AGI Geospatial Analysis Showcase Recap

Robert Cardillo, former director National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) was the keynote at the AGI Geospatial Analysis Showcase on April 28^th. Cardillo brings background and depth to the topic. Currently president of the Cardillo Group, he supports the intelligence profession and bigger GEOINT community, and also serves as a member of the board of directors and consultant to Cesium.

With more raw data than ever to analyze, visualize, and deliver, geospatial intelligence has become dauntingly complex. AGI and Cesium can help discover the power of hosting multiple datasets in a unified 3D geospatial data platform and turn raw data into precise visualizations — accompanied by analytical details — that you can be streamed on any device.

Cardillo began by talking about how the pandemic will change just about everything. The need to anticipate tomorrow – scan the horizon, identify threats before events dictate is what we have been doing in intelligence. Covid-19 reminds us of the cost of systemic failure, he points out. Cardillo reminded us of American ingenuity by outlining a historical framework of events in a geointelligence context, leading up today.

The following are some high points from his keynote address: “The time will appear when the world will experience continual sensing all the time, we will be connected as never before. With such radical transparency one can recognize the wildlife, weapons, drug smugglers, and polluters and we can be better arranged to respond to disasters, state intrusion of private lives of citizens. Nearly anything that would or could be measured about life on earth will be sensed and delivered, to realize potential and measurements it will take companies like yours to do.

1500 years ago – the idea of property and more specifically private property was born. Our ancestors could own a designated piece of property and this made a sea change, they could create barriers and secure what they owned, livestock, grain, etc. when the first backyard was designed – what happened after that moment, we began to share an interest in each other’s backyards, and we needed security in a dangerous world. While I can respect your privacy for your backyard, we can look into each other’s backyard, hold shared awareness, have more understanding and less competition.

Looking into each other’s backyards we seek a better view, to lead to more insight, awareness understanding and corresponding confidence and security. A struggling entrepreneur took someone else’s idea – Galileo created the telescope to mitigate the threat of pirates raiding ships in Venice harbor. Remote sensing was born, i.e., scanning the horizon, identifying threats before they become events.

Hot air balloons flew over Civil War battlefields, and by combining hot air balloons and the telegraph they were able to provide real time reporting of the war. That’s American ingenuity.

Heavier than air flight came into being in World War I and II and the two major victors, the U.S. and Soviets, used it. As the Iron Curtain spread across Europe it became harder for the U.S. to look into their backyard, so they created the hydrogen bomb which was a threat to Eisenhower and the U.S. That same year, 1953, the Lockheed Corporation proposed a revolutionary aircraft that flew over missiles and could peek into their backyard. It was approved by the government in 1954, and that’s American ingenuity.

Over next five years that innovation gave Eisenhower an enhanced understanding of threat.

Then an SAT 2 surface-to-air missile built by the U.S. detonated at 30,000 feet. After that we were blind again, the Corona satellite program took its first image from space of a strategic soviet airbase, and then we had access that led to insight.

Challenges included figuring out how to expose film and shutter traveling at 22,000 mph, modifying a transport with a trapeze so that it would float over the ocean. The pursuit of advantage has not changed, we’re still scanning the horizon. With no more barriers to space, we are in many ways back to where we started in the early days of civilization. I spent my entire analytic career chasing imagery, now the imagery is chasing the analyst.

High definition is very hard under chaos. The first thing you need is a reference frame. You need a foundation that can assimilate, collate and provide coherence to all datasets.

There is a true market advantage with gaining coherence from chaos. The rising tide of data has the potential to overwhelm us. That tide is cresting now in a critical curve of the wave. If one thinks of Google of providing a lens to redefine the internet, Amazon is digitalizing the human economy, and they are two of the top five successful companies. The product infers where we live, how we live, what we do, so who will  be first to digitalize the world’s economies? What’s at stake? Where are the people and why are the people there?

Transparency favors justice and evil lurks in the dark. The growth of surveillance will continue. The question is how do we deal with this inevitability?

Transparency leads to shared awareness, shared perspective, and shared experience. Can also mean different point of view.

As a species we’re on a cusp of awareness of our planet, leading to real time. Which technology will translate this into engaging discussions, challenging assumptions, better scanning of horizon?”

One of Cardillo’s summarizing points is as follows: “Measurements represent potential benefit – model, simulate, analyze.”

The remainder of the showcase featured four sessions about solving geospatial intelligence issues using AGI and Cesium software:

• STK and Cesium for multi-domain operations. STK and Cesium work together to support multi-domain operations, including time-dynamic 3D visualization.

STK and Cesium for multi-domain operations is fast precise and smooth user experience.

It is easily shareable and viewable via browser on any device.

Cesium Stories are  intuitive to use and no coding required to quickly build, visualize and share.

Digital engineering is the use of digital models. You can make them in SDK and use other softwares like Dassault and PTC. To speed analysis and reduce models you can put them in STK. This is being used for design to test to operations, digital mission engineering and digital mission operations. Getting digital mission to model.

• The imagery satellite collects the requested imagery in this case study of Honolulu.
• It passes the imagery information to a communications satellite.
• A ground station in Seattle receives the information.
• It transmits requested imagery back to the aircraft.
• Terrain data is provided by Vricon.
• E-3 AWACS receives the imagery from the ground station.
• It passes the imagery to the carrier’s crew who requested it.
• On the USS Abraham Lincoln, the crew receives the imagery it requested.

STK is great at offering at varying levels of fidelity. The quick demo was showing how you can bring in a Cesium file and view it in Cesium Ion. STK can bring the time and objects, show them in Cesium and create a model for Cesium Stories overall. You can stream 3D tiles into STK, with OGC specifications and use that in STK to look at analytics as well.

• Geospatial server solutions. Out-of-the-box solutions for public domain and on-premise private networks.
• Building custom geospatial server solutions. Developer tools: using the Cesium Ion Engine and STK Components.
• Cloud-based geospatial analytics. Opportunities for imagery collection and for analysts to communicate and share their results.

Tags: 3D Laser Mapping, cloud, data, geospatial, GIS, Infrastructure, intelligence, laser scanner, LiDAR, location, mapping, maps, mobile, mobile mapping, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, remote sensing, satellite imagery, situational intelligence

Categories: 3D Cities, Airbus Defense and Space, aircraft tracking, Big Data, climate change, cloud, cloud network analytics, data, disaster relief, emergency response, field GIS, GEOINT, geospatial, GIS, government, lidar, location intelligence, mapping, NGA, OGC, photogrammetry, public safety, satellite based tracking, satellite imagery, sensors, space-based flight tracking, spatial data, transportation

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