the space shuttle, a Delta 4 rocket and its classified satellite cargo are undergoing final preps for blastoff next week.

Liftoff is scheduled for Thursday, March 29 on the NROL-25 mission to deploy a hush-hush payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, the secretive government agency that designs and operates the country's fleet of orbiting spy satellites.

Although the exact launch time hasn't been revealed, officials say the liftoff will happen sometime between 2 and 5:15 p.m. local time (5-8:15 p.m. EDT; 2100-0015 GMT).

The launch will be the first of four that the NRO has planned this year, a batch of missions that also includes an Atlas 5 on June 20 and a Delta 4-Heavy on June 28, both from Cape Canaveral, and another Atlas 5 from Vandenberg on Aug. 2.

"Last year we executed the most aggressive launch campaign in over 25 years. We successfully launched six satellites in seven months and this year with the same determination we're scheduled to launch four more in five months," Betty Sapp, the NRO's principal deputy director, said in testimony before Congress on March 8. [Photos: Declassified U.S. Spy Satellites Revealed]

"These successful launches are a very important and visible reminder of the space reconnaissance mission the NRO started over 50 years ago, and continues with such great success today. We are committed to smart acquisition investments and practices to ensure the continued coverage and availability of our vital national security systems and we work tirelessly to deliver these systems on time and within budget."

Spy satellite surge

Last year's remarkable launch surge used various types of Atlas and Delta rocketsto launch replacement satellites into virtually all of the NRO's networks of imaging, eavesdropping, surveillance and data-relay spacecraft, plus the small Minotaur booster lofted a research and development payload.

"From launching and operating the most technically-capable systems to continued operations of legacy satellites the NRO remains the premier space reconnaissance organization in the world," said Sapp.

The identities of the satellites going up this year are not disclosed to the public. But NRO Director Bruce Carlson recently said the upcoming deployments will refresh the agency's ability to continue guarding U.S. national security.

"The launch of these systems will not only improve on the NRO's capabilities, they will also help reduce the overall age of our constellation and better deal with today's and tomorrow's global threats," he said.

More often than not, the purpose of any NRO launch is the rejuvenation of the existing constellation by replacing an aging orbiting asset with a new satellite or bringing the next generation on line. That was the major achievement of last year's surge, which came as the NRO was celebrating its 50th anniversary.

"Most aggressive launch schedule in 25 years and the satellites we launched were more complex and technically demanding than any we have launched before," Carlson said. "Through this campaign and the dedicated efforts of the NRO workforce, we proved once again that the NRO knows how to develop, acquire, launch, and operate our nation's intelligence collection satellite constellation and our worldwide coverage is as good as it has been in years."

The average age of the NRO's satellites has been reduced thanks to the newest birds put on orbit, he added, while other spacecraft see their missions evolving from the original intent to face the current threats around the globe.

"Majority of constellation is aging, but despite age of some satellites, still very robust, adaptable," he said. "Some designed to monitor Soviet communication in Northern Fleet are now used to geo-locate sensitive signals in the war zone."

Launch date looms

Next week's deployment will use the United Launch Alliance's Delta 4 rocket flying for the first time in its Medium+ (5,2) configuration, which features a single core stage filled with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, a pair of strap-on solid-fuel boosters, a five-meter-diameter cryogenic upper stage and similarly sized nose cone to shroud the payload during the climb through Earth's atmosphere. [Spaceflight Now Launch Status Updates]

The towering vehicle will stand about 217 feet tall.

This is the only version of the five Delta 4 configurations that hasn't been used in the program's 18 previous launches from Florida and California. The most recent launch in January flew a close comparison, but it had the maximum number of four strap-on boosters for extra thrust off the pad instead of just two needed for the NROL-25 mission.

The payload's size likely drove the mission planners to pick a Delta 4 with the roomier nose cone size of five meters versus the other option of four meters in diameter.

The rocket will soar away from Vandenberg leaving a smoky contrail that should be visible for miles around, heading over the Pacific towards an undisclosed orbital perch.

Hobbyist satellite observers around the world will have their eyes on the sky looking to spot the new object and figure out which segment of the NRO constellation is was launched to fill.

U.S. satellite spies

It is widely understood that the NRO operates different types of satellites that include eavesdropping for intelligence-gathering, high-resolution imaging birds that collect exquisite pictures of ground targets, all-weather radar platforms to perform surveillance day and night, ship-tracking spacecraft, and the necessary communications craft to relay data from the lower-orbiting assets when they are flying outside the range of tracking stations.

All of the information obtained is shared with analysts, policy makers and the warfighters in the global hotspots.

"In 2011 alone, NRO provided extremely valuable intelligence supporting more than 15 operations to capture or kill high value targets in combat areas. In addition, NRO supported more than 120 tactical operations locating Improvised Explosive Devices, helping to prevent the most lethal attacks against our ground combat forces.

These tactical support operations also included support to ground and air tactical actions; counter-terrorist actions; and maritime anti-piracy/interdiction. We also provided vital overhead support to 17 critical Combat Search and Rescue missions. In addition to ground combat operations support, NRO supported 33 Strait of Hormuz transits ensuring U.S. Naval Forces had the intelligence assistance needed for safe passage," Sapp said in open testimony to Congress.

"In both the U.S. Central and African Command Areas of Operations, NRO has developed and deployed more than 25 reference emitters which have been used over 13,000 times, and provided a significant enhancement in our ability to geo-locate surface to air missile radar systems. This new capability has allowed U.S. and Coalition military forces to be extremely precise in targeting these significant threats." [Top 10 Space Weapons Concepts]

What's more, the NRO has sped up the turnaround time from the collection of information by the satellites to delivering that data to users like combatant commanders through new state-of-the-art systems.

"Ongoing counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism activities have underscored the tremendous impact of these systems in support of combat operations throughout the Eastern Hemisphere," said Sapp. "NRO has responded with an accelerated fielding of these ground systems that can quickly support finding and alerting potential insurgent events and meeting United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) requirements for near-real-time situational awareness battlespace."

Sophisticated space surveillance

The NRO spacecraft are considered to be some of the most sophisticated and technologically advanced in the world. But their exact capabilities, appearances and features are classified, with the public finding out only generally what they do.

"The NRO is doing amazing things today. Our reconnaissance satellites are saving lives, protecting our nation from those who would do us harm and informing our national command authorities and policy makers," said Carlson.

"In the past, the process had built-in delays. Days passed before intelligence community analysts could analyze imagery that we recovered from space. That has all changed. Today we are putting data into the hands of analysts, products into the hands of warfighters, and critical information into the hands of policy makers in time to make a difference."

SpaceflightNow will provide complete coverage of next week's launch as the NRO's latest bird takes flight from the Central Coast of California

Mobile User Objective System (MUOS)

The Navy has launched a new communications satellite after two weather-related scrubs last week.

An Atlas V rocket carrying the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite launched from Cape Canaveral at 5:15 p.m. Friday.

The $2.1 billion narrowband tactical satellite communications system was built by Lockheed Martin and is designed to improve ground communications with mobile ground forces.

It's the first of five that will replace the current Ultra High Frequency Follow-On (UFO) system. MUOS is designed to move 10 times more information than the existing systems. The communications will use voice, video and data simultaneously using 3G technology.

Wideband Global Satellites

Senior defense officials from six countries announced a multilateral partnership in wideband global satellite (WGS) communication, which is valued at more than $10 billion, Jan. 17 here.

The officials from Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the U.S. held an initial WGS partnership steering committee meeting prior to the announcement.

“This new WGS partnership provides an example of how the U.S. plans to continue exploring opportunities to strengthen our existing cooperative relationship and to build new partnerships,” said Heidi Grant, the Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force for International Affairs. “These activities will bolster our mutual trust, help to achieve further interoperability for our warfighters, and will increase the capabilities and capacity of all partners.”

Currently, there are three WGS satellites in orbit, with six additional satellites scheduled for launches from 2012 through 2018, including a ninth satellite that is enabled by the new partnership.

“With this arrangement, each partner’s unique level of requirement will be accommodated corresponding to each partner’s level of contribution,” Grant said. “The United States’ contribution to the agreement includes the development, fielding and operation of eight satellites, and the launch services and operations for a ninth satellite.”

According to Grant, the multilateral partners contributed $620 million of the approximate $1 billion cost to expand the WGS System with a ninth satellite.

“This is a model of a good way to do business,” said Maj. Gen. John Hyten, the director of Space Programs in the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition. “From an Air Force acquisition perspective, it improves our ability to acquire the constellation in an efficient manner because it keeps an active production line going, it allows us to achieve efficiencies in the production line (and) it saves us money in the long term by having a very efficient program.

“From an operational perspective for our Air Force operators, it puts (them) on the same system as the coalition partners,” he said.

The general explained that Air Force operators receive air tasking orders via wideband communications, and now each partner nation has access to the system and can receive ATOs through that same system.