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THE WORLD’S GUIDE TO COMMERCIAL REMOTE SENSING<br />
Spring 2004 Vol. 19 No. 2<br />
More than imagery … intelligence<br />
Securing airports<br />
Warfighter use of imagery<br />
Geospatial technology<br />
& world threats<br />
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spring 2004<br />
contents » vol.19 » no.2<br />
departments<br />
4<br />
Cover Image<br />
Dublin Airport<br />
6 MarketScan<br />
Industry Info<br />
8<br />
31<br />
Policy Watch<br />
A Challenge from Europe: GMES<br />
Events Calendar<br />
6<br />
12<br />
28<br />
features<br />
12<br />
16<br />
20<br />
22<br />
25<br />
28<br />
Law Enforcement<br />
Transit-based technology solutions<br />
Geospatial Technology and<br />
World Threats<br />
Modeling of disaster scenarios in American cities<br />
Warfighter Use of<br />
Commercial Imagery<br />
Better battlespace situational awareness<br />
Optical Processing<br />
Adding shape-based search technology<br />
More Than Imagery —<br />
Intelligence<br />
The transition of earth imagery to a critical<br />
element in homeland security<br />
Securing Airports<br />
GIS mapping and AVL technology<br />
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cover image<br />
The World’s Guide to Commercial Remote Sensing<br />
Spring 2004 / Vol. 19 / No. 2<br />
PUBLISHER<br />
Myrna James Yoo<br />
Publishing Partnerships LLC<br />
myrna@publishingpartnerships.com<br />
ART DIRECTOR<br />
Jürgen Mantzke<br />
Enf ineitz LLC<br />
jmantzke@earthlink.net,<br />
www.enf ineitz.com<br />
EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTIONS<br />
<strong>Imaging</strong> <strong>Notes</strong> welcomes contributions<br />
for feature articles. We publish articles on<br />
the remote earth imaging industry, including<br />
applications, technolog y, and business.<br />
Please see Contributor’s Guidelines on<br />
www.imagingnotes.com, and email proposals<br />
to editor@publishingpartnerships.com.<br />
SUBSCRIPTIONS<br />
To subscribe, please go to www.imagingnotes.com,<br />
and click on ‘subscribe.’ Subscriptions are free for<br />
those who qualify.<br />
For changes, please submit changes with<br />
old and new information to<br />
imagingnotes@spaceimaging.com.<br />
<strong>Imaging</strong> <strong>Notes</strong> is published quarterly by<br />
Publishing Partnerships LLC,<br />
PO Box 11569, Denver CO 80211<br />
Regarding national security<br />
and defense, airports, ports<br />
and other points of entry<br />
are significant.<br />
This is an IKONOS natural color image<br />
of Dublin Airport in the Irish Republic,<br />
locally known as Aer Rianta, Dublin. This<br />
airport is some 10 kilometers north of<br />
the city of Dublin, which is on the eastern<br />
shore of the island of Ireland.<br />
The image, acquired October 19th,<br />
2002, is superimposed with an airport<br />
mapping database (AMDB) developed<br />
by Space <strong>Imaging</strong> Solutions. These<br />
vector GIS databases implemented<br />
in ESRI Shapefiles provide extensive<br />
details about the runways, taxiways,<br />
aprons, parking positions, hangars<br />
and other surface features of the<br />
airport. This airport is also known as<br />
EIDW, its designation by the International<br />
Civil Aviation Organization. «<br />
<strong>Imaging</strong> <strong>Notes</strong> (ISSN 0896-7091),<br />
Copyright © 2004<br />
by Space <strong>Imaging</strong> LLC,<br />
12076 Grant Street,<br />
Thornton, CO 80241<br />
Although trademark and copyright symbols<br />
are not used in this publication,<br />
they are honored.<br />
© 2004 Space <strong>Imaging</strong> LLC<br />
www.imagingnotes.com<br />
<strong>Imaging</strong> <strong>Notes</strong> is printed on<br />
20% recycled (10% post-consumer<br />
waste) paper. All inks used contain<br />
a percentage of soy base. Our printer meets<br />
or exceeds all federal Resource Conservation<br />
Recovery Act (RCRA) Standards.<br />
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ASPRS — 70 years of service to the profession<br />
NEW!<br />
The Manual of Remote Sensing, 3 rd Edition<br />
Volume 4: Remote Sensing for Natural Resource Management &<br />
Environmental Monitoring<br />
Andrew B. Rencz, PhD, Editor-in-Chief<br />
Volume Editor: Susan Ustin<br />
848+ pp. Hardcover + CD Rom. 2004.<br />
ISBN: 0-471-31793-4<br />
Stock # 4571<br />
Students $120<br />
List Price: $198 ASPRS Members $150<br />
Volume 4 addresses the use of remote sensing technology in<br />
natural resource management and environmental monitoring.<br />
Comprehensive, authoritative, and up-to-date, it covers<br />
terrestrial ecosystems, aquatic ecosystems, and agriculture<br />
ecosystems, as well as future directions in technology and<br />
research.<br />
Chapters<br />
1. Soils and Soil Processes<br />
2. Biophysical Remote Sensing Signatures of Arid and<br />
Semi-arid Ecosystems<br />
3. Arid Regions: Challenges and Opportunities<br />
4. Temporate and Boreal Forests<br />
5. Tropical Forests<br />
6. Tropical Freshwater Wetlands<br />
7. Rivers & Lakes<br />
8. Coastal Margins and Estuaries<br />
9. Grazing Agriculture - Managed Pasture, Grassland<br />
and Rangeland<br />
10. Dryland Crops<br />
12. Application of Image-based Remote Sensing to<br />
Irrigated Agriculture<br />
13. Environmental Processes: State of the Science and<br />
New Directions<br />
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market scan<br />
Industry Info<br />
Research Available<br />
The 10-Year Industry Forecast, sponsored<br />
by NOAA and NASA, is available<br />
from ASPRS for $25 U.S. The Executive<br />
Summary is available free of charge from<br />
the website.<br />
www.asprs.org<br />
U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation<br />
The United States Geospatial Intelligence<br />
Foundation is a consortium of<br />
government, industry, academic and<br />
professional organizations that share a<br />
mission focus around the development<br />
and application of geospatial intelligence<br />
data and geo-processing resources<br />
to address National Security objectives.<br />
Founder and Chairman of the Board is<br />
K. Stuart Shea, vice president and executive<br />
director of the Space & Intelligence<br />
Operating Unit, Northrop Grumman<br />
Information Technology, TASC. Steven<br />
Jacques is vice president of Operations.<br />
He is a legislative and business development<br />
consultant for Space & Intelligence<br />
programs, Jacques & Associates, Inc.<br />
The group is producing the GEOINT 2004<br />
Symposium in October, formerly GEO-<br />
INTEL 2003.<br />
www.usgif.org<br />
Space Organizations Create<br />
National Alliance<br />
Four leading space organizations<br />
— the National Space<br />
Society, Satellite Industry<br />
Association (SIA), The Space<br />
Foundation, and Washington<br />
Space Business Roundtable<br />
— created the National Space<br />
and Satellite Alliance (NSSA).<br />
NSSA members will coordinate<br />
their Washington operations,<br />
programs and activities to<br />
provide more cohesive and unified<br />
advocacy of space policy issues in<br />
Washington and more effectively<br />
serve their members’ interests.<br />
The stated mission of NSSA is<br />
“to marshal the resources of the<br />
space and satellite advocacy<br />
community to most effectively<br />
advance the exploration and development<br />
of space as well as the<br />
utilization of space and satellite<br />
systems and technologies.”<br />
Brian Chase, vice president of<br />
Washington Operations for the<br />
Space Foundation, is the first<br />
elected chairman of NSSA.<br />
www.spacealliance.org<br />
Dubai Police Using Imagery for Security Operations<br />
Dubai Police awarded Space <strong>Imaging</strong> Middle East a contract to deliver<br />
multi-scale satellite imagery of the country, after the imagery was used to<br />
support the police security operations during the IMF meeting held in Dubai<br />
in September 2003.<br />
SIME collected 1-meter, high-resolution imagery of Dubai derived from<br />
the IKONOS satellite while the rest of the UAE was collected with a resolution<br />
of 5-meters from the IRS satellites.<br />
The imagery is also used as an accurate background reference in an<br />
existing vehicle tracking system. The GPS system of each vehicle is linked<br />
to an IKONOS-derived map in the operation control room. Dubai Police also<br />
complemented its existing base maps with IRS 5-meter resolution imagery<br />
for the entire UAE.<br />
www.spaceimagingME.com<br />
Applications<br />
The Kista Arctica vessel breaking through the icy waters of<br />
the Disko Banke region of the Davis Strait. This region is<br />
located off the west coast of Greenland. © Royal Arctic Line.<br />
Greenland’s Icy Water Navigated<br />
With RADARSAT-1 Imagery<br />
The Danish Meteorological Institute<br />
(DMI) signed a 2-year contract with RA-<br />
DARSAT International for the continued<br />
near real-time supply of RADARSAT-1<br />
data (within 2 - 4 hours from acquisition).<br />
The satellite data is used to<br />
create ice charts and reports that are<br />
sent via satellite to the bridges of ships<br />
while navigating the dangerous waters<br />
of the Greenland Sea. RADARSAT-1 data<br />
is delivered within hours of acquisition<br />
to DMI via a network of three RADAR-<br />
SAT-1 ground receiving stations: KSAT<br />
(Norway), QinetiQ (United Kingdom),<br />
and Gatineau (Canada).<br />
This will be the 6th consecutive year<br />
that DMI has been using RADARSAT-1<br />
data. The satellite data has now fully<br />
replaced the use of aircraft for ice<br />
reconnaissance.<br />
www.rsi.ca<br />
Geospatial Intelligence Provided to U.S. Department of Defense’s Grand Challenge<br />
The Defense Advanced Research<br />
Projects Agency (DARPA) — the<br />
research and development arm of the<br />
Department of Defense — held the<br />
first Grand Challenge off-road race<br />
of robotic land vehicles on March 13.<br />
The top team from Carnegie Mellon<br />
University, called “The Red Team,”<br />
used 10,000 square kilometers (3,861<br />
square miles) of IKONOS satellite<br />
imagery to help guide its ‘Sandstorm’<br />
robotic vehicle. The vehicle ran<br />
7.4 miles of the 150 mile course,<br />
further than any other.<br />
Space <strong>Imaging</strong> donated the<br />
imagery, worth $198,000, in<br />
hopes that it will become a core<br />
component in the development of<br />
this leading-edge technology. The<br />
color IKONOS imagery was used in a<br />
layered set of geographic information<br />
systems (GIS) data to develop<br />
potential race routes. Other data<br />
layers include USGS digital orthoquad<br />
(DOQ) aerial imagery, USGS<br />
digital elevation models (DEMs),<br />
DARPA-defined race corridors, differential<br />
GPS coordinate information<br />
obtained from ground reconnaissance,<br />
and LIDAR and sub-meter<br />
aerial imagery in select corridors.<br />
IKONOS satellite imagery was the<br />
only commercial satellite imagery<br />
used in the DARPA Grand Challenge<br />
race, though other companies<br />
supplied imagery for teams that did<br />
not participate. Initially, 106 teams<br />
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NASA Uses A “Sleuth” To Predict<br />
Urban Land Use<br />
According to researchers from the<br />
University of Maryland and Woods<br />
Hole Research Center, developed land<br />
in the greater Washington-Baltimore<br />
metropolitan area is projected to<br />
increase 80 percent by 2030. Scientists<br />
used a computer-based decision<br />
support model loaded with NASA<br />
and commercial satellite images to<br />
simulate three policies affecting land<br />
use and declining water quality in the<br />
Chesapeake Bay estuary.<br />
Observations from Landsat and<br />
IKONOS satellites were used in a<br />
United States Geological Survey<br />
(USGS) computer model, called<br />
SLEUTH. The model was applied to<br />
23,700 square kilometers (9,151<br />
square miles) of the Washington-Baltimore<br />
metropolitan area.<br />
NASA funded the study, with additional<br />
funds from the Chesapeake<br />
Bay Foundation. NASA’s Earth Science<br />
Enterprise is dedicated to understanding<br />
the Earth as an integrated<br />
system and applying Earth System<br />
Science to improve prediction of<br />
climate, weather, and natural hazards<br />
using the unique vantage point of<br />
space. The study is published in the<br />
March issue of Environment and Planning<br />
B. It explains how models may be<br />
used to forecast the effects of urban<br />
growth and runoff on the Chesapeake<br />
Bay estuary system.<br />
www.nasa.gov<br />
www.envplan.com/epb/epb_<br />
current.html<br />
Companies and Contracts<br />
Pictometry and Intermap Form Partnership<br />
Pictometry International Corporation, provider of a patented information<br />
system that captures digital aerial oblique and orthogonal images, as well<br />
as related software, has partnered with Intermap Technologies, which is<br />
building an unprecedented database, called NEXTMap, of highly accurate<br />
digital topographic maps. Pictometry will be able to offer its customer base<br />
of local, county, state and federal government end users the option to<br />
combine Pictometry’s digital images with Intermap’s terrain elevation data<br />
to create more accurate mapping products.<br />
www.pictometry.com<br />
www.intermaptechnologies.com<br />
Coastal California Data Collected by NOAA<br />
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal<br />
Services Center has completed the development of landcover and change<br />
data for the coastal zone of California. These data provide coastal resource<br />
managers, land planners and other researchers with valuable information<br />
about the state’s coastal landcover and how it changes over time.<br />
Through a contract with Boeing-Autometric/Earth Satellite Corp, landcover<br />
data was produced for the year 2001, as well as retrospectively for 1996.<br />
Landcover data produced as a part of its Coastal Change Analysis Program<br />
(C-CAP) consist of a 22-class system in which land cover types are classified<br />
into different categories, with special emphasis on coastal features<br />
such as wetlands. Development of C-CAP forest classes was supported by<br />
data from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Fire<br />
and Resource Assessment Program, which were used to enhance the final<br />
product. The NOAA Coastal Services Center is now working with the United<br />
States Geological Survey to incorporate these data into The National Map, a<br />
comprehensive, up-to-date, digital map of the country.<br />
Currently, NOAA is in the preliminary stages of developing coastal landcover<br />
and change data for the Gulf of Mexico and is completing data sets for<br />
Oregon and Washington.<br />
www.csc.noaa.gov/landcover<br />
Posters Available<br />
Posters of IKONOS imagery are for sale from Space <strong>Imaging</strong>’s online store.<br />
The store has over 100 posters of universities, cities, golf courses, race<br />
tracks and other landmarks available and are typically delivered within 10<br />
days. New categories and posters are being added to the inventory weekly.<br />
Each poster is created from the best IKONOS imagery available and is<br />
printed on photographic quality paper. These gallery quality prints are available<br />
in 3 sizes: 24x30 ($50), 16x20 ($35), and 8x10 ($25).<br />
www.spaceimaging.com/store «<br />
applied, with 86 submitting<br />
technical papers on time. Of<br />
these, 14 entered the race.<br />
In 2005, the DARPA cash award<br />
will increase to $2 million for the<br />
team that fields the first vehicle<br />
to complete the designated<br />
route of the next challenge<br />
within a specified time limit.<br />
www.spaceimaging.com/<br />
grandchallenge<br />
www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge<br />
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policy watch<br />
A Challenge from Europe:<br />
Global<br />
Monitoring for<br />
Environment and<br />
Security (GMES)<br />
Over the past three decades,<br />
Europe has developed a series of<br />
Earth observations satellites. Most<br />
of them have been developed by the<br />
European Space Agency (ESA) in close<br />
cooperation with the space programs<br />
of member countries. Europe now<br />
has a substantial Earth observations<br />
infrastructure, which it has used to<br />
support a variety of European public<br />
good applications, such as agricultural<br />
policy, environmental policy,<br />
and resource management. Major<br />
elements include ESA’s Envisat, ERS<br />
1 & 2, France’s SPOT, and Eumetsat’s<br />
Meteosat satellite systems. Several<br />
new systems are in the planning<br />
stages. However, this impressive array<br />
of satellite systems, which deliver<br />
high quality data, has lacked a robust<br />
data and information infrastructure<br />
to support it, one capable of delivering<br />
useful information products routinely<br />
and reliably to customers.<br />
In an effort to bring greater coherence<br />
to Europe’s use of its satellite<br />
Earth observation systems and its in<br />
situ systems (air, land, and sea) and<br />
to provide the basis for future system<br />
planning, ESA and the European Union<br />
(EU), with the European Commission<br />
(EC) as the EU’s executive agent, have<br />
teamed in a program entitled Global<br />
Monitoring for Environment and<br />
Security (GMES). It is an ambitious<br />
program focused primarily on the<br />
pursuit of sustainable development<br />
and protection of the environment,<br />
and increasingly on security, broadly<br />
defined. When fully operational, it will<br />
serve as the cornerstone of Europe’s<br />
responses to global as well as regional<br />
environmental and security concerns.<br />
GMES is the next major Europe-wide<br />
space project after Galileo. Like Galileo,<br />
it is jointly managed by both the<br />
EU and ESA with participation from<br />
Eumetsat, governmental agencies,<br />
non-governmental organizations, and<br />
private firms.<br />
The early stages of GMES are now<br />
underway. The EU and ESA together<br />
have allocated nearly ¤200 million<br />
over four years to develop a series<br />
of useful applications and the data<br />
and information systems to support<br />
them. Individual states and the<br />
private sector are devoting approximately<br />
another ¤100 million to the EU<br />
effort. The EU is providing research<br />
funding for developing applications<br />
in environmental monitoring and<br />
management, regional development,<br />
environmental risk reduction, crisis<br />
management, and humanitarian aid.<br />
ESA is funding the development of the<br />
information systems to deliver the<br />
information to end users. With other<br />
funding, ESA is also developing new<br />
Earth observation satellite systems.<br />
Officials expect the entire system to<br />
be fully functional by 2008.<br />
GMES constitutes a central element<br />
in Europe’s strategy to use space<br />
technology to foster European innovation<br />
and to give Europe a greater<br />
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global role in the environmental<br />
debate over global warming, pollution,<br />
and other global issues. It will also<br />
support Europe’s growing interest in<br />
using space systems to support European<br />
security, the precise meaning of<br />
which is under development. It is the<br />
second space-related “flagship” program<br />
after Europe’s Galileo position,<br />
navigation, and timing system.<br />
GMES is part of a rapidly changing<br />
political environment for space activities<br />
in Europe, one that includes<br />
a new space policy thrust led by the<br />
European Union. The new policy was<br />
detailed in a November 2003 European<br />
Commission White Paper, “Space:<br />
A New European Frontier for an<br />
Expanding Union: An Action Plan for<br />
Implementing the European Space<br />
Policy.” This white paper has received<br />
the endorsement of both ESA and the<br />
EU Parliament.<br />
The policy urges a sustained,<br />
long-term effort to develop scientific<br />
knowledge and applications through<br />
space technologies, and to maintain<br />
independent access to space. It will<br />
be supported by an industrial policy<br />
aimed at “developing a competitive<br />
and innovative industrial base and a<br />
geographic spread of activities,” for<br />
example to the 10 Eastern European<br />
countries that are entering the EU this<br />
spring. It gives priority to the development<br />
of civil and commercial space<br />
technologies, particularly in launch<br />
services and satellite capabilities. This<br />
changing political environment also<br />
includes a drive to broaden the scope<br />
of ESA’s portfolio of technology development<br />
to include technologies with<br />
explicitly dual-use characteristics,<br />
such as advanced satellite communications,<br />
high resolution remote sensing,<br />
inter-satellite laser communication,<br />
and electronic surveillance.<br />
GMES offers both a challenge and<br />
an opportunity to the United States.<br />
The challenge: The early phases of<br />
GMES are centered on rationalizing the<br />
many different environmental data<br />
sources within Europe and giving them<br />
w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m<br />
coherence. This early effort will help<br />
to define needed new capabilities in<br />
both space and in situ systems. Thus,<br />
if implemented successfully, GMES will<br />
lead to the development of autonomous<br />
European capabilities to monitor<br />
the global environment, and of a vastly<br />
strengthened and highly competitive<br />
European geospatial private sector. It<br />
will also serve as an effective scientific<br />
counterbalance to U.S. positions in the<br />
international governance of the global<br />
environment in the decades ahead.<br />
The opportunity: Europe’s long<br />
term goal for GMES is to improve<br />
citizens’ quality of life and security<br />
by supporting environmental risk<br />
management and sustainable development.<br />
Hence, these capabilities<br />
will enable Europe to be a substantial<br />
partner with the United States and<br />
many other countries in establishing<br />
a truly global Earth observation<br />
program as called for at the Earth<br />
Observation Summit hosted by the<br />
White House in July 2003. The experience<br />
with GMES will provide useful<br />
organizational “lessons learned” for<br />
that major effort.<br />
Despite the optimistic picture<br />
that EU and ESA documents on GMES<br />
present, Europe faces many hurdles<br />
in bringing this ambitious program to<br />
fruition. The size and scope of GMES<br />
and the complex structure of space<br />
activities within Europe suggests<br />
that bringing long-term coherence to<br />
GMES will require continual vigilance<br />
and attention to detail in the program.<br />
Europe must rationalize several<br />
different data access, pricing, and<br />
distribution policies, not only within<br />
Europe, but also with potential partners<br />
beyond Europe. Further, the EU<br />
and ESA must find effective ways to<br />
bring the 10 new members joining the<br />
EU this spring into the program. Some<br />
countries, such as Poland and Hungary,<br />
may also wish to join ESA, which<br />
would assist the effort of merging the<br />
interests of the expanded EU and ESA.<br />
Finally, over the long term, Europe<br />
will have to find effective ways to<br />
maintain focus, momentum, and coordination<br />
as new scientific findings<br />
suggest new directions for applications.<br />
Nevertheless, GMES is an exciting<br />
development for the geospatial<br />
community. Not only Europe but also<br />
other countries will benefit from a<br />
successful GMES program. «<br />
Ray A. Williamson is research professor<br />
of space policy and international<br />
affairs in the Space Policy Institute<br />
of The George Washington University,<br />
Washington, D.C.<br />
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Law enforcement<br />
Transit-based technology solutions<br />
The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District<br />
(BART) is a combination aerial/subway transit system that spans four counties<br />
and 22 cities in California. BART transports 50 percent of the Bay Area commuter<br />
traffic across the San Francisco Bay and carries one-third of commuters<br />
into Oakland, connecting over 250,000 riders to their destinations daily. The<br />
District has a number of specialized departments to ensure smooth operations of<br />
the system; one such department is BART Police.<br />
The Police Department’s responsibilities include protection of BART patrons, of its<br />
own more than 2,000 employees, and of property throughout the district. BART Police<br />
is staffed with 280 employees, consisting of 215 sworn and 65 civilian employees. The<br />
department receives, on average, over 50,000 service calls a year, to which officers are<br />
required to respond. The tracking of this information and associated processes was<br />
dependent entirely upon manual processes and one 1960s mainframe computer, until<br />
the department’s recent technological journey. Although far from complete, some of<br />
the projects initiated in the last year include the procurement of a new Computer Aided<br />
Dispatch (CAD) and Records Management System (RMS), the addition of a department-wide<br />
document imaging system, creation of an intranet, and implementation of a<br />
Geographic Information System (GIS). Of these technologies, GIS is the most comprehensive,<br />
as it involves not only the hardware, but also a number of mapping software<br />
packages, data customization and significant changes in workflow processes.<br />
The implementation of the GIS was a five-month process, during which the department<br />
embarked on an extensive needs analysis. A number of divisions within the Police<br />
Department participated in the assessment by assigning their employees as members of<br />
the project team. These members identified a number of department needs, including<br />
staffing, technology and process changes. The project team was also responsible for<br />
researching GIS companies and grants available for public safety. BART Police chose<br />
to purchase their GIS from MapInfo Corporation, which coincidentally was offering a<br />
software grant for public safety. Once awarded the grant, BART Police began project<br />
12 S P R I N G 2 0 0 4 w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m
Carissa Goldner<br />
CAD/RMS Administrator<br />
BART Police Department<br />
Oakland, Calif.<br />
www.bart.gov<br />
implementation, with the help of local Map-<br />
Info resellers. The GIS was released for use<br />
in the department in November 2003. Since<br />
that time, the department has used the GIS<br />
to address effectively a number of critical<br />
areas of weakness identified during the needs<br />
assessment: (1) minimal functionality of the<br />
department’s mainframe; (2) the inability<br />
to effectively share data internally or crossjurisdictionally;<br />
(3) the inability to perform<br />
effective homeland security analyses; and (4)<br />
shrinking departmental resources.<br />
w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m<br />
(1) IMPROVING DATA M ANAGEMENT<br />
BART Police used the data management<br />
strengths of the GIS to counteract the<br />
weaknesses of the mainframe CAD/RMS.<br />
Information such as date, time and location<br />
of calls for service was extracted from the<br />
mainframe and imported into the GIS in<br />
a text format. This information was combined,<br />
in the GIS, with a number of imported<br />
Access databases that gathered information<br />
about victims, arrests, property, suspects,<br />
and suspect methods of operation. Once this<br />
information was concentrated into a single<br />
location, it was organized a number of ways<br />
and analyzed for patterns and consistencies.<br />
Furthermore, the data was then available for<br />
S P R I N G 2 0 0 4<br />
13
The department has used the<br />
GIS to address effectively a<br />
number of critical areas of<br />
weakness identified during<br />
the needs assessment.<br />
presentation in both visual or data form to<br />
a number of departments within BART. For<br />
example, the supervisor of the Information<br />
Technology Division may want a numeric<br />
report showing how many computers exist<br />
at each station, whereas the Chief of Police<br />
may want a visual report of the technology<br />
resources. Using the same data sets, this<br />
information could be distributed to both<br />
in several minutes. Furthermore, this data<br />
management capability has also helped<br />
BART Police address the challenge they face<br />
in sharing information across the department<br />
and with other law enforcement agencies<br />
within the four counties through which<br />
the BART system crosses.<br />
(2) INFOR M ATION SHARING AND<br />
CROSS -JURISDIC TIONAL COOPER ATION<br />
BART Police was enabled to better share<br />
information internally through the GIS<br />
in two ways. Primarily, the grant, which<br />
included a software package that allowed<br />
the publication of maps in a Web-enabled<br />
environment, in combination with the Police<br />
Department’s new intranet, became the main<br />
platform for sharing analyses from the GIS.<br />
Secondly, because technicians were able to<br />
post both visual and data format reports,<br />
a larger number of people were able to understand<br />
the findings from the analyses. Although<br />
BART Police has not yet been given<br />
permission to post these reports on BART’s<br />
public Web site, the team has been able to<br />
distribute reports to surrounding jurisdictions<br />
via mail and meetings, which was never<br />
previously accomplished.<br />
(3) GIS FOR HOMEL AND<br />
SECURIT Y ANALYSIS<br />
To perform homeland security analyses,<br />
BART Police used the GIS to identify geographical<br />
liabilities and assets and to analyze<br />
how the location of those facilities will impact<br />
BART during an emergency. The identified<br />
liabilities include the Transbay Tube (a<br />
section of the system that crosses underneath<br />
the San Francisco Bay), tunnels, subway and<br />
aerial structures, and structures straddled by<br />
freeways. Assets identified through analysis<br />
in the GIS include hospitals, parks, schools<br />
and freeways within a few miles of the<br />
system. Analysis of the assets and liabilities<br />
in relation to BART is complex and is still<br />
under way, as the role of each can change in<br />
a given disaster scenario.<br />
(4) SHRINKING RESOURCES AND<br />
IMPROVED GOVERNMENT EFFICIENC Y<br />
The final weakness identified in the<br />
needs assessment that has been addressed<br />
through use of the GIS is the management<br />
of shrinking resources without the degradation<br />
of performance or service. One<br />
scenario that demonstrates the power of<br />
the GIS for BART Police can be found in an<br />
analysis of annual calls for service, staffing<br />
and technology resources. The number of<br />
calls in these three categories at each station<br />
within the BART system was recorded at<br />
the time the GIS was implemented. Analysis<br />
of the information demonstrated that the<br />
department had resource inconsistencies in<br />
two particular areas. A simple redistribution<br />
of staff and computers could increase<br />
the department’s efficacy without cost.<br />
In addition to the four primary needs<br />
identified by the project team, the GIS also<br />
gave BART Police the ability to perform<br />
functions of crime mapping and routing.<br />
Crime mapping is the primary use of GIS<br />
at law enforcement agencies. Typically,<br />
agencies map the number and location of<br />
incidents within their jurisdiction, often<br />
with focus on specific crimes by type.<br />
The routing tool, not commonly used at<br />
other law enforcement agencies, is a valuable<br />
application of BART Police technology.<br />
Routing is used to dispatch officers to and<br />
from calls for service locations. Since major<br />
freeways in the Bay Area straddle many<br />
BART stations, officers use the freeways to<br />
quickly move from one call location to the<br />
next. In instances where an accident has<br />
occurred on one such freeway, however, officers<br />
experience an increase in response time<br />
14 S P R I N G 2 0 0 4 w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m
w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m<br />
to the call. In order to avoid this problem,<br />
BART Police uses its GIS routing software<br />
in combination with the California Highway<br />
Patrol, which provides real-time access<br />
to traffic conditions, to advise officers of the<br />
quickest route to their call location. This<br />
specialized use of routing coupled with realtime<br />
traffic information is rarely used by<br />
other law enforcement agencies nationwide.<br />
The function of routing also gives rise to<br />
the possibility of more highly technical uses<br />
of the GIS such as the inclusion of mobile<br />
devices for beat officers. BART Police has<br />
foot beats and vehicle patrol beats; officers<br />
on some of these beats have laptops or handheld<br />
computing devices. Inclusion of the GIS<br />
on these devices would empower officers to<br />
retrieve routing information without the assistance<br />
of dispatch. Furthermore, the next<br />
logical step from routing and GIS on mobile<br />
devices is the creation of a Global Positioning<br />
System (GPS). Since officers will already<br />
have access to routing capabilities at their<br />
fingertips, the process of getting routes from<br />
the GIS will become much more efficient<br />
when the system inherently knows where<br />
the officer is. In this instance the officer will<br />
be able to bypass telling the GIS where he is<br />
at the moment and can focus on destination<br />
information.<br />
There are, however, a number of concerns<br />
on behalf of officers nationwide that<br />
GPS is going to be used merely as a form<br />
of absentee supervision. BART Police is<br />
currently researching the ability to provide<br />
officers in the field with a GPS tool while<br />
ensuring that the information will be used<br />
solely for functions related to routing and to<br />
identifying officer locations during emergencies,<br />
or when the location has not been communicated<br />
to dispatch.<br />
Other uses for GIS not typical at law enforcement<br />
agencies, but planned for BART,<br />
are the use of aerial imagery, closed circuit<br />
television cameras, crime forecasting, and<br />
victim profiling. Aerial imagery can be used<br />
in the GIS to perform tactical analyses where<br />
the positioning of resources can be planned<br />
for specialized operations. For example,<br />
BART Police performs a number of undercover<br />
operations to stop identified crime<br />
trends at specific stations. The GIS can display<br />
the precise locations of the incidents of<br />
the trends, and locations where staff, surveillance<br />
equipment, and vacant police vehicles<br />
can be positioned to minimize the incidents<br />
or apprehend the offenders. Furthermore,<br />
BART Police is tasked with performing<br />
crowd control functions for a number of<br />
sporting events and concerts. The GIS can<br />
be used to show the most effective placement<br />
of barriers and staff to help protect<br />
patrons and employees alike and to ensure<br />
that people are able to board trains before<br />
stations become overcrowded.<br />
BART Police has a number of existing<br />
Closed Circuit Television cameras (CCTV)<br />
spread throughout the system. These are<br />
used to discourage criminal acts on the<br />
system, to act as witnesses to crimes and<br />
to aid officers in identifying suspects. GIS<br />
can be used to help plan an appropriate<br />
environmental design for the most efficient<br />
use of the cameras.<br />
Other advanced analyses that can be performed<br />
through the GIS at law enforcement<br />
agencies include crime forecasting and victim<br />
profiling. Forecasting is a function of crime<br />
analysis in which the analyst uses a number<br />
of mathematical equations relating to date,<br />
time and location to identify the most likely<br />
time and place a repeat offender will commit<br />
the next crime. Profiling, on the other hand,<br />
deals primarily with broad category details,<br />
such as race and method of operation.<br />
A number of additional uses for GIS<br />
in law enforcement may not yet have been<br />
identified. Others may not yet be documented.<br />
Because BART Police realized the<br />
potential for GIS at their agency a year ago,<br />
an in-depth research of both academic and<br />
practical sources of information on the topic<br />
was completed prior to implementation.<br />
The project team found that GIS is currently<br />
limited primarily to crime mapping<br />
and analysis functions. Although this fact<br />
may not accurately reflect the potential for<br />
uses of GIS in public safety, it may reflect<br />
a lack of documentation about this powerful<br />
technological tool. As the use of GIS at<br />
BART expands, findings will be shared in<br />
verbal and written form. Even though we<br />
only have begun to reap the benefits of<br />
implementing such a powerful tool, expectations<br />
for additional uses of GIS remain<br />
high at BART. «<br />
S P R I N G 2 0 0 4<br />
15
Figure 1<br />
In this<br />
scenario,<br />
a nuclear<br />
“suitcase<br />
bomb”<br />
explodes in<br />
downtown<br />
Houston,<br />
demolishing<br />
a nine-block<br />
radius,<br />
shown<br />
in red.<br />
Seventeen<br />
mileper-hour<br />
winds<br />
blow the<br />
radioactive<br />
cloud east<br />
(the plume<br />
spreading<br />
toward the<br />
bottom of<br />
this page),<br />
with<br />
lethality<br />
diminishing<br />
as the<br />
plume<br />
travels.<br />
16 S P R I N G 2 0 0 4 w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m
Modeling of disaster<br />
scenarios in several<br />
American cities<br />
Whether during a terrorist attack<br />
or a natural disaster, the ability of the public<br />
and private sectors to react effectively depends<br />
substantially on how well they have planned<br />
their response strategies. To plan such responses<br />
requires an understanding of a variety<br />
of attack scenarios. Spatial technologies are<br />
instrumental for threat assessment.<br />
During the past few years, state and federal<br />
legislators, their staffs, the media, first responders,<br />
and numerous other organizations have<br />
learned a great deal about terrorist threats. This<br />
education has been bolstered by such tools as<br />
satellite imagery and geographic information<br />
systems (GIS), which can be used to forecast and<br />
model potential hazardous events and the emergency<br />
response to those disasters.<br />
For instance, using desktop or Web-based<br />
GIS, analysts can model the dispersion of a<br />
nuclear, radiological, biological, or chemical<br />
plume. Specialists can overlay these models onto<br />
a city map to examine how attacks would affect<br />
given areas and populations. Further layers such<br />
as satellite imagery can provide additional understanding,<br />
including topography and other information<br />
for remote locations. Threat-assessment<br />
advisers then can run various scenarios to plan<br />
optimal evacuation routes and determine where<br />
to place decontamination facilities and chemical/<br />
biological detectors.<br />
Among some of the well-tested programs<br />
for visualizing these scenarios both at home<br />
and abroad are Consequence Assessment Tool<br />
Sets — Joint Assessment of Catastrophic Event<br />
(CATS-JACE or C-J) and Hazard Prediction<br />
and Assessment Capability (HPAC). Used primarily<br />
for domestic threat assessment because<br />
of its in-depth U.S. city-level data, C-J is a<br />
set of models that simulates both natural and<br />
w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m<br />
Dexter Ingram<br />
Professional Staff Member<br />
House Select Committee on Homeland Security<br />
Washington, DC<br />
http://homelandsecurity.house.gov<br />
Joe Ingram<br />
Senior GIS Consultant<br />
Ingram Engineering Inc.<br />
Brookeville, Md.<br />
www.IngramEngInc.com<br />
S P R I N G 2 0 0 4<br />
17
manmade catastrophes, from earthquakes<br />
to chemical weapons attacks to hazardous<br />
material spills.<br />
With a few extensions, C-J enables users<br />
to generate predictive models and conduct<br />
casualty and damage assessment. HPAC,<br />
similar to C-J but with more international<br />
data and a larger variety of unconventional<br />
threat scenarios, is more often used to<br />
model threats abroad. The two GIS computer<br />
models have proven invaluable for<br />
policy briefings, public education and event<br />
preparation during the past few years.<br />
In a graphic front-page<br />
story, he described the<br />
results of a nuclear<br />
bomb small enough to<br />
be hidden in a briefcase.<br />
MODELING WITH WEATHER AND FACILITIES<br />
Developed by Science Applications International<br />
Corporation (SAIC) just after<br />
the first Gulf War, the Defense Threat<br />
Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the Federal<br />
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)<br />
distributed C-J to support emergency<br />
managers’ training exercises, contingency<br />
planning, and logistical planning, as well as<br />
to calculate requirements for humanitarian<br />
aid and force protection. The GIS interface<br />
allows users to combine and manipulate<br />
multiple layers of information on a variety<br />
of visual information backgrounds and<br />
maps to assess affected persons, property<br />
and infrastructure. C-J can be used regardless<br />
of the user’s level of expertise or access<br />
to information. The technologies allow<br />
the modeling of scenarios based on current<br />
weapons technology and past results<br />
from biological, chemical and radiological<br />
experiments.<br />
The models are based on data pulled<br />
from the DTRA database and combined<br />
with more than 150 other databases, including<br />
census, nuclear plants, military bases,<br />
ports and chemical processing plants. In<br />
addition, the new JACE program allows for<br />
an actual satellite image to overlay a traditional<br />
GIS street map theme. Commercial<br />
space remote sensing companies now can<br />
provide in-depth satellite imagery of buildings,<br />
which opens a new world of analysis.<br />
Currently, such firms can develop scenarios<br />
that assess structural damage to buildings<br />
and casualty estimates for those within.<br />
The analysis becomes even more accurate<br />
when it links directly to the National<br />
Weather Service (NWS) and pulls regional<br />
weather for the time the simulated event<br />
takes place. This can involve either forecasted<br />
weather or, if the event is too far away<br />
for an accurate forecast, historical averages<br />
of weather over the past 20 years. The program<br />
then produces a map that shows the<br />
areas and populations affected and the level<br />
of lethality of the attack.<br />
HOMEL AND SECURIT Y SCENARIOS<br />
At the request of U.S. House and Senate<br />
staff — as well as media outlets such as<br />
The Houston Chronicle, Washington Times,<br />
York Daily Record, and The Times (London)<br />
— C-J was used to model a variety of<br />
scenarios involving several American cities.<br />
Specifically, simulations done included<br />
dirty bombs detonating in downtown areas;<br />
a crop duster spreading anthrax, sarin,<br />
botulinum toxin, or nerve gas over large<br />
populations; a nuclear reactor leak; a missile<br />
intercept; and a nuclear explosion. In<br />
Houston, the media used the latter model to<br />
challenge local government officials regarding<br />
their disaster-preparedness plans.<br />
Following the first anniversary of Sept.<br />
11, Mike Hedges of The Houston Chronicle<br />
interviewed local authorities and first responders<br />
to see if his city was prepared for<br />
the terrorist attacks modeled. He also asked<br />
local, state and federal officials to describe<br />
how they would respond to these scenarios.<br />
In a graphic front-page story, he described a<br />
nuclear bomb small enough to be hidden in a<br />
briefcase. It would level downtown Houston,<br />
flattening many of the 58 skyscrapers and<br />
killing up to 130,000 workers.<br />
This simulation included data from ESRI<br />
StreetMap, the National Weather Service<br />
(NWS) and the National Imagery Mapping<br />
Agency (NIMA), now called the National<br />
Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA). Street-<br />
Map contained the necessary detailed road<br />
information and map layers of downtown<br />
Houston. The C-J software ties to NWS’s<br />
database to get the latest forecast information<br />
to determine the plume dispersion. Additional<br />
map layers (buildings, parks, water bodies,<br />
and so forth) came from NGA sources. All<br />
the data were plotted in a geodetic coordinate<br />
system (degrees latitude and longitude).<br />
The simulation demonstrated the bomb<br />
exploding outside City Hall, destroying it,<br />
the Houston Police Department’s headquarters,<br />
and the Harris County administrative<br />
offices. It would have killed most local leaders<br />
and law enforcement officials, crippling<br />
the city’s ability to respond to the disaster.<br />
Based on the simulated weather data, the<br />
wind dragged the radioactive cloud through<br />
the East End and beyond the I-610 Loop,<br />
killing 10 percent of those in its stream and<br />
leaving thousands more ill (Figure 1).<br />
Houston authorities had considered<br />
disaster scenarios in planning emergency<br />
responses, but the simulation and Hedges’<br />
article fostered debate about how prepared<br />
the city was for an attack. The discussion<br />
pointed out deficiencies for the city to address.<br />
Following Houston’s lead, many other<br />
localities performed simulations to test their<br />
preparedness.<br />
AT TACK S FROM OVER THE BORDER<br />
Soon after Sept. 11, the Heritage Foundation<br />
Homeland Security Task Force used<br />
C-J to help assess port and border security<br />
threats. The analysis showed the U.S. is still<br />
vulnerable even if the attack doesn’t start on<br />
U.S. soil. The group ran four nuclear and biological<br />
scenarios, looking at the border cities<br />
of Detroit, Michigan; San Diego, California;<br />
Buffalo, New York; and El Paso, Texas.<br />
One of many mock border scenarios<br />
modeled a nuclear explosion in Mexico<br />
across the border from El Paso. After<br />
purchasing an old Soviet suitcase nuclear<br />
weapon in Central Asia, a terrorist smuggles<br />
it into Mexico to detonate it near the U.S.<br />
border. Traveling by car, the suicide bomber<br />
makes his way toward El Paso. South of the<br />
border, he pulls into a vehicle inspection<br />
station and detonates a 3-kiloton nuclear<br />
bomb, equivalent to 3,000 tons of dynamite.<br />
In this scenario, much of El Paso is devastated,<br />
even though the bomb exploded on<br />
the other side of the border. Prevailing winds<br />
blow radiation to San Antonio. Authorities<br />
do not know if this is a single attack or a<br />
18 S P R I N G 2 0 0 4 w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m
precursor to other attacks. Fortunately it’s<br />
just a simulation. But it does help to better<br />
prepare the local and federal authorities and<br />
first responders who would be involved in<br />
such a catastrophic attack.<br />
MILITARY COMM AND AND CONTROL<br />
As useful as the previously discussed models<br />
are, GIS software that enables battle management<br />
modeling is even more advanced.<br />
In addition to C-J and HPAC, the U.S. Air<br />
Force, for instance, uses its own command<br />
and control mapping software for its Theatre<br />
Battle Management Core Systems Unit Level<br />
(TBMCS-UL). This GIS software, deployed<br />
at Air Combat Command, Europe Command<br />
and Pacific Air Force Command bases<br />
around the world, monitors conventional attacks<br />
as well as nuclear, biological, or chemical<br />
attacks on a particular installation. Base<br />
commanders and decision makers then can<br />
determine how best to use their war-fighting<br />
assets and more importantly, how to protect<br />
military and civilian personnel via bunkers<br />
and protective clothing.<br />
Exercise scenarios similar to those<br />
done with C-J and HPAC are done with<br />
great regularity in Operational Readiness<br />
Exercises using the TBMCS-UL mapping<br />
tool. Likewise, the GIS data supplied for<br />
TBMCS-UL may come from a variety of<br />
sources to include both government (NGA,<br />
FAA, Air Force Civil Engineers) as well as<br />
commercial vendors. Additionally, this collected<br />
data will be placed in a GIS repository<br />
and used for other Air Force visualization<br />
needs, such as Base Realignment and Closure<br />
2005 (BRAC 2205) initiative.<br />
The idea is that facility managers and<br />
sweep teams can use the map application as<br />
a reporting tool before, during and after an<br />
attack or incident occurs on an installation.<br />
Automated chemical and biological detectors<br />
also feed into the application. The tools can<br />
run from minimum data sources such as facility<br />
and runway map layers that have been<br />
vectorized/digitized from satellite imagery<br />
for remote locations, to a fully surveyed<br />
Garrison base, which can include additional<br />
layers from streets to golf courses. These exercises<br />
help commanders streamline recovery<br />
efforts and give them realistic expectations of<br />
a base’s recovery time after an attack.<br />
Whether preparing for or responding to<br />
domestic and global threats, the use of geospatial<br />
technology on homeland defense and<br />
emergency planning has been monumental<br />
since the events of Sept. 11. Regardless of<br />
whether GIS tools are supporting active<br />
military operations or incidents closer to<br />
home, having access to current data and the<br />
ability to analyze the data saves lives and<br />
property. Awareness of these tools/data,<br />
in addition to following data standards,<br />
can aid in increased interoperability while<br />
decreasing duplication of efforts. «<br />
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S P R I N G 2 0 0 4<br />
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Bolstering<br />
the use of<br />
ISR with<br />
battlespace<br />
situational<br />
awareness<br />
figure 1<br />
Warfighter use of<br />
commercial imagery<br />
Providing commercial remote sensing<br />
data directly to our nation’s warfighters could<br />
prove beneficial. This premise is consistent<br />
with the commercial space guidelines of the<br />
National Space Policy: “to the extent feasible,<br />
pursue innovative methods for procurement<br />
of space products and services.” In an April<br />
25, 2003, National Security Order, President<br />
George W. Bush reiterated plans to use commercially<br />
available satellite images to the<br />
greatest extent possible to meet U.S. military,<br />
intelligence, foreign policy, homeland security,<br />
and first-responder needs. With sub-meter<br />
image resolution, the commercial remote<br />
sensing industry has become an important<br />
information source to the warfighter.<br />
Over the last few years, Air Force Chief of<br />
Staff Gen. John P. Jumper has been emphasizing<br />
the need for “horizontal integration of<br />
our manned, unmanned, and space assets in<br />
order to provide real-time actionable, exploitable<br />
intelligence to commanders.”<br />
He also contends that our military’s<br />
success depends upon reducing the find, fix,<br />
track, target, engage, and assess (F2T2EA)<br />
cycle and upon achieving persistent Intelligence,<br />
Surveillance and Reconnaissance<br />
(ISR) capabilities. These needs are driven<br />
by the military’s transformation or shift<br />
from the threat-based approach of the Cold<br />
War era to a capabilities-based approach<br />
focusing on information superiority, precision<br />
engagement, and rapid global mobility.<br />
The new approach trades armor (or inches<br />
of steel) for better information and intelligence,<br />
characterized by battlespace situational<br />
awareness unveiling the battlefield<br />
environment to combatant commanders<br />
and decision makers.<br />
The United States has a variety of ISR<br />
assets providing warfighters the information<br />
they need to conduct their missions,<br />
which range from turning back aggression<br />
and helping to secure peace to providing assistance<br />
to Humanitarian Relief Operations.<br />
Battlespace situational awareness requires<br />
persistent surveillance and real-time direct<br />
tasking of ISR assets. The ISR systems in<br />
Figure 1 are the “organic” assets that are<br />
tasked directly from the theater controlled<br />
by the Combatant Commander. Commercial<br />
remote sensing satellites operational<br />
today have the potential to augment the<br />
military’s suite of ISR assets supporting battlespace<br />
awareness, especially if they can be<br />
tasked like an organic asset.<br />
An example of a commercial remote<br />
sensing system that can be tasked directly<br />
is Space <strong>Imaging</strong>’s IKONOS. Raytheon<br />
(Waltham, Mass.), as a co-owner of Space<br />
<strong>Imaging</strong> (Thornton, Colo.), performs the<br />
development and support for the end-to-end<br />
ground architecture that receives, tasks, processes<br />
and disseminates imagery. The system<br />
receives orders from customers, generates<br />
collection tasking, uplinks commands to the<br />
satellites, receives and archives collected<br />
imagery and telemetry data, and generates<br />
products for distribution.<br />
Raytheon has delivered over 12 regional<br />
operational centers (ROC) or<br />
ground stations to customers throughout<br />
the world, including Space <strong>Imaging</strong> affiliates:<br />
Space <strong>Imaging</strong> Middle East (Dubai),<br />
Japan Space <strong>Imaging</strong> (Tokyo), Space<br />
<strong>Imaging</strong> Asia (Seoul), Space <strong>Imaging</strong><br />
Eurasia (Ankara), and European Space<br />
<strong>Imaging</strong> (Munich), as well as Space <strong>Imaging</strong><br />
Southeast Asia (Bangkok). The customers<br />
of these remote systems have the<br />
ability to uplink collection requirements<br />
“on the pass” and receive data back while<br />
20 S P R I N G 2 0 0 4 w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m
figure 2<br />
Derr Bergenthal<br />
Sr. Principal Engineer<br />
Raytheon<br />
Aurora, Colo.<br />
www.raytheon.com/businesses/<br />
riis/index.html<br />
The military is shifting from the<br />
threat-based approach of the<br />
Cold War era to a capabilities-based<br />
approach focusing on information<br />
superiority, precision engagement,<br />
and rapid global mobility.<br />
figure 3<br />
the satellite is over the station. The ROC<br />
architecture provides the capability both<br />
to directly task the payload from remote<br />
ground terminals and to downlink imagery,<br />
facilitating direct tasking of the satellite<br />
by battlefield commanders.<br />
The ISR assets in Figure 1 are independent<br />
systems that require centralized control<br />
to effectively exploit their capabilities. This<br />
control is provided, in conjunction with the<br />
Joint Task Force, by the Distributed Common<br />
Ground System (DCGS), which Raytheon<br />
is developing for the Air Force. For<br />
commercial imagery systems to be included<br />
in the military’s suite of ISR assets they must<br />
be effectively integrated into an ISR management<br />
system to reach their full potential. As<br />
part of DCGS, Raytheon’s ISR Warrior supports<br />
the management ISR sensor platforms<br />
such as the U-2 high altitude reconnaissance<br />
aircraft and the Global Hawk and Predator<br />
unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs). Raytheon’s<br />
ISR Warrior architecture can extend to<br />
new sensors such as those provided by commercial<br />
remote sensing systems.<br />
Figure 2 shows a pictorial representation<br />
of a theater battlespace managed by<br />
ISR Warrior, which centralizes control and<br />
visualization of assets, thus improving intelligence<br />
information. It provides real-time<br />
mission monitoring, which reduces timecritical<br />
targeting and F2T2EA timelines.<br />
The ISR Warrior also provides the operator<br />
with the tools to affect and expedite deci-<br />
w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m<br />
sions once ISR decisions have been made.<br />
ISR Warrior is a Web-based decision<br />
system that provides the warfighter a consolidated<br />
picture of the theater battlespace.<br />
It accomplishes this through the visualization<br />
of ISR assets overlaid with order of battle,<br />
collections plans and planned targets along<br />
with tip-off information from Signals Intelligence<br />
(SIGINT), Measurement and Signature<br />
Intelligence (MASINT), and Moving<br />
Target Indicator (MTI) sources. ISR Warrior<br />
provides the ability to re-task ISR assets in<br />
support of time-critical/time-sensitive targeting.<br />
The 3-D capabilities shown in Figure 3<br />
give the operator the ability to view weather<br />
information, terrain delimitation data, and<br />
threat domes. The operator can monitor each<br />
platform’s collection and navigation plan,<br />
track the asset’s position and the sensor’s<br />
field of regard or field of view.<br />
The commercial imagery challenge to<br />
support warfighters will be integrating its<br />
capability and other ISR sensors to enhance<br />
tactical surveillance and time-critical targeting.<br />
To be of significant military value, the<br />
contribution will be measured against the<br />
tactical F2T2EA and the ability to support<br />
accurate and real-time battlefield situational<br />
awareness. Can commercial imagery systems<br />
work effectively with other ISR platforms?<br />
Horizontal integration is the key to<br />
improving persistent surveillance. For commercial<br />
imagery direct to the warfighter, the<br />
path to horizontal integration is through the<br />
DCGS and the cross-platform coordination<br />
of its ISR Warrior component.<br />
A military exercise, such as those conducted<br />
by U.S. Joint Forces Command,<br />
using a directly tasked commercial remote<br />
sensing system and ISR Warrior would<br />
be an ideal way to evaluate the benefits of<br />
providing commercial imagery directly to<br />
the warfighter. Through wargames, we can<br />
determine circumstances where commercial<br />
imagery is particularly valuable or where<br />
it can compensate for the unavailability of<br />
other ISR assets. We can show the power of<br />
fusing commercial imagery with data from<br />
other assets in near real-time. We can also<br />
show to an ISR Warrior operator the utility<br />
of using commercial imagery to dynamically<br />
re-task other assets and vice-versa. Re-tasking<br />
is instrumental to reducing the F2T2EA<br />
cycle by changing ISR collection activities on<br />
the fly in response to the dynamic battlefield<br />
environment. «<br />
S P R I N G 2 0 0 4<br />
21
Adding shape-based search technology<br />
New technology with implications for<br />
Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) in satellite imagery is being investigated<br />
in the Research department at Space <strong>Imaging</strong> (Thornton,<br />
Colo.). Look Dynamics (Longmont, Colo.) has developed a technology<br />
that allows the encoding of image clips as shape information through<br />
optical processing.<br />
The resultant shape information from a number of images may be<br />
stored in a database for subsequent search. To search a shape database,<br />
a model image clip is passed through the encoding system to obtain its<br />
shape information, which is then used to find matches. The technology<br />
requires no knowledge of specific image objects (such as definitions for<br />
airplane or truck) prior to the creation of the databases. Thus, an image<br />
needs to be passed through the optical engine only once to enable<br />
searching of its contents and does not require reprocessing when new<br />
search models are defined.<br />
The availability of satellite data has increased tremendously in<br />
recent years. The advent of commercial satellites carrying high-resolution<br />
sensors has also increased the amount of data available for study<br />
and processing. Far more pixels exist than can be inspected by human<br />
eyes. Automated processing methods for analyzing these pixels are<br />
becoming more and more crucial as the manpower required to review<br />
those pixels further and further surpasses that which is available.<br />
The technology developed by Look Dynamics could be part of a potential<br />
solution to this now-intractable problem. Encoding an image by its<br />
content, as shapes, could require significantly less storage than pixel data.<br />
Because the processing is optical, the generation of databases of such shapes<br />
is far faster than could be achieved by a comparable system based on conventional<br />
digital processing technology. Another key factor is that the nature<br />
of the search objects does not need to be known when the image encoding<br />
is done and the databases are generated. Entire archives of imagery could be<br />
encoded as shape representations for later object search and retrieval.<br />
The technology was originally created for imagebased<br />
searches of the internet. The new exploration of<br />
this technology applies it to satellite imagery. It may be<br />
applicable not only to wide-area search, but to feature<br />
extraction and change detection as well.<br />
The majority of approaches to image storage and<br />
retrieval rely on some combination of color, texture and<br />
shape information extracted from the imagery. One texture-based<br />
approach (Puzicha et al. 1997) uses Gabor<br />
filtering to achieve image segmentation and subsequent<br />
image retrieval. Manjunath and Ma (1996) use Gabor<br />
filters to characterize texture as well, in conjunction with<br />
a user interface that allows the analyst to delineate a portion<br />
of an image (containing some uniform texture) to<br />
use as a query. There are also approaches which use color<br />
or shape information only. Stricker and Orengo (1995)<br />
attempt to improve the utility of color histogram measures<br />
for image indexing and retrieval by characterizing<br />
objects with the dominant features of the color distribution<br />
instead of the entire color histogram. Folkers and<br />
Samet (2002) use Fourier descriptors to approximate basic<br />
geometric shapes that, in some spatial arrangement,<br />
can characterize objects in a logo database.<br />
The Look Dynamics system is unique in that it is<br />
an analog-based approach to a problem which has<br />
traditionally been approached from a purely software<br />
22 S P R I N G 2 0 0 4 w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m
SECTION N+2<br />
FULL IMAGE<br />
SECTION N+1<br />
Figure 1: Generation and storage of shape information<br />
(Charles deGaulle International Airport, Paris)<br />
SECTION N<br />
Donna Haverkamp<br />
Sr. Research Scientist<br />
Laurie Gibson<br />
Director of Research and<br />
Product Development<br />
1Klps<br />
Space <strong>Imaging</strong><br />
Thornton, Colo.<br />
www.spaceimaging.com<br />
OPTICAL ENGINE<br />
GENERIC SHAPES<br />
SHAPE DATABASE<br />
w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m<br />
S P R I N G 2 0 0 4<br />
23
standpoint. The optical portion of the system can process 260<br />
square kilometers in one second, a far greater speed than any software<br />
implementation.<br />
To enable the searching of image databases by shape, Look<br />
Dynamics has developed technology combining analog and<br />
digital processing. This proprietary imagery has the potential to<br />
rapidly extract, store and search for patterns from all types of<br />
imagery. Look Dynamics’ new application has two components:<br />
an optical engine that extracts patterns from images and a database<br />
in which the pattern information is stored.<br />
Various approaches to indexing images by shape have been<br />
proposed, but none have been sufficiently robust or fast to use in<br />
real-world applications. While a system may be able to handle a<br />
few thousand images, it will not scale to larger databases due to<br />
the processing required. This limitation is inherent to the complexity<br />
of extracting shapes and patterns from<br />
The optical portion<br />
of the system<br />
can process<br />
260 square<br />
kilometers<br />
in one second,<br />
a far greater speed<br />
than any software<br />
implementation.<br />
imagery. Algorithms implemented on digital<br />
processors are simply not fast enough. The<br />
Look Dynamics system uses an optical<br />
engine to carry out the shape extraction and<br />
encoding at optical speeds. This system does not<br />
perform optical correlation, and it does not use the<br />
optical engine for searching. Instead, the optical engine<br />
provides an encoding process that extracts<br />
a characterization of the shape information<br />
within an image. These characterizations,<br />
or “fingerprints,” are then stored in a database<br />
that can be searched in software.<br />
With the Look Dynamics system, an image<br />
is brought in only one time. Preprocessing<br />
is performed on the image using a pair of Intel<br />
computers, and it is loaded into a custom electronic<br />
board that drives the input spatial light modulator (SLM) and<br />
controls system timing. The image is displayed on the SLM, and<br />
the shapes are extracted optically as a whole (not pixel-by-pixel)<br />
and detected on a photo-diode array. Another Intel computer takes<br />
the output of the photo-diode array and converts it to the shape<br />
fingerprint, which is stored in the database.<br />
To “load” a satellite image into a Shape Feature Database, a full<br />
image is divided into subsections (image clips) that can be fed to the<br />
optical engine. These 512 x 512 pixel subsections are down-sampled<br />
to the SLM’s 8-bit resolution, then contrast-stretched and edge-enhanced<br />
before formation on the SLM. Laser light reflected off the<br />
SLM projects the image as collimated beams of light, which pass<br />
through a lens and onto Look Dynamics’ proprietary silicon chip,<br />
the Antilles. The Antilles chip breaks the image into Fourier components<br />
and reprojects them to an image sensor. Line segments “seen”<br />
at the sensor are stored as shapes in the database. See also Figure 1.<br />
For each image clip, the shape characterization, or fingerprint, is<br />
extracted and stored in the database together with information about<br />
the source image and section number. In the future, the database<br />
should be able to contain shape-based characterizations of millions<br />
of images, prebuilt and waiting to be searched. When a client formulates<br />
a query, he can use an image or a (scanned) map or drawing.<br />
The query can ask for images and locations within them that match,<br />
contain, or are similar to the example. The system encodes the query<br />
example by shape using the optical processor and then searches the<br />
database for similar shapes. The query returns what it finds with a<br />
score or confidence measure.<br />
Encoding of the imagery as shapes that can be searched upon<br />
and matched implies a number of applications for this technology.<br />
Wide-area search, feature extraction (roads, buildings or any of a<br />
number of natural or man-made objects), and change detection are<br />
all current problems that this technology may help solve.<br />
Efficient shape database search implies that this technology could<br />
be used as a focus of attention for any of the aforementioned applications.<br />
Quickly narrowing in to areas likely to contain objects or<br />
changes which need to be identified or found would be an extremely<br />
effective prefilter. The kind of pixel-intensive<br />
processing necessary for accurate object<br />
identification or change detection is not<br />
feasible over large amounts of image data.<br />
The Look Dynamics technology could point<br />
the more compute-intensive algorithms to areas<br />
likely to contain content of interest. Using the optical<br />
processing technology in tandem with a suite of<br />
software-based solutions tailored to individual applications<br />
could create a powerful hardwaresoftware<br />
hybrid technology for a number of<br />
image-processing applications.<br />
Space <strong>Imaging</strong> and Look Dynamics<br />
have worked together to adapt this technology<br />
for satellite imagery. A performance<br />
baseline has been established using a number<br />
of IKONOS image clips. After an initial round<br />
of investigation, areas for improvement were identified. Modifications<br />
of the system to incorporate these improvements and plans to<br />
re-evaluate system performance are in progress. The full potential<br />
of this technology and the opportunity to utilize it in conjunction<br />
with IKONOS data for image processing applications will be realized<br />
in the future. «<br />
R EFER ENC E S<br />
Folkers, A., and H. Samet, “Content-Based Image Retrieval Using Fourier<br />
Descriptors on a Logo Database,” 16th International Conference on Pattern<br />
Recognition, vol. 3, August 2002, pp. 30,521-30,524.<br />
Manjunath, B. S., and W. Y. Ma, “Texture Features for Browsing and Retrieval<br />
of Image Data,” IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine<br />
Intelligence, 18(8), August 1996, pp. 837-842.<br />
Puzicha, J., T. Hofmann, and J. M. Buhmann, “Non-Parametric Similarity<br />
Measures for Unsupervised Texture Segmentation and Image Retrieval,”<br />
Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and<br />
Pattern Recognition, San Juan, June 1997, pp. 267-272.<br />
Stricker, M., and M. Orengo, “Similarity of Color Images,” SPIE Conference<br />
on Storage and Retrieval for Image and Video Databases III, vol. 2420,<br />
February 1995, pp. 381-392.<br />
24 S P R I N G 2 0 0 4 w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m
The transition<br />
of digital earth<br />
imagery, once<br />
considered<br />
simply data,<br />
to a critical<br />
element in<br />
homeland security<br />
Saddam Airport, Bagdhad<br />
More than<br />
imagery —<br />
intelligence<br />
w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m<br />
Donn Walklet<br />
CEO<br />
Terra-Vista, Inc.<br />
Lafayette, Calif.<br />
www.terra-vista.com<br />
The proverbial “eye in the sky”<br />
has come a long way in 60 years, from the<br />
earliest operational use of aerial photography<br />
during World War II to the current use of satellites<br />
by the military, civil authorities, and<br />
industry—for a wide range of applications.<br />
Along the way, the world has become a<br />
much more dangerous place, as tragically revealed<br />
in the 9/11 acts of terrorism and their<br />
aftermath. The United States no longer faces<br />
a predictable and definable threat from an<br />
adversary like the Soviet Union. Its enemies<br />
have disappeared into the shadows of “asymmetrical”<br />
warfare, reverting to seemingly unpredictable<br />
strikes at the country’s infrastructure<br />
and unprotected population centers.<br />
Fortunately, over the last decade, new<br />
technology has given us tools to combat terrorism<br />
by gathering intelligence in near realtime.<br />
The U.S. military has changed its mode<br />
of procurement from a procedure known as<br />
MILSPEC (military specifications) contracting—driven<br />
by a meticulous, time-consuming<br />
and costly process of custom crafting<br />
hardware and software—to a method<br />
known as COTS (commercial-off-theshelf),<br />
thereby exploiting the efficiencies of<br />
hardware developed for the private sector.<br />
This capability is being used today in<br />
Iraq in the form of a command and control<br />
system known as the Theatre Battle Management<br />
Core System or TB-MCS. TB-<br />
S P R I N G 2 0 0 4<br />
25
MCS is a Web-based system for planning,<br />
managing and executing the air war. Fifty<br />
computer programs keep track of the latest<br />
information on targets, weapons, fuelloads,<br />
weather and navigation. Combined<br />
with manned surveillance aircraft like<br />
JSTARS (Joint Surveillance Target Attack<br />
Radar System) and unmanned UAV/RPV’s<br />
like the Air Force’s Global Hawk, in addition<br />
to precision munitions like the GPSguided<br />
J-DAM, the military has completed<br />
the transition towards “network-centric”<br />
warfare, a faster way of sharing tactical<br />
information and deploying offensive and<br />
defensive forces.<br />
The end result of this successful transition<br />
by the military is the availability of<br />
functional and affordable tools to process<br />
the high volumes of geographic raw data<br />
produced by airborne or satellite-based<br />
sensors. Equally important is the parallel<br />
development of broadband communication<br />
technology to move data anywhere<br />
in the world in real-time, paired with<br />
database capabilities permitting the<br />
cataloging and organization of complex<br />
geographic information. The customization<br />
of these technologies to serve a specific<br />
task, like homeland security, is the<br />
final step in creating a capability which<br />
Unlike other catastrophic events, these seemingly<br />
uncontrollable disasters are completely preventable.<br />
will provide an edge in defending the U.S.<br />
from outside threats.<br />
Domestically, the potential applications<br />
of this technology are numerous and<br />
diverse. Practically every component of the<br />
economy, from transportation to energy<br />
production, is vulnerable. Thus surveillance<br />
of some kind is being applied as a<br />
defensive layer in the security process. For<br />
example, the Coast Guard is tasked with<br />
protecting the inland waterways and ports<br />
that are the lifeblood of international<br />
commerce. The overhead perspective is the<br />
ideal vantage point to monitor ship and<br />
barge traffic in real time, using existing<br />
aerial and satellite imagery as a reference.<br />
In the near future, ships and barges will<br />
be required to have GPS equipment onboard<br />
capable of instantly communicating<br />
via satellite their location and status. Combined<br />
with other sources of information,<br />
such as proximity of pipelines and nuclear<br />
power plants, along with the graphic display<br />
of Coast Guard resources, such as<br />
patrol boats, the Coast Guard will have the<br />
equivalent of the military TB-MCS command<br />
and control system. Ultimately, or-<br />
1<br />
ganizations like the Coast Guard, FBI, and<br />
local law enforcement will have access to<br />
real-time sources of imagery from airborne<br />
platforms, with all data processed from its<br />
rawest form and geographically oriented<br />
into a useable form of intelligence that will<br />
give decision makers exactly the information<br />
they need when they need it.<br />
Figure 1 shows a computer display of a<br />
possible Coast Guard surveillance scenario<br />
along the Mississippi River in which barge<br />
traffic containing dangerous cargo is being<br />
tracked in real time.<br />
In this context, digital earth imagery<br />
from satellite and aircraft platforms is transitioning<br />
from an isolated source of information<br />
to one that is an integral part of a decision-making<br />
system in which the imagery<br />
is an important, but not the only source of<br />
intelligence. Imagery will frequently be the<br />
reference layer, often replacing or supplementing<br />
the digital street map as a way<br />
of determining the location of important<br />
resources. Imagery becomes much more of a<br />
critical layer in itself when it is created in real<br />
time, processed and integrated with other<br />
types of data, as a surveillance source of<br />
intelligence—again, similar to the military’s<br />
JSTARS and Global Hawk systems. It is<br />
this visual intelligence showing the status<br />
of a dynamically evolving situation that<br />
demonstrates the use of imagery rising to its<br />
greatest potential.<br />
However, at this point, strategists<br />
among the homeland defense constituencies<br />
need to think outside the box. As the<br />
recent terrorist acts on the commuter rail<br />
system in Spain have demonstrated, asymmetrical<br />
attacks may come where and<br />
when you least expect them.<br />
For example, imagery and associated<br />
command and control systems may be configured<br />
to deal with one of modern society’s<br />
most devastating disasters, wildland fires.<br />
These disasters traditionally have been<br />
ignited by natural forces such as lightning,<br />
but now are frequently attributed to malicious<br />
arsonists or, not an unlikely threat,<br />
to potential terrorists. Wildland fires are<br />
among the most dynamic and destructive<br />
26 S P R I N G 2 0 0 4 w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m
of natural or manmade calamities. To date,<br />
the process of dealing with wildfires has<br />
been more reactive than proactive. In other<br />
words, fires ignite, are often influenced by atmospheric<br />
conditions and winds, and spread<br />
rapidly as time progresses, until countermeasures<br />
are applied.<br />
Wildland fires parallel other types of<br />
natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes,<br />
floods, and earthquakes, with one<br />
important exception—unlike other catastrophic<br />
events, these seemingly uncontrollable<br />
disasters are completely preventable.<br />
Many of these conflagrations, like the<br />
2003 Southern California fires, could have<br />
been contained if they had been identified<br />
early and isolated using rapid response<br />
tanker aircraft and helicopters—a scenario<br />
that closely parallels the military aerial<br />
command control capability embodied in<br />
TB-MCS. Any fire fighter will readily acknowledge<br />
that time to respond to fires is<br />
the key variable in their suppression.<br />
Figure 2 shows an example of such a system<br />
in which fire bosses get the “big picture”<br />
and rapidly respond to new threats in the field<br />
with instantaneous access to intelligence.<br />
Airborne sensors can detect early ignition<br />
of a fire. In a tactical mode, the raw imagery<br />
generated by these sensors is converted into<br />
a digital photomap in near real time. That<br />
information can then be combined with a<br />
variety of other data, such as road networks,<br />
location of known hazards, aerial tanker<br />
attack plans, and real-time meteorology<br />
overlays, to generate a complete intelligence<br />
database. Fire bosses can direct operations in<br />
the field in a manner that allows field crews<br />
to receive only the information they require<br />
when they need it.<br />
There are many variations on this theme,<br />
in which imagery generated, analyzed<br />
and delivered in near real time can have a<br />
dramatic impact in limiting or containing<br />
the threat of terrorism. The availability<br />
of technology at an affordable price is no<br />
longer an issue. Institutional inertia may be<br />
the greatest inhibitor to the adoption of this<br />
technology, and this roadblock will disappear<br />
as government and the private sector<br />
successfully demonstrate the benefits that<br />
imagery, integrated into a command and<br />
control system, can generate. «<br />
2<br />
Communications<br />
satellite<br />
Central data analysis/<br />
command and control<br />
center<br />
Tanker aircraft<br />
with heads-up display<br />
depicting target data<br />
GPS-enabled data reference subsystem<br />
IP link<br />
to ground<br />
tranceiver<br />
Portable ground transceiver<br />
On-site command, control<br />
and targeting<br />
Aircract/UAV<br />
thermal IR sensor<br />
fire zone<br />
IP link<br />
to PDA<br />
GPS-enabled PDA<br />
w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m<br />
S P R I N G 2 0 0 4<br />
27
An overwhelming increase<br />
in the volume of commercial air traffic in<br />
the last half of the twentieth century has<br />
increased the demand on aircraft ground<br />
taxiing (known as surface movements) at<br />
the world’s airports. This change resulted<br />
in a corresponding increase in the potential<br />
for runway incursions, both by unauthorized<br />
aircraft and by ground vehicles outside of<br />
their operating locations. The problem created<br />
by the increase in volume culminated<br />
in the most serious ground accident in the<br />
history of aviation at Tenerife, in the Canary<br />
Islands of Spain on March 27, 1977, when<br />
two 747 airliners collided in the fog with<br />
catastrophic loss of life.<br />
Many international organizations such<br />
as NASA, the Flight Safety Foundation,<br />
and universities such as Stanford University<br />
and Ohio University have made significant<br />
strides toward the implementation<br />
of enabling technology to reduce runway<br />
incursions and to enhance the efficiency of<br />
airport surface operations.<br />
Early solutions included the implementation<br />
of Surface Movement Guidance and<br />
Control Systems (SMGCS) at a number of<br />
airports. An SMGCS has a number of lights<br />
and sensors that control taxiing operations.<br />
Subsequent follow-on work with multilateration<br />
radar technologies is in progress to enhance<br />
tools for air traffic control authorities<br />
(known as Air Traffic Management or ATM)<br />
to control airport surface movements.<br />
However, display technology was also<br />
needed to provide flight and, potentially,<br />
ground vehicle crews with enhanced situational<br />
awareness, which required a moving<br />
map of the airport. The primary goal is to<br />
give pilots “synthetic” views of their positions<br />
on the airport, as if they could actually<br />
see outside in clear daylight weather conditions.<br />
With the publication of a global GIS<br />
standard known as DO-272, airports could<br />
be consistently mapped in order to provide<br />
that needed situational awareness.<br />
Figure 1 is an example of such an airport<br />
mapping database (AMDB), constructed<br />
by Space <strong>Imaging</strong>’s Solutions organization.<br />
One of the significant enabling technologies necessary to adopt the widespread use of<br />
airport mapping is the ability to define and exchange position information. The recent<br />
implementation of the GPS Wide-Area-Augmentation-System (WAAS) constellation<br />
by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) greatly enabled geopositioning. Instead<br />
of a location solution that was no better than 25-50 meters, the WAAS improved the<br />
quality of raw GPS to 1-2 meters laterally, and 2-3 meters vertically.<br />
These AMDBs would have multiple uses, including surface movement awareness<br />
information for air traffic controllers, flight crews and ground vehicles. Other uses<br />
include graphical depictions of future changes to support future trips and Homeland<br />
Security surveillance and response needs. New GIS, satellite imagery and GPS technology<br />
have allowed airports to more effectively manage these needs.<br />
Following the tragic events of 9/11, a stronger emphasis was placed upon the security<br />
of air traffic, not just the safety of air traffic. Once steps were taken to better secure air<br />
traffic in-flight (with reinforced cockpit doors, air marshals and improved screening), the<br />
security of surface movements became more of a focus for improvement.<br />
The airport “environment” is comprised of fixed and movable assets. The AMDB<br />
will take care of mapping the fixed or permanent installations on the airport, both airside<br />
(where the aircraft can actually taxi) and groundside (all areas of the airport not used for<br />
aircraft taxiing). However, AMDB cannot track movable assets, which are principally<br />
ground vehicles.<br />
28 S P R I N G 2 0 0 4 w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m
GIS mapping and automatic vehicle location (AVL) technology<br />
FIGURE 1<br />
Example of a GIS map<br />
of San Francisco<br />
International Airport<br />
FIGURE 2<br />
Example of<br />
AVL with<br />
authorized<br />
areas for<br />
baggage<br />
carts and<br />
fuel trucks<br />
in yellow<br />
By Dejan Damjanovic<br />
Domain Manager,<br />
Air & Marine<br />
Transportation<br />
Space <strong>Imaging</strong><br />
Thornton, Colo.<br />
www.spaceimaging.com<br />
w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m<br />
Tracking ground vehicles for flight operations coordination is<br />
the primary concern. Other requirements include tracking ground<br />
vehicles for: (a) asset management purposes; (b) operational efficiency;<br />
(c) security surveillance; (d) flight operations emergency<br />
response; (e) terrorist or security emergency operations.<br />
At any given airport, it is likely that 10 to 20 times the number<br />
of ground vehicles exist as do aircraft. Since any truck can<br />
potentially carry explosive or hazardous cargo, airport authorities<br />
need to find better ways of monitoring their locations.<br />
AVL (automatic vehicle location) example: Baggage carts and<br />
fuel trucks ought to stay on the “thatched aprons,” or yellow<br />
taxiways. They should never be on the red runways (Figure 2).<br />
Fortunately, the trucking industry worldwide has been using<br />
a technology known as automatic vehicle location or AVL<br />
for much of the past several decades. The<br />
principal components of an AVL system<br />
include:<br />
(a) GPS receiver and a wireless data<br />
link in each remote vehicle;<br />
(b) Master station, capable of receiving<br />
all data link transmissions from the<br />
remote vehicles;<br />
(c) Capture software and data<br />
logging, capable of replaying<br />
portions or complete routes being<br />
driven by the remote vehicles;<br />
(d) Mapping and/or monitoring software<br />
to track the vehicles’ positions.<br />
Initially, AVL required explicit polling<br />
of the vehicles, as radio transmission speed<br />
was limited. With the implementation of cellular<br />
analog and then digital transmissions,<br />
those speeds increased by many orders of<br />
magnitude.<br />
With this increased bandwidth, it<br />
has become feasible to monitor the exact<br />
routes being used as well as the speed and<br />
directions of the vehicles. This close monitoring<br />
allows the detection of unlawful<br />
movements and triggers alarm conditions<br />
S P R I N G 2 0 0 4<br />
29
when the vehicle strays significantly from a planned routing or location. Driver identification<br />
using a smart card or similar digital signature to attach a person to a vehicle<br />
is a simple matter.<br />
Much like air navigation, AVL supports progressive monitoring of a route from location<br />
to location, including complete velocity and direction that can be refreshed to the second.<br />
With the low driving speeds found in surface movements, it is fully feasible to use this type<br />
of technology to report on the movement of ground vehicles on an airport, at any size<br />
airport in the world.<br />
Figure 3: AVL Behavior Example: Perimeter Security Vehicle should pass along the<br />
black roadway along the shoreline at least once every two hours.<br />
One of the significant advantages of AVL technology is the ability to observe or monitor<br />
the behavior of the ground vehicles, not just the position. If we re-examine the table from the<br />
previous paragraphs, we can assign some kind of behavior to each of those categories. This<br />
would allow us to define when the actions of the vehicle are not consistent with the expected<br />
behavior and thus need to trigger an alarm.<br />
Following is a list of ground vehicle monitoring purposes and the relevant questions:<br />
A SSE T M ANAGEMENT PURPOSES<br />
Can we identify the location?<br />
Can we identify the driver?<br />
OPER ATIONAL EFFICIENC Y<br />
Has the driver of this vehicle surpassed his/her hours on the job?<br />
Is the vehicle being operated during its known hours of operation?<br />
Has a vehicle exceeded the speed for its chosen task?<br />
Has the vehicle gone from a state of transmission to silence?<br />
FIGURE 3<br />
AVL behavior<br />
example<br />
of route<br />
for security<br />
perimeter<br />
vehicle<br />
SECURIT Y SURVEILL ANCE<br />
Has a security vehicle driven along the entire fence/perimeter in the past period of time?<br />
Has a vehicle gone outside the known area of operation for this type of vehicle?<br />
Has a vehicle exceeded the speed for its chosen task?<br />
Has a vehicle gone from a state of transmission<br />
to silence?<br />
Is the driver of this vehicle qualified<br />
to operate the vehicle in restricted areas<br />
(such as fuel farms, customs areas or hazardous<br />
material storage)?<br />
FLIGHT OPERATIONS EMERGENCY RESPONSE<br />
Can we identify the vehicles that are<br />
trained to respond to this type of emergency?<br />
Can we identify that those vehicles<br />
are equipped with drivers trained in that<br />
purpose?<br />
Can we identify that all other vehicles<br />
have left the area of the emergency?<br />
Can we identify if any vehicles are impeding<br />
the response to the emergency?<br />
T ERRORIST OR SECURIT Y<br />
EMERGENC Y OPER ATIONS<br />
Can we identify other vehicles from<br />
external agencies needed to respond to<br />
the threat (National Guard, Police, Fire<br />
or TSA)?<br />
Can we ensure that those vehicles not<br />
responding to the threat are kept away<br />
from the area of the threat?<br />
In the increased level of security that<br />
has become commonplace in the airports<br />
of the world, several new geospatial<br />
technologies have combined to assist<br />
enhanced monitoring of ground vehicles.<br />
Those technologies include:<br />
(a) GIS databases of the airports,<br />
AMDB. These support vector<br />
mapping of the airport at<br />
positional accuracies down to 1<br />
meter RMSE, when derived from<br />
high-resolution satellite imagery.<br />
(b) The Wide-Area-Augmentation-System<br />
implemented by the FAA, which<br />
allows positioning vehicle and<br />
aircraft on the above maps to within<br />
1 – 2 meters.<br />
(c) Widespread and economical<br />
availability of wireless and cellular<br />
bandwidth.<br />
(d) Automatic Vehicle Location<br />
(AVL) technology that can<br />
combine all of the above to enable<br />
strict monitoring of airport<br />
ground vehicles. «<br />
30 S P R I N G 2 0 0 4 w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m
2004 events calendar<br />
Ottowa<br />
may<br />
w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m<br />
2 – 5<br />
Airport GIS Conference & Exhibition<br />
Hilton Back Bay<br />
Boston, Mass.<br />
www.airportnet.org/<br />
3 – 5<br />
IMAGIN Annual Conference<br />
Holiday Inn South<br />
Lansing, Mich.<br />
www.imagin.org/<br />
10 – 14<br />
GEOMATICA 2004<br />
Sede Palacio de las Convenciones<br />
Havana, Cuba<br />
www.informaticahabana.com/<br />
12 – 14<br />
GeoSpatial World 2004<br />
Fontainebleau Hilton<br />
Miami Beach, Fla.<br />
www.geospatialworld.com/<br />
23 – 28<br />
ASPRS 2004 Annual Conference<br />
Adam’s Mark Hotel<br />
Denver, Colo.<br />
www.asprs.org/denver2004/<br />
index.html<br />
23 – 27<br />
Bentley International<br />
User Conference<br />
Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin<br />
Orlando, Fla.<br />
www.bentley.com/biuc/<br />
24 – 27<br />
Canadian Hydrographic Conference<br />
(CHC 2004)<br />
Ottawa Westin Hotel<br />
Ottawa, Canada<br />
www.chc2004.com/<br />
25 – 27<br />
24th EARSeL Symposium<br />
New Strategies for<br />
European Remote Sensing<br />
Inter University Centre<br />
Dubrovnik, Croatia<br />
www.earsel.geosat.hr/<br />
28 – 29<br />
Workshop: Remote Sensing of Land<br />
Use and Land Cover<br />
Inter University Centre<br />
Dubrovnik, Croatia<br />
www.earsel.geosat.hr/<br />
june<br />
7 – 9<br />
GISMAP 2004<br />
Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort<br />
Honolulu, Hawaii<br />
www.higicc.org/gismap.asp<br />
14 – 18<br />
50th OpenGIS Technical<br />
Committee Meetings<br />
Southampton, U.K.<br />
www.opengis.org/<br />
16 – 18<br />
46th International Symposium<br />
Electronics in Marine<br />
Zadar, Croatia<br />
www.vcl.fer.hr/elmar/2004/<br />
20 – 23<br />
97th Annual Canadian Institute of<br />
Geomatics Conference<br />
Westin Hotel<br />
Ottawa, Canada<br />
www.cig-acsg.ca/page.asp<br />
july<br />
Honolulu<br />
12 – 23<br />
ISPRS 20th Congress<br />
Convention and Exhibition Centre<br />
Istanbul, Turkey<br />
www.isprs2004-istanbul.com/<br />
18 – 20<br />
Public Participation GIS Conference<br />
University of Wisconsin-Madison<br />
Madison, Wis.<br />
www.urisa.org/ppgis.htm<br />
S P R I N G 2 0 0 4<br />
31
12076 Grant Street<br />
Thornton, CO 80241 USA<br />
2 S P R I N G 2 0 0 4 © 2 0 0 4 S P A C E I M A G I N G w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m