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The Magazine of the National Intelligence Community

February 2014 Volume 12, Issue 1

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GIS Engineer

David LaBrancheDISDI Program ManagerOSD

Predictive Analytics O Unstructured Data ArcGIS O Activity Based Intelligence PRSRT STD

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Cover / Q&AFeatures

DaviD LaBrancheDefense Installations Spatial Data Infrastructure Program Manager

Office of the Secretary of Defense

16

Departments Industry Interview2 eDitor’s PersPective4 ProGraM notes/PeoPLe6 inteL UPDate14 inDUstry raster27 resoUrce center

John yokLeyPresident, Chief Executive Officer and FounderPTFS

February 2014Volume 12, Issue 1GEOSPATIAL INTELLIGENCE FORUM

10PreDictive anaLytics for inteL aDvantaGeApplying predictive analytics to military and national intelligence problems can be difficult, because intelligence analysts don’t have the luxury of neatly organized historical data that can be easily extrapolated out into the future, but instead must deal with a series of observations that may or may not be arranged according to time and place.By Peter BuxBaum

20activity BaseD inteLLiGenceAfter the Activity Based Intelligence Working Group of the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation developed a list of 16 “hard problems” facing ABI, GIF asked executives in key companies what they think is the “hardest” problem for the field, and how should it be addressed.

24strUctUrinG DataLike a peacekeeping unit trying to constrain irregular forces that are all that much more difficult to control because they fail to fall within the conventional military categories of organization and command, the military and intelligence communities are struggling to get a handle on the unstructured data that is coming at them from a bewildering variety of sources. By William murray

28

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7GeoGraPhic inteLLiGence softwareLong considered an essential tool for geographic information system professionals conducting a wide range of tasks, from urban design to military tactical planning, ArcGIS from Esri is taking on a growing role in the analysis and production of strategic intelligence.By Harrison Donnelly

“Our purpose is to be the business mission

capability of people, policy and practices

being used to acquire,

steward and share installation,

environment and range geospatial

data.”

—David LaBranche,

DISDI Program Manager

Even in our hyper-connected world, it is still not easy to link up good ideas with the people who need them, in government and elsewhere. A recently formed non-profit group is trying to bridge that gap, however, by using both technology and personal contact to help government agencies find solutions for their needs.

While directed toward the full range of government and national secu-rity programs, the Foundation for Innovation and Discovery (FINND) is beginning with a focus on the intelligence community. Its board of advisers includes a number of former senior IC leaders, and its initial events have or are scheduled to feature talks by officials from NSA, CIA, DIA and NGA, as well as small group discussions of such topics as analytical tradecraft and the role of cloud-enabled ops in IC innovation.

Beyond holding events, however, what really caught my eye about FINND is that it is trying to create a mechanism for bringing together needs and solutions outside the strictures of government acquisition. Key to this process will be individuals from both inside and outside of government who serve as “FINNDERs’’ by recommending specific solutions for identified problems.

The FINNDERs’ suggestions will help shape the content of “Discovery Summits,” which will be one-day events organized in connection with an agency to bring together and share some of the best ideas to fill their requirements. Another feature, still under development at this writing, is Discover Engine, an online portal that will serve as a virtual dashboard for discovery and innovation exchange.

“What makes the FINND unique among other organizations is its network,” said Louis Tucker, the group’s president. “The FINND uses an innovative information value proposition to build its network to connect needs and capabilities. The incentive to get natural ‘finders’ to open their networks without finan-cial gain is the nut the FINND cracked. Additionally, the FINND’s Mission Forums, which bring lower-level mission users together with technologists and industry, are fairly unique and have received rave reviews by our members.”

The Magazine of the National Intelligence Community

Editorial

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CorrespondentsPeter A. Buxbaum • Cheryl Gerber William Murray • Karen E. Thuermer

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Volume 12, Issue 1 • February 2014

Harrison DonnellyeDitor

EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE

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The MetaVRC 1-inch per-pixel resolution imagery collection platform for real-time terrain visualization is now in operation.

One-inch resolution imagery collected at 400 ft by remote-controlled aircraft

Orthorecified imagery, elevation, and feature data imported and compiled in MetaVR Terrain Tools for Esri ArcGIS

Real-time visualization of resulting 3D terrain in MetaVR Virtual Reality Scene Generator

Real-time screen capture from MetaVR’s visualization system is of the 3D virtual terrain of a geospecific area with 1-inch per pixel imagery collected by the MetaVRC™ aircraft. The operational readiness testing of the MetaVRC was performed as described by the FAA and AMA applicable airspace operation rules and regulations. (AMA National Safety Code and FAA AC 91-57.) Data was collected as part of this testing. This screen capture is unedited except as required for printing. The real-time rendering of the 3D virtual world is generated by MetaVR Virtual Reality Scene Generator™ (VRSG™). 3D model is from MetaVR’s 3D content libraries. Inset image is of MetaVR Terrain Tools for Esri ArcGIS. © 2014 MetaVR, Inc. All rights reserved. MetaVR, Virtual Reality Scene Generator, VRSG, MetaVRC, the phrase “Geospecific simulation with game quality graphics,” and the MetaVR logo are trademarks of MetaVR, Inc. Esri and ArcGIS are registered trademarks of Esri.

PROGRAM NOTES Compiled by Kmi media Group staff

DARPA Seeks Insights for Intelligence Analysts The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has taken another

step in its effort to greatly simplify the work of intelligence analysts who manually process massive volumes of complex data from multiple sources.

The agency recently awarded a $79 million contract to BAE Systems as part of Phase 2 of its Insight program, which seeks to develop a system that will serve users by automatically fusing data from numerous sensors and using algorithms to discover and predict behaviors of possible threats. The system would analyze the multi-source data and convert it to useable intelligence in a process known as exploitation. For seamless tracking abilities, the system would also automatically manage sensor tasking.

DARPA initiated the program to address the need for new tools and automa-tion to enhance analyst capabilities and performance. Insight aims to create an adaptable, integrated system for ISR information to augment intelligence analysts’ support of time-sensitive operations on the battlefield.

In addition, Insight’s automated backend processing capabilities will include behavioral learning and prediction algorithms to help analysts discover and identify potential threats and explore hypotheses about those threats’ potential activities.

“BAE Systems has invested in developing a portfolio of sensor data processing and exploitation systems to provide analysts with usable intelligence and intui-tive, easy-to-use sensor controls,” said David Logan, vice president and general manager of technology solutions at BAE Systems. “We are able to capitalize on the core technologies we’ve developed for other intelligence programs, including multi-sensor fusion, reasoning algorithms, and automatic resource tasking, while advancing our expertise in this area.”

BAE Systems will lead the Phase 2 team, which includes Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories, SAIC, Charles River Analytics, Intific, Aptima, HF Designworks and PatchPlus Consulting.

For example, Charles River Analytics, a developer of human-machine inter-faces for a wide range of decision-support systems, will support the design and development of the Insight user experience. The team plans to collaborate to mature the Insight system by integrating information from additional sources, such as space, air, sea, and ground sensors; human intelligence; and information repositories and networks. Insight also plans to support other mission domains, such as mobile missile hunts, counterinsurgency, wide-area security and inte-grated air defense systems.

During the first phase of the Insight program, BAE Systems developed an automatic/semi-automatic system for exploitation and resource management, as well as sensor models for testing the Insight system under a wider variety of opera-tional conditions. Phase 1 focused on supporting tactical brigades and battalions in irregular warfare scenarios.

Army Brigadier General (Promotable) Scott D. Berrier, who has been serving as director of Intelligence, J-2, U.S. Central Command, has been assigned as deputy chief of staff, intelligence, International Security Assistance Force, Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan.

Marcel Lettre has been appointed to the Senior Executive Service as principal deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence. Lettre previously served as

special assistant to the secretary of defense.

Brig. Gen.Mark R. Quantock

Army Brigadier General Mark R. Quantock has become military deputy of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. As NGA’s senior

ranking military officer, he is a member of the NGA Command Element, where he advises the director on the combat support agency functions and provides a uniformed military perspective to the NGA board of directors. He manages NGA combat support and other functions in 35 locations embedded with military mission partners, and oversees NGA’s expeditionary operations.

Spatial Networks, a geospatial technology

and services company focused on developing innovative apps for industry and government, has announced the appointment of Julia Bowers as chief operating officer.

Intergraph Government Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intergraph Corp. serving the U.S. federal market, has added Gerald King as incoming senior vice president of life cycle solutions, heading a division of the company

that serves a number of organizations in the Navy, Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Department of Homeland Security.

Stephen Kupcha has joined SAP National Security Services as business development senior specialist. Kupcha is also serving as the first executive director for the company’s non-profit organization, NS2 Serves, an IT training and career placement program for post-9/11 veterans.

PEOPLE Compiled by Kmi media Group staff

www.GIF-kmi.com4 | GIF 1 2 .1

Rapid Systems Integration for Global MissionsOperationalizing intelligence for global missions requires a novel approach to current ISR challenges. In collaboration with IBM and Exelis, our innovative research leverages commercial Big Data solutions and cloud-based PED systems to save you time and money. From concept to customer, from lab to � eld, Riverside Research delivers actionable intelligence at a fraction of the cost.

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FIND OUT MORE

Congress has passed a $1.1 tril-lion omnibus spending bill that will provide sta-bility to the acqui-sition process by funding the gov-ernment through FY14 and pre-vent the United States from hit-ting the debt ceil-ing in early February. Under this legislation the Department of Defense will lose $32.8 billion from FY13 to FY14, but will avoid the $22 billion sequestration cut.

The good news is that because the 1,582-page legislation includes all 12 funding bills, Congress won’t have to pass any additional con-tinuing resolutions for the fiscal year. Also, the next deadline is eight months away, September 30.

Regarding cyber-policy, the omnibus spend-ing bill calls for the National Security Agency director to send three reports to Congress on the agency’s collection of Americans’ phone records. The reports will detail the number of calls reviewed and the number of records of Americans they accumulated through the pro-gram, the agency’s process for collecting the data, and outline terrorist activity terminated because of NSA’s data program.

It is highly unlikely President Obama will initiate sweeping reform of the NSA; recently the president and security officials have deemed the agency a key tool in preventing terrorist attacks.

Legislators are also becoming increasingly concerned with protecting customer data. The House recently voted in favor of the “health exchange security and transparency act,” which requires the Department of Health and Human Services to notify a customer within two busi-ness days if their personal information on the health insurance marketplace was hacked.

The environment in Washington today is one where lawmakers pat themselves on the back for almost passing a budget deal on time and defense decision-makers must be content with cutting fewer programs than they originally anticipated. Yet, cyber is still a “sweet spot” within the federal government. Government spending on cyber is lightly regu-lated, and its importance in the mind of budget makers is only going to grow. O

By George meyersINTEL UPDATE

George Meyers

[email protected]

Bill # Sponsor Committee Assignment

Description

H.r. 3103 rep. mike thompson (D-Calif.)

House Judiciary, House intelligence

amend the Foreign intelligence surveillance act of 1978 to modify the reporting requirements for deci-sions of the Foreign intelligence surveillance Court.

H.r. 3361 rep. James sensenbrenner (r-Wis.)

House Judiciary, House intelligence, House Financial services

reform the authorities of the federal government to require the production of certain business records, conduct electronic surveillance, use pen registers and trap and trace devices, and use other forms of infor-mation gathering for foreign intelligence, counterter-rorism, and criminal purposes.

H.r. 3035 rep. Zoe lofgren (D-Calif.)


Permit periodic public reporting by electronic commu-nications providers and remote computer service providers of certain estimates pertaining to requests or demands by federal agencies under the provisions of certain surveillance laws where disclosure of such estimates is, or may be, otherwise prohibited by law.

H.r. 3070 rep michael Fitzpatrick (r-Pa.)


amend section 501 of the Foreign intelligence surveillance act of 1978 to reform access to certain business records for foreign intelligence and interna-tional terrorism investigations.

H.r. 2952 rep. Patrick meehan (r-Pa.)

House Homeland security

make certain improvements in the laws relating to the advancement of security technologies for critical infrastructure protection.

H.r. 2962 rep. Donald Payne (D-n.J.)


Provide for independent research of the future resil-ience and reliability of the nation’s electric power transmission and distribution system.

H.r. 3032 rep. James langevin (D-r.i.)

House oversight and Government reform

Create a national office for Cyberspace and revise requirements relating to federal information security.

H.r. 3107 rep. yvette Clarke (D-n.y.)


require the secretary of homeland security to estab-lish cybersecurity occupation classifications, assess the cybersecurity workforce and develop a strategy to address identified gaps in the cybersecurity work-force.

H.r. 3677H.r. 3683

rep. Fred upton (r-mich.)

House science, space, and technology

amend the energy independence and security act of 2007 to improve u.s.-israel energy cooperation.

H.r. 3696 rep. michael mcCaul (r-texas)

House Homeland security; House science, space, and technology

amend the Homeland security act of 2002 to make certain improvements regarding cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection.

H.r. 3847 rep. ron Barber (D-ariz.)

House energy and Commerce; House oversight and Government reform

require the secretary of homeland security the responsibility to develop and provide to the secretary of health and human services risk-based, perfor-mance-based cybersecurity standards for the federal information technology requirements under the Patient Protection and affordable Care act, including the healthcare.gov website.

s. 1353 sen. John rockefeller (D-W.Va.)

senate Commerce, science, and transportation

Provide for an ongoing, voluntary public-private partnership to improve cybersecurity, and strengthen cybersecurity research and development, workforce development and education, and public awareness and preparedness.

s. 1638 sen. sheldon Whitehouse (D-r.i.)

senate Homeland security and Governmental affairs

Promote public awareness of cybersecurity.

Current intelligence legislation in Congress:


Long considered an essential tool for geographic information system profession-als conducting a wide range of tasks, from urban design to military tactical planning, ArcGIS from Esri is taking on a growing role in the analysis and production of strategic intelligence.

ArcGIS is an industry-standard software platform that enables users to create and use maps, compile and analyze geographic data, and manage and distribute information. It both offers many different functionalities and serves as the basis for development of a pleth-ora of specific applications.

Esri’s strategy for ArcGIS, which is avail-able for desktop, enterprise, mobile and online formats, calls for providing the core ArcGIS system as a broad platform suitable for many different industries, and then devel-oping on top of that a series of solution tem-plates geared to specific fields. The templates, provided to customers at no additional cost, offer standard maps, applications and work-flows suited to the unique needs of each industry.

For example, the company for some time has offered ArcGIS for the Military, which provides analysts, planners and operational units with maps and applications to support deployed military forces in land, maritime and domestic operations. What is new is that Esri in the past year or so has made avail-able ArcGIS for Intelligence, which includes capabilities geared specifically to help the national intelligence community manage source information, perform analysis and fusion of information, maintain situational awareness, and share information with deci-sion makers. The solution also contains com-ponents for military intelligence analysis of land or maritime operations.

“The work and techniques of national intelligence analysts may be similar, but instead of supporting military operations, they are focused on intelligence produc-tion supporting policy and decision mak-ing,” explained Ben Conklin, Esri lead for

defense solutions. “They do war fighting sup-port, but they have different needs and a broader community to serve than the mili-tary intelligence analysts. We created ArcGIS for Intelligence to have some tools and work-flows to support the needs of the national intelligence community.”

ArcGIS’s ability to serve as the foundation for develop-ment of other functionality, however, spreads its influ-ence and importance for the intelligence and related fields well beyond just those tai-lored packages of solutions. Recognizing the critical role of the software for all types of GIS users, most key play-ers in the geospatial field have entered close partner-ships with Esri and developed their technol-ogies specifically to work on top of ArcGIS. Companies offering ArcGIS-based software for intelligence and related missions include MetaVR, Exelis VIS, TerraGo and ClearTerra.

Developers of such products freely acknowledge the critical role of ArcGIS in both their technology and their business strategy. For example, MetaVR, which offers a 3-D render engine for creating realis-tic simulations for training and other purposes, depends on direct data feeds from ArcGIS.

“Without their products, it would be very hard to have our company, because the terrain creation process is very com-plicated. Everything is dependent on get-ting content into the render engine, and that content is 3-D

terrain from ArcGIS,” said Garth Smith, chief executive officer and co-founder of MetaVR.

Esri

In ArcGIS for Intelligence, Esri focuses on key workflows that reflect common

patterns in how people use GIS. “There are three areas, based on typical ways we see GIS being used. One area is the management of source information. We also see people using ArcGIS to bring together data to ana-lyze patterns, relationships and probabilities of things happening in the future. Finally, we look at informa-tion sharing, putting ana-

lytic products together into a finished product for sharing. We’re also going to bring in some additional workflows for monitoring real-time events,” Conklin said.

Each of the categories offers a variety of different tools, for example to perform routing analysis, analyze incident data or work with full motion video.

PoPular Gis softwarE takEs on GrowinG rolE in intElliGEncE analysis. By Harrison DonnElly, Gif EDitor

Garth Smith

Terrain features in MetaVR’s Terrain Tools For ArcGIS enable users to turn their geospatial data into real-time 3-D terrain from within ArcGIS software. In addition to building 3-D terrain with imagery and elevation data, feature data can also be used as input. This screen capture shows data sources of Kismayo, Somalia, including the roadway linear features. [Image courtesy of MetaVR]

GIF 1 2 .1 | 7 www.GIF-kmi.com

Esri as a company is emphasizing online access, and among other things offers the ArcGIS for Server extension, which provides a map-centric collaborative content manage-ment system that organizations can deploy in their own infrastructure. That is particularly appealing to intelligence agencies, which can take all the technology on the public website and bring it behind their firewall.

“We have the framework technology that solutions can plug into,” Conklin noted. “Instead of having to build a large system, you can have the focused apps to deploy, and use the backend information management system to do the heavy lifting. The apps are easy to use, because behind the scenes there is a key framework helping to manage data and collaborate. You don’t need to download all the data to your local computer to pro-duce results, but can do this in a more inter-active way. It lets us deliver focused pieces of functionality, where in the past we had to build a large application or system to accom-plish the same thing.”

The intelligence package contains tools for using video, and the company is planning to expand its full motion video (FMV) capa-bilities, Conklin explained. “We look at video as another source of information. It can be a source of imagery, but also can bring other intelligence information, such as moving tracks. It’s an additional source of data to increase our knowledge about an area. There is also a lot of value in bringing GIS data into video, such as from an intelligence database, to give context and help understand what is in the video.

“In the next few months, we’ll be working to do more to integrate FMV as part of stan-dard intelligence products,” he continued. “There is also a lot of room in our workflows for how to use FMV as part of the standard intelligence cycle. There is also room for managing FMV from a geospatial perspec-tive, looking in space and time to understand the video. Finally, there will be a lot more motion imagery sensors emerging, so we’ll support those, which are great technology but also bring us a whole new range of issues to deal with.”

Like any company, Esri strives to get input from customers about problems or ways to improve its products. But that can be a challenge in working with the intelligence community, Conklin acknowledged. “We’re always looking for feedback. But the reality in this community is that it can be challenging. A lot of the workflows are very sensitive. We spend a lot of time inside facilities working

with our users. What we try to do is ensure that what we’re building can be applied to their workflows. But we have to take their feedback in a general sense, because we’re not building classified products.

“We’re sensitive about not causing any problems by capturing workflows or tra-decraft that are sensitive. We get feedback, but one of the things that is challenging about this solution is that we have to be very careful that we handle feedback appropri-ately. It’s a unique challenge with the intelli-gence solution, more than anything else we work on,” he added.

MEtaVr

MetaVR’s primary product is Virtual Reality Scene Generator (VRSG), a real time 3-D visualization application that undergirds the company’s goal of creating “geospecific simulation with game quality graphics.”

Complementing VRSG is Terrain Tools, an extension for ArcGIS for Desktop that lever-ages its infrastructure of GIS technology to turn geospatial data into real-time 3-D envi-ronments for training simula-tions and other purposes.

But the render engine technology is only as good as the data content that goes into it, Smith noted. “That means we have to create the 3-D environments that go into simulations. A while ago, we were building our 3-D environments, and realized that it would be an overwhelming task to sup-port all the different formats for imagery or elevation data, which are extremely well done by ArcGIS products. What we did was build our TerrainTools on top of all of that infrastructure.

“People only buy our render software if there is good content for it,” he added. “The tremendous infrastructure that is built into the Esri product line allows us to build ter-rain more quickly than with a competing product that had to develop all the under-lying technology for terrain creation on its own. It would be hard to compete with the amount of development that Esri has done and continues to do.”

Smith also highlighted a new MetaVR product that combines low-cost aircraft data collection and processing workflows to create 3-D terrain imagery with the exceptionally high resolution of 3 cm per pixel, compared

with the 1 meter resolution frequently used in simulations.

“When you progress from 1 meter to 3 cm, the terrain just comes alive. The stuff that you might have to model with a clas-sic terrain tool, such as putting a road tex-ture on the roads to make them stand out, is now there. The terrain looks so dramatically different when you have that high resolution imagery,” Smith said.

ExElis Vis

Exelis VIS also coordinates many of its products closely with ArcGIS, with offerings that include ENVI for ArcGIS Server, which allows users to author, publish and distribute image analysis tools and models to the entire organization. With ENVI image analysis tools available within the ArcGIS Server environ-ment, end users can take full advantage of

the rich geographic data con-tained in imagery.

The two companies’ prod-ucts complement each other, observed Mark Bowersox, solutions engineer for Exelis VIS. “One of the primary rea-sons to work with ArcGIS is to help the analyst gain efficien-cies,” he said. “Esri has niche capabilities in spatial analysis and geographic data dissem-ination, and we have niche

capabilities in image processing and advanced analytics. Being able to put those capabilities together is the main advantage.

“The entire ENVI product suite integrates with ArcGIS, and most recently, we have been working on the server-based interoperabil-ity. But we also offer integration features at the desktop, workflow and enterprise levels. They each build on each other. At the desk-top, it’s more about working with imagery to get it ready and extract information, and then using those products in a GIS to do spatial analysis or modeling. At the workflow level, it gives you the ability to streamline a pre-exist-ing process and replicate it for analysts. At the server level, it could be connecting to imagery services that ArcGIS provides, and doing deep analytics or advanced image processing from those services,” Bowersox said.

One of the benefits is to be able to stream-line a process into a consistent workflow, he noted. “It can capture tradecraft that may be handed down from senior engineers or image scientists into a streamlined work-flow, so that a junior analyst or someone with

George Demmy


less expertise in the field can use the work-flow to achieve results. The benefit is get-ting best-of-breed processing from both the GIS and imagery sides, encapsulating that into a workflow, and reducing the amount of training involved in bringing someone up to speed.”

tErraGo

TerraGo Technologies, which develops technology for location intelligence, geospa-tial collaboration and field data collection, offers TerraGo Publisher for ArcGIS, a tightly integrated extension to ArcGIS for helping intelligence analysts distill their work into products that are easily consumed and used.

Publisher creates GeoPDF maps that can be analyzed and marked up with the TerraGo Toolbar hosted in Adobe Reader or Acrobat. These markups can be brought into ArcGIS with their georeferencing intact, which can be valuable to analysts in establishing a meaningful, quantitative relationship and conversation with people who rely upon their analysis.

Integrating with ArcGIS offers a num-ber of benefits, observed George Demmy, chief technology officer for TerraGo. “It has a host of rich capabilities and is a natural envi-ronment for doing a variety of intelligence analysis tasks. The very tight and seamless integration with ArcGIS reduces the distance between the analyst and the consumer of the results of that analysis,” he said.

Looking ahead for his company, Demmy sees products that will be of interest to ana-lysts who want to create richer, more inter-active geospatial intelligence products. “We are going to be focusing on making the data used to create the analytic product more useful and accessible, and making exchang-ing information with the people they serve both simpler and richer. We are continuously enhancing our integration with ArcGIS from different perspectives, but primarily with an eye on making the results of the intelligence analysis much more useful to its ultimate consumer,” Demmy said.

clEartErra

ClearTerra offers LocateXT product tech-nology, which searches unstructured textual data, rapidly finding and transforming geo-coordinates, temporal, and other custom-izable information into standard map data.

For ArcGIS technology, LocateXT is available within three core platforms: as an

extension to ArcGIS Desktop, including the ArcToolbox; within ArcGIS Server, where LocateXT can be published as geoprocessing services/widgets; and LocateXT for ArcGIS Online, which offers direct integration with Esri’s cloud-based GIS plat-form for rapid dissemination and sharing.

LocateXT supports many ArcGIS platforms and use cases, explained Jeff Wilson, ClearTerra vice president of sales. “On the ArcGIS desk-top, an analyst may cre-ate a geodatabase of results using LocateXT, or embed LocateXT in an automated workflow model to accom-plish several analytical/geo-processing tasks with the data. LocateXT within ArcGIS Server provides widely avail-able geoprocessing services, where users can use LocateXT within Web-mapping widgets with thinner GIS clients or web-browsers,” he said.

Using the ArcGIS Online/Portal for ArcGIS platform, LocateXT extracts critical spatial data from unstructured documents and publishes the spatial output directly to the online content portal. The source docu-ments are concurrently uploaded to the con-tent portal, and are accessible from the Web map. Everything relevant to the situation is in the portal and can be shared instantly with different groups of users with different access controls.

“LocateXT specifically shines when tightly integrated with ArcGIS platforms. It rapidly discovers and extracts from unstruc-tured data to a structured geospatial output. What can then be accomplished with that structured data output is quite comprehen-sive, including symbologies, query/search, geoprocessing, data dissemination and much more,” Wilson said.

aGi

Systems Tool Kit (STK) modeling, anal-ysis and visualization software tools from AGI enable ArcGIS users to enhance the design and development of defense, intelli-gence and civilian decision-support applica-tions, according to Todd Smith, AGI product manager. AGI software integrated with the Esri ecosystem can enhance the ArcGIS

environment with ISR platforms, payloads and environment analysis and visualization; automate the creation of ISR data and anal-ysis into the ArcGIS environment; and inte-grate ISR capability into any ArcGIS product.

“STK produces a variety of analytical capability for the IC, such as satellite over-flight; ground, air and space RF analysis; aircraft mission planning; and sensor model-ing,” Smith said. “Since many intelligence analysts use ArcGIS as part of their day-to-day function, all of these analytical products can seam-lessly be integrated into their workflow. STK Desktop lever-ages ArcObjects to natively read and write any ArcGIS formatted data. STK Server has an optional ArcGIS Server interface to enable ArcGIS geo-processing services to invoke STK capability from the web. This off-the-shelf interoperability provides a tremendous solution for the mission.”

Intelligence analysts use STK to model trajectories, determine sensor performance and analyze the RF environ-ment. But as Smith pointed out, this anal-ysis product is often difficult to get into the hands of senior decision makers or special-ized intelligence analysts. “ArcGIS provides an enterprise-scalable conduit to create and disseminate the STK analysis product. Third-party consumers of STK analytical content can get the information when they want it, and how they need it,” he said.

“ArcGIS provides a widely deployed, off-the-shelf, common geospatial language to communicate over,” Smith continued. “This enables specialized capability to interoperate with more generic systems so that disparate workflows and functions can effectively work together to support the mission. STK pro-vides off-the-shelf analytic capability for land, sea, air and space systems. Disseminating STK’s capability throughout the broader geo-spatial enterprise gives the mission much more value.” O

For more information, contact GIF Editor Harrison Donnelly at harrisond@kmimediagroup.

com or search our online archives for related stories at www.gif-kmi.com.

Mark Bowersox

Jeff Wilson

www.GIF-kmi.com GIF 1 2 .1 | 9

In the commercial world, retailers apply predictive analyt-ics to customer behavior in order to maximize sales and prof-its, crunching data to find the right time to make the right offer to the right customer. Retailers have such a rich trove of historical customer data that, with the use of the latest tech-nology, consumer behavior can be predicted with considerable accuracy.

Applying predictive analytics to military and national intel-ligence problems, however, is a different matter. Intelligence analysts don’t have the luxury of neatly organized historical data that can be easily extrapolated out into the future, but instead must deal with a series of observations that may or may not be arranged according to time and place.

More importantly, they often are trying to anticipate unknown actions of an unknown adversary. In contrast to the merchant, who often has relatively complete data on a cus-tomer and has the specific goal of making a sale, intelligence analysts are often working with incomplete data and without knowing what the next move is supposed to be.

In fact, the application of predictive analytics to intelli-gence often focuses on what is missing in the data or how certain observations diverge from the expected norm. Some experts insist on calling this process not predictive analytics but anticipatory analytics, in order to distinguish it from simi-lar processes in other realms.

Predictive analytics is an outgrowth of the branch of information technology known as business intelligence (BI). Traditional BI looks backward to provide visibility into histori-cal data that can explain how and why an organization is doing well or poorly. But in the fast-moving and ever-shifting land-scape of today, relying on historical data alone is like driving a car while only looking into the rearview mirror. Predictive ana-lytics promises to uncover challenges and opportunities that are coming down the pike, providing the opportunity to proac-tively deal with them.

In the geospatial field, predictive analytics involves ana-lyzing events to uncover relevant patterns and relationships related to a place. By illuminating the spatial and temporal fac-tors that relate a certain type of event, it is possible to statisti-cally anticipate where similar events are most likely to occur in the future. This allows analysts, warfighters and law enforce-ment officials to focus tightly on those areas. Geospatial pre-dictive analytics relies on a host of data sources, including imaging and full-motion video sensors, location-enabled appli-cations, and open source information such as social media data.

Technology advancements that enable the processing of ever-larger data sets also serve predictive analytics. While pre-dictive analytics can narrow down areas of interest dramati-cally, it also can consider greater geographical areas than in the past, thus enabling consideration by analysts of a broader set of hypotheses before narrowing them down.

New visualization technologies have also been applied to geospatial predictive analytics. Once a set of locations with similar spatial characteristics is correlated with past events, hundreds of geospatial data layers can be reviewed to identify the physical, cultural and social factors that may correlate with the activity being examined. These hot spots, once identified, can be visualized on a map highlighting where similar events are most likely to occur, allowing users of the intelligence to deploy their resources more effectively.

ProactiVE collEction

As intelligence analysts and consumers alike are deluged with increasing volumes of data at an accelerating pace, they need to derive actionable intelligence from the data faster, before the information gets stale.

“The government is looking to be more proactive with respect to the data it is collecting,” said Matt Fahle, a senior

BiG-Data-BasED forEcastinG MEtHoDs offEr ProMisE of rEal-tiME inforMation for DEcision MakinG. By PEtEr BuxBauM, Gif corrEsPonDEnt


executive for intelligence services at Accenture. “The longer it takes to act on intelligence, the more impact is lost over time. The pace at which data is being gathered, and the ability to analyze that data so folks can act quickly, is really driving a world of insights.”

“Traditional forecasting models are based on using his-torical data to identify future occurrences related to specific data sets and predetermined models,” said Justin Christian, director of technology and innovation at Mercury Intelligence Systems. “Today’s predictive analytics include forecasting, but are much broader in nature. They enable the discovery of pre-viously unknown information, often without well-defined mod-els driving those predictions, and they are usually associated with large volumes of data, much of it unstructured. In addi-tion to forecasting based on observed trends, predictive analyt-ics can also provide knowledge of previously unknown trends or patterns.”

“What is happening with predictive analytics repre-sents a huge paradigm shift,” said Scott Broudy, strate-gic account manager for defense and the intelligence community at MicroStrategy. “Besides the refocus from backward-looking to forward-looking analysis, we are seeing developments in technol-ogy that allow more people who are not data scientists or mathe-maticians to use predictive ana-lytical tools.”

The goal of any military or intelligence function is to be pre-dictive in nature rather than reac-tive, noted Matt Hughes, president of Mercury Intelligence Systems. “Most current legacy tools are useful in evaluating events that occurred in the past, but that information is rarely useful at the tactical level for current opera-tions,” he said. “Predictive analyt-ics are the key to understanding events in real time so that com-manders and decision makers can be proactive in dealing with events that affect them directly.”

Predictive analytics can pro-vide military and intelligence organizations with a number of important capabilities, according to Barry Barlow, chief technol-ogy officer at The SI Organization. “One is that it can highlight corre-lations that people can’t do manu-ally,” he said. “Second, it shortens the time to decision making. Even with huge data sets and complex models, a reasonable set of recom-mendations can be generated within minutes. Third, it allows the power of social knowledge to be applied by people of diverse

sets of experiences by leveraging the wisdom of the crowd. Fourth, performance improves over time thanks to algorithms that can learn from the feedback loop.”

Law enforcement personnel may be looking for the next spot where an unknown malefactor may commit his next crime, while military intelligence analysts may be looking to see where a group may place its next IED.

“Insurgents, like criminals, do things multiple times, and not just once,” said Sean Bair, president of Bair Analytics. “They keep on doing it until they get caught. With predictive analytics, it is possible to develop insurgents’ modus operandi and where they might emplace the next IED. We can also fig-ure out who their suppliers are and when they move the sup-plies, so that troops can be allocated to take out the emplacers as well as the suppliers.”

“We worked with the Department of Defense on IED defeat,” said Jim Stokes, vice president of Insight Commercial Solutions at DigitalGlobe. “Once we developed a signature, we would predict other areas they were likely to hit.”

anticiPatory intElliGEncE

But intelligence analysts are often not dealing with clean data. The data may be sparse and incom-plete or it may be bad data inter-spersed with good data.

“In the national intelligence domain, we often talk about antic-ipatory analytics,” said Jordan Becker, vice president and gen-eral manger for geospatial intelli-gence and ISR at BAE Systems. “In the case of predictive analytics, we want to know the outcome of a known event such as an election or the reaction of the stock mar-ket to a company announcement. In the intelligence world, we don’t necessarily know the future activ-ity or the date of observations that allow us to create hypotheses of what the future event might be. You need to open the aperture to include all observations to form a hypothesis of what the events are and what the observations are pointing to.”

Linking individuals and activ-ities geospatially is an important part of the predictive process, according to Barlow. “Linking diverse intelligence reports describing the movement of objects geospatially is important in making good predictions about future activities and their loca-

tions,” he said. “In the case of a chemical or biological threat to a city, for example, we can model traffic patterns and the

Barry Barlow Matt Hughes

Justin Christian

Matt Fahle Jordan Becker

Scott Broudy


movements of individuals. The difficult part is that this is often based on imagery rather than on structured data.”

In the case of military missions, geospa-tial predictive analytics can answers questions on threats and counterthreats or the correct approach to raiding a building. “If a facility that looks like a residence appears to be burning its own garbage, that is abnormal,” said Becker. “This can be detected geospatially. The ques-tion then becomes how to use that data to form a hypothesis about what is going on in that residence.”

DigitalGlobe has undertaken a human geog-raphy project, which it intends eventually to cover the entire globe. The point is to amass and correlate suf-ficient geospatial and other types of data to be able to predict human trends on a regional basis.

“For example, our algorithms will look at certain activities and ascertain their distances to roads, rivers, vegetated areas and other geospatially related terrain features that might char-acterize the environment,” said Ken Campbell, Vice President of National Security Solutions for DigitalGlobe.

“This is also loaded up with demographic data such as lan-guages and tribal affiliations. At the end of the day we have an understanding of the top geospa-tial factors that influence behav-ior. That becomes a starting point for a better understanding about what may be driving activity in given region,” Campbell said, adding that this model has been applied in the Horn of Africa to discover factors that drove local populations to refugee camps.

When the U.S. military and the intelligence community inter-act with local populations abroad, one key toward understanding the landscape and predicting future developments is to ascertain the sentiments of those local commu-nities. Predictive analytical tools are increasingly using data from social media in order to make that estimation.

“There is a lot of excitement about what can be done with this type of information,” said Campbell. “Combining that with geospatial data can generate a pic-ture of what people are thinking in various parts of the world.”

An analysis of Twitter feeds overlaid on a geospatial back-ground could have predicted the Arab Spring of 2012, Barlow

suggested. “That is why social media is being incorporated into the tradecraft,” he said. “It is a very good predictive indicator of certain trends, where they originate, and how they spread. One predictive analysis showed the relationship between social unrest and water shortages in Africa and informed pol-icies on well-development activities and water desalination investments.”

The SAS National Security Group analyzes social media information to help DoD and intelligence agencies plan humanitarian projects.

“We use open source social media and SAS analytics to sift through millions of documents to discover where new refugee camps or hospitals may be located,” said Mark Kriz, a senior account executive. “We have used behavioral analytics on the same type of data to determine the attitudes of populations towards their local politicians. We are able to develop an under-standing of the sentiment of native peoples toward a variety of topics. Based on that, we are able to predict how events may unfold in a certain region and how those events may trend.”

aGGrEGatiVE EstiMation

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), a research organization under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, runs several programs that are investigating new methodologies for predictive analytics. One of those programs, Aggregative Contingent Estimation (ACE), seeks to develop methods for modeling human judg-ments on geopolitical events.

“As part of that, we run one of the largest experiments in forecasting,” said Jason Matheny, the ACE program manager. “More than 10,000 people have participated in generating over 1 million forecasts on hundreds of political questions over the last two and a half years.”

ACE seeks to improve forecasting by scoring the accuracy of the judgments they collect. “We look at the types of questions people get right and the types they get wrong,” said Matheny. “We study how we can improve the accuracy of forecasts by better understanding patterns of judgment and by using statis-tical methods to correct predictable errors of judgment.”

Another IARPA program that Matheny runs, Open Source Indicators (OSI), combines human judgments with open source data such as social media, news reports and Wikipedia to try and gain insights on emerging trends such as political Daniel Boyle

Ken Campbell

Marc Kriz

SAS Social Media Analytics heat map showing tweets about Syria and the topics (taxonomy) listed in the bottom left of the picture. The heat map shows where in the world people are talking about Syria as it relates to those topics.


instability and disease outbreaks. The program recently has focused on events in Latin America.

“The geospatial component to OSI is that we link open source data to specific cities to fore-cast political instabilities and disease outbreaks at the city level,” said Matheny. “An impor-tant aspect of this process is the geolocation of sources of social media data. Within the last year we have achieved a several-fold improvement in the state of the art by being able to locate the source of social media data within 8 kilometers of its actual location.”

One of the conclusions of IARPA’s research is that predictions are most accurate when mul-tiple methodologies, models, experts and modes of data are employed. “There has been an emphasis in OSI in using multimodal data combinations such as text, meta-data and video to generate forecasts for geopolitical and pub-lic health events,” said Matheny. “This has achieved unusually good results.”

An important challenge facing predictive analytics practi-tioners is how to develop a hypothesis even in the absence of complete data. In other words, users must ask an intelligent question in order to get a decent answer out of the predictive process.

“DoD and the intelligence community like dirty data,” said Daniel Boyle, a sales director at SAS. “They are looking for anomalies or outliers in that data. Commercial customers would want us to scrub that data before applying predictive and text analytics to that.”

“Sometimes the missing data points give you the best information,” said Becker. “A change in an observed pattern of behavior may be a clue that something is about to happen. For example, the observation of trucks moving in the desert may represent weapons shipments. When those movements stop is when a group may be preparing to launch an attack.”

When analysts are deluged with data, inferencing becomes an important analytical method because it is difficult to deduce—that is, to identify by reasoning—the most likely hypotheses from a large list of possibilities. “Too much data becomes noise,” said Becker. “Separating the noise from the signal becomes a big part of the problem. Inferencing allows us to narrow down the range of possible hypotheses based on all the observations. There are also statistical methods that can be applied to highlight or eliminate hypotheses based on the frequency of the observations upon which the hypotheses are based.”

HuMan JuDGMEnt

Although advances in big data processing, cloud comput-ing, algorithms and machine learning have facilitated advances in geospatial predictive analytics, human judgment still looms large in solving these types of intelligence problems. “To take action you still need eyes on,” said Barlow. “Predictive pro-cesses are good at pointing out options. Humans still must make the inferences and decisions that machines really aren’t equipped to make. The consequences of taking action based on robots, drones and computers are fairly high.”

“Human judgment is still huge,” said Bair. “At the end of day, analysts have to evaluate whether the results of the analyt-ical process really hold water. They are also evaluating how the model is doing at every step. Math doesn’t know what humans know. An algorithm may look at the data and forecast that an attack may occur in the middle of a lake. If something like that happens, an analyst can adjust the data so that the algorithm can look at it in a different way.”

“Human judgment is important in forming hypotheses,” said Becker. “Predictive analytical tools use statistical meth-ods developed a long time ago. Human cognition is necessary to make the associations required in forming hypotheses.”

IARPA’s ACE program treats human judgment as another form of unstructured data to which statistical models can be applied. “We can think of human judgment as a kind of sen-sor and the correction of human judgment as a sensor fusion problem,” said Matheny. “Humans exhibit inherent biases, but these can be adjusted much like the positions of sensors are adjusted. By statistically combining judgments, we can cor-rect for bias. That is something the ACE program is specifi-cally focused on.”

The biggest difference predictive analytics makes from the human perspective is to transform the job of the analyst. “Typically, analysts spend 80 percent of their time trying to find relevant data, and 20 percent of their time analyzing the data,” said Kriz. “Even then, they are able to find only a small subset of relevant data. Our methodologies allow analysts to acquire much more data than they could manually.”

As a result, the activities in which analysts engage are flipped to 20 percent acquiring data and 80 percent analyzing it, according to Kriz.

“Their jobs are enhanced and not diminished by this pro-cess,” he said. “Analysts are constantly tweaking the data and models and are weeding out false positives to refine results over time. The intelligence gained by analysts over the years of doing their jobs is applied to this fine-tuning effort. The value of human judgment grows exponentially when used as part of this analytic process flow.” O

For more information, contact GIF Editor Harrison Donnelly at [email protected] or search our online archives

for related stories at www.gif-kmi.com.

This SAS Social Media Analytics time series of social media data is visualized to understand regional instability in Yemen. [Image courtesy of SAS]



INDUSTRY RASTER

Geospatial Portfolio Adds Enhanced Analytical ToolsIntergraph has launched Intergraph Geospatial 2014, a comprehensive port-

folio of technologies. Building upon the foundation introduced in 2013, the release provides enhanced analytical tools, mobile support and tremendous cost savings associated with managing big data. With an ongoing focus on a fully united, modern and dynamic product portfolio, this release synchronizes the technologies across all Intergraph product lines, thus broadening the reach and availability for fully integrated solutions for all users of geospatial information. The portfolio includes GeoMedia, ERDAS Imagine, ImageStation, ERDAS Apollo, GeoMedia Smart Client, GeoMedia WebMap, Geospatial Portal, Geospatial SDI, Intergraph Mobile MapWorks and Intergraph Mobile Alert. Key enhancements built within Intergraph Geospatial 2014 include features enabling users to create customized analytics, do real-time reporting in a mobile environment, and manage big data in the cloud.

Stephanie [email protected]

Software to Support Sub-meter Imaging

Satellites

Exelis has announced that it will support data analysis of images from SkySat-1, the first in a planned constellation of 24 satellites from Skybox Imaging. Support for SkySat-1 will be available in the early 2014 release of the company’s ENVI image analysis software. The new sub-meter imaging satellites will make timely and valuable information about the Earth easily acces-sible to a wider range of end users for applications ranging from disaster response and resource management to national secu-rity and climate monitoring, among other things. ENVI image analysis software is a core offering of the Exelis ISR and Analytics strategic growth platform, providing customers analytics in commercial, intelligence and tactical military applications. The high resolution SkySat-1 imagery, combined with the ability to extract useful information with ENVI not immediately discern-ible by the human eye, means imagery can be used outside of traditional applications.

Kristen [email protected]

Research Seeks Geo-Registration Accuracy Without GPS

The Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded Northrop Grumman a phase three navigation system related contract to continue improving geo-registration accuracy for positioning and pointing applications, even in GPS-denied conditions. In the first two phases of the Maintain Accurate Geo-registration via Image-nav Compensation program, Northrop Grumman integrated georegistration algorithms in a vision-aided inertial navigation system. Having successfully demonstrated a prototype system in phase one and prepared for flight tests in phase two, the company will continue to develop capabilities for incorporating 3-D maps, improving perfor-mance and quantifying uncertainties associated with image-based navigation in phase three, as well as conduct additional test flights to prove real-time performance in realistic environments. The objective is to develop and demonstrate advanced real-time geo-registration and navigation algorithms using a combination of cameras, an inertial measurement unit and any available GPS information.

Yolanda [email protected]

Technology Optimizes Access to LiDAR Data

Esri has developed technology to optimize light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data in the LAS format. The format enables fast and efficient access to LAS structured LiDAR data and is well suited both to desktop applications use and for archiving, storage and cloud based data distribution. Optimized LAS was built from the ground up with equal attention paid both to compression and the different modes of use. Esri’s compression technology reduces file size significantly more than generic compressors can because it was written specifi-cally for LAS. Better compression results in reduced storage and bandwidth requirements. The LiDAR point record data is preserved exactly. There is no loss of information, so the full integrity of the data is maintained. The optimized LAS data can be used directly without need to decompress it first. The ArcGIS 10.2.1 platform has been enhanced to support optimized LAS. Esri LAS Optimization can be used free of charge, and ArcGIS is not required.


Compiled by Kmi media Group staff

Receiving Station Offers Multiple Imagery

Capabilities

Astrium has signed with GeoNorth on the first multi-mission direct receiving station (DRS), with a unique offering of both high-resolution and very high-resolution optical and radar satellite imagery capabilities. This new contract brings to nearly 40 the number of stations in the Astrium Services DRS network, the largest worldwide. The agreement will give GeoNorth the capability of priority tasking the Astrium Services satellite constellations to capture imagery anywhere on the globe and downlink data to its processing terminal located at the Alaska satel-lite facility in Fairbanks. It provides for a multi-satellite DRS that will draw on the SPOT (5 and 6), Pléiades (1A and 1B), TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X satellites, with reso-lutions across optical and radar products ranging from 0.25 m to 40 m. This is the ninth DRS contract Astrium Services has signed in 2013. These agreements establish either new DRS or upgrade existing DRS for compatibility with new satellites (SPOT 6, SPOT 7, TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X). This extensive global DRS network means customers can downlink imagery instantly each time a satellite passes over the stations, thereby ensuring rapid delivery of fresh data and services in near-real time.

Application Provides Track-Based Video Playback, Analysis

Remote GeoSystems has released LineVision Google Earth, a stand-alone application leveraging Google Earth for simple, multi-channel, track-based geographic video play-back, analysis and project editing. LineVision Google Earth enables users to geospatially “navigate” a video recording by simply clicking a location along the aerial or terrestrial GPS track positioned in Google Earth. The video then automatically advances to that point in the video so that analysts and subject matter experts can visually interpret what was recoded at that specific place and time. As the video plays, a “cursor” moves along the GPS track, constantly indicating where the current view was recorded. If something of interest is detected in the video, users may also “snap” a still image from the video, which is geotagged and saved for future analysis. Operators of modern multi-sensor gimbal cameras and mobile video mapping platforms can synchronize playback of up to four simultaneously collected geospatial video files.

Jeff [email protected]

Tracking Antenna Systems Designed for Earth Observation

TeleCommunication Systems (TCS) has announced the availability of its X/Y Tracking Antenna Systems. These precision systems are specifi-cally designed for low-Earth-orbit and medium-Earth-orbit satellites in support of Earth observation, remote sensing, and telemetry, tracking and control applications. Initial orders are now shipping to small satellite operators that are offering a cost-effective and pervasive earth observation data solution. The reliable, field-proven X/Y Tracking Antenna Systems can be securely operated from anywhere in the world through the systems’ control and monitoring capability. The systems’ X/Y axis configuration eliminates the keyhole (lost data) effect that occurs with other tracking antennas when they cross through the zenith. Through TCS’ simplified design and advanced manufacturing techniques, a wide selection of antenna reflector and X/Y pedestal sizes in both deployable and trailered configurations are available, enabling customization while maintaining cost and delivery advantages.

Meredith [email protected]

David LaBranche, P.E., is the Defense Installations Spatial Data Infrastructure (DISDI) program manager in the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations and Environment. The DISDI program is responsible for policy, guid-ance and oversight of each of the DoD components’ programs providing the geospatial information and services which support defense installations, environment, and range business missions.

LaBranche holds a B.S. in civil engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a M.S. in environmental engineering from the University of New Hampshire. Prior to becoming a DoD civilian, he served for 20 years in a variety of positions as an officer in the Army Corps of Engineers. He is a licensed professional engi-neer with broad experience in civil and environmental engineer-ing, including such areas as public works, environmental cleanup and surveying. From 2003 to 2005, he served as assistant profes-sor of geospatial information science at the U.S. Military Academy.

LaBranche was interviewed by GIF Editor Harrison Donnelly.

Q: What is the mission of DISDI?

A: We began as an initiative that grew out of BRAC 2005, but the story of DoD installations using GIS is about as old as GIS. What we had was a lot of installations using GIS, and growing that over time organically, and most of the time separate from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and its predecessors due to the unique requirements of installations as well as the Army civil works program. In 2005, this office was started by the deputy undersecre-tary of defense for installations and environment. We describe the “defense installations spatial data infrastructure” as the business mission capability of people, policy and practices used to acquire, steward and share installation, environment and range geospatial data. Our vision for DISDI is to provide authoritative, cost-effective installation geospatial information and services (IGI&S) for fact-based decision making across the spectrum of DoD operations.

The DISDI program is within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), so our traditional role is limited to policy, guidance and oversight. An important caveat to that, however, is that we are one of the few OSD programs that also has a small (but useful) oper-ational function. In addition to currently writing a policy and pro-viding oversight as the chair of a cross-service governance group, a significant portion of each week is spent in putting together geospa-tial data, or maps and products, for various directorates or senior leaders within OSD. Tying this back to our vision, the data and maps we provide is for the most part devoted to supporting the pol-icy, oversight, and decision making activities in OSD.

Q: What is the current status of the DISDI, and where do you see it going in the future?

A: The program exists formally, and we have a modest budget line, but have yet to formally publish an overarching policy. I recently started the process of writing a DoD policy (instruction), subject to the usual review and approval timelines. We feel that it is important to take that step, to really have a department level policy that will tie together the requirements for installations and environment GIS, including civil works, and set a governance framework within which we can for-mally establish common standards and processes. Most importantly, we want to be sure that we commit to following the leadership roles of NGA and the DoD GEOINT manager, and to tie their processes in with what we are trying to do. We’re not doing anything to distance our-selves from NGA—in fact, quite the opposite. We want to be fully com-pliant with GEOINT standards, because it is useful to leverage those standards instead of making our own. We also find a lot of useful prod-ucts and services from NGA. We just want to leverage that better and establish our unique community requirements for GEOINT, and an overarching policy will help us do that.

Q: What are the current key programs and initiatives of the DISDI?

A: I would start with our draft policy, which is what I’m spending a lot of time on these days, and the oversight role is related to policy.

David LaBrancheDefense Installations Spatial Data

Infrastructure Program ManagerOffice of the Secretary of Defense

GIS EngineerUsing Geospatial Data to Manage DoD’s Vast Properties

Q&AQ&A


My second priority is standards, specifically the Spatial Data Standards for Facilities Infrastructure and Environment (SDSFIE). That grew from the ground up, starting back in the 1990s. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) did a great job over the years leveraging input from the military services, and developed it along with a CAD stan-dard. In 2006, all the services agreed that it needed a big re-engineer-ing. We completed that re-engineering, in version 3.0, in 2009. In 2013, we made version 3.1. Over the course of going from 3.0 to 3.1, each of the military services has been doing their own implementation of that standard and learning as we go. We incorporated lots of lessons learned into 3.1, and we’re beginning work on 4.0, also on the strength of what we’ve learned during implementation.

The oversight function and my “action” function are what drive a third key initiative—an annual data call we do from the military ser-vices and Washington Headquarters Service (WHS). We put that data onto a web map viewer, the DISDI portal. The DISDI portal is the web map that is open to all authorized DoD users. It has brought a lot of visibility to the installation GIS data, and as we grow our user base and get more feedback from OSD and other staff, we’ve seen a marked increase in requests for specific maps or to add additional informa-tion to the map viewer. That’s been a great thing for us. So it’s both the traditional role and boots on the ground making things happen, showing people data and really putting GIS to work here at the head-quarters level.

Q: How would you describe the DISDI’s net-centric strategy for implementing geospatial information sharing across the department?

A: All federal agencies are looking to reduce costs and improve effec-tiveness, and GIS data and services are a great way to do that. But in order to get the most bang for the buck, you need to leverage net-cen-tric capabilities. The map viewer on the DISDI portal, for example, has a capability to connect to other systems. So my map viewer is unique because it shows the installations of all military services. The Army has a map viewer, but they show only Army facilities, and the same is true with the other military services. So our portal is the one place where you can see everything, and thus we have provided net-centric services to a number of DoD systems and combatant commands.

That’s especially true with NORTHCOM, because of their role in homeland defense. They don’t necessarily care about which military service is involved, but about a geographic area that has been affected or may be affected. They may be making a plan and want to know all of the DoD resources available for a given area. So making the data available or at least discoverable via net-centric means is probably the top goal of our DISDI portal system. It also saves time in updating data, since we could actually do that more frequently. Once I establish connections to the military services’ net-centric data, whenever they update, we will see it, and any customers we’re connected to. There won’t need to be an annual update, because the data will always be the best available.

Q: What are some of the challenges you see in sharing geospatial data across the department?

A: There are still significant differences among the ways that system and network administrators require security or system “handshakes.” In order to achieve net-centricity you have to connect systems, and connecting systems across network boundaries—even within the DoD

infrastructure—is still harder than it should be. We’ve worked with the DoD Chief Information Office, which has done a good job in recent years to establish joint standards that will reduce the differences with how the various network protocols work. The other big challenge is the budget. Resources have been going down for years, and all of the military service IGI&S programs would probably say they have reached their minimum point. We’ve definitely cut back on capabilities, and people are finding it hard to maintain the data we already have. We’re hoping that trend goes back up. In our case, we don’t require a lot of resourcing, because we are doing things in a very efficient way. It’s not a lot of money, but GIS still seems to be one of those things that peo-ple point to when budget cutting starts happening, and ask why we are bothering with that.

The military service IGI&S programs have done the best job at showing their leadership what their value truly is. They can show con-crete examples of how installation GIS is helping them save money on energy, for example, with remote sensing showing which buildings are the worst energy users. Or they can tie GIS data to other business sys-tems, such as for asset accountability [which helps establish auditable asset records] or for infrastructure maintenance and repair. By dem-onstrating its relevance to day-to-day missions, they have successfully defended some of their budget to survive.

Q: What role do you see for the SDSFIE in the future?

A: We see a great need for SDSFIE, which is not currently used by NGA but which NGA did promote on our behalf to become a stan-dard in the DoD Registry. For us, SDSFIE is our dictionary of geospa-tial data that is specifically built to help us do facilities management. That’s a very different thing from what NGA and its customers typi-cally do. To be sure, they map buildings, but we need to know par-ticular things about the building. And even when both agree on what attributes we need to know about a building, our community is the one using data which has to follow U.S. law, regulations or industry stan-dards, because we’re using our GIS data to interface with asset man-agement systems and COTS software. We have to file reports to federal agencies. In the environmental area, for example, our geospatial data depicting natural resources and environment features gets used to document our compliance with the Endangered Species Act, or the National Environmental Policy Act, or to comply with environmental restoration requirements. There are requirements based on laws and policies that don’t typically apply to NGA, whose focus is on mapping everything to a degree that warfighters or intelligence people find use-ful. We’re using that map for specific business functions.

SDSFIE is where we capture those specific requirements. As it matures, what we foresee is greater integration with other NGA stan-dards, and they have been very receptive and supportive of doing that. So far, OSD has funded a technical study that compares SDSFIE to the other NGA data standards. That gave us a good start, but showed us that there is still a lot of work to do. In terms of overlap, they’ve got some features, and we have some features that are basically the same thing. If we all want to work off a common standard, we need to get rid of that overlap. But doing the technical work to re-engineer our respec-tive standards to get rid of the overlap is not trivial. Then there are under-lap areas, where we have some things mapped and they don’t, and would like to use our work. Or they may have things mapped that aren’t in our model, which we’d like to bring in. There is technical work still needed to do that harmonization. That’s for the future, when resources become available.


The Voice of Military Communications and Computing

Cover and In-Depth Interview with:

Doug McGovern Director, InnoVisionNGA

AprIl 2014 ISSue

Features:• special report: nGa Program review• special ops Geoint• modeling and simulation• Commercial remote sensing• national security it

Bonus Distribution: GEOINT Symposium

Q: What divisions of responsibilities, and ways of coordinating, does your organization have with NGA?

A: I’ve had a very strong working relationship with a number of NGA offices. It really starts at the top—my director, Mike Aimone, and I have had a number of meetings with the senior agency official for geo-spatial information, Dr. Michele Motsko, who represents DoD on the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC). In that role we want to be sure that our requirements on the installation and environment side are understood and represented through NGA to the FGDC. They have been very cooperative, and I actually have a voting seat at the coordination group level, as does the USACE, given that they have a separate civil works function that also uses or provides a lot of geospa-tial information.

In addition, we are coordinating on the new policy on DISDI, with lots of agreement so far in the informal coordination process. I think that will continue and move forward, but there will always be termi-nology we have to agree on, and division of responsibilities is always going to be something that requires discussion. I would also say that NGA does a tremendous service to our community by providing many products, particularly imagery and other raster products such as eleva-tion data. Our community uses that heavily, so we don’t have to spend a lot of money acquiring geospatial data sets that would otherwise be pretty pricey. As a result of my policy, I hope that we will continue to formalize relationships, where our requirements will become more part of their formal process of requirements for all forms of GEOINT.

Q: How does your organization work with the service geospatial organizations?

A: The programs include the Army’s Installation Geospatial Information and Services, the Marine Corps’ GeoFidelis, the Navy’s GeoReadiness, the Air Force’s GeoBase, the Washington Headquarters Service (which is responsible for managing the Pentagon reservation and other facil-ities in the national capital region), and the USACE, particularly in their role for civil works. These are the members of the DISDI Group, the IGI&S governance group which I chair. We are the ones who, by

consensus, are developing SDSFIE and other community standards to include a metadata standard. The SDSFIE is complex enough that it’s not always clear exactly how it should be implemented. We’ve come together as a group over the past six or seven years, and under this pro-gram’s leadership, we have produced a number of guidance and infor-mation documents. I coordinate policy through them, and they work with their organization’s leadership. Each of those programs is respon-sible for IGI&S within their service, which is really where the action is happening.

Q: What are some of your other partnerships?

A: In the past, we had a direct relationship with the Army Geospatial Center (AGC) Imagery Office, but it has evolved to a broader relation-ship with not only AGC, but also the USACE Engineer Research and Development Center. The DISDI portal is actually run by Corps of Engineers personnel, and on the Corps network. The reason is that they have a system called CorpsMap, which is a fantastic geospa-tial web service capability. Rather than inventing something new, we asked them to create an instance of it that was tailored to our DISDI requirements. We saved a great deal of development cost that way, and they have been supporting us with that for about eight years. I also leverage AGC to support the SDSFIE. They manage the contract to provide technical support to re-engineer and maintain the standard and its web page. That has tools where people can access the standard, learn more about how to implement it, and get help with a wide range of questions.

The imagery support is still there, however. AGC acquires imag-ery in concert with NGA, and helps us discover available imagery and other geospatial resources. We are able to use their infrastructure to search for available resources, and they help our community members find imagery and other products. Installations are scattered all around the world, and it would be expensive to acquire that separately. If the imagery exists, we can discover it, and they can help us get a copy rather than buy something new.

Q: What are some of the key ways that you work with industry?


A: Industry is essential to everything our community does, just as it is for NGA. To us, we look to industry to keep innovating, and we try to leverage the innovation as much as we can, because facilities man-agement is one of those areas where people often don’t want to put a lot of money. So any way we can do those functions more cost effec-tively, we’re doing so. For us, industry is not just geospatial, but also the asset and facilities management industry, which provides com-mercial products that offer more efficient ways to do maintenance or inventory. Integrating that data with geospatial data is the nexus area where our community works. Another aspect of industry is environ-mental, since there is a lot of environmental management and com-pliance work done on installations. There are plenty of companies out there doing innovative work in mapping natural resources.

We also have some critical needs to ensure that our installations remain viable in terms of mission. We have had a lot of encroach-ment issues over the years, where development gets too close to an installation or could be affected by air pollution, noise and other fac-tors. Understanding the effect of military training operations around our installations—worldwide but especially in the U.S.—we’re using geospatial data to help solve problems and answer questions. So it’s important for us to keep up with the best trends in industry in how to collect and maintain that kind of spatial information.

Q: What future or emerging mission benefits do you see for the use of GIS in the department?

A: One big area we’re seeing is about taking all of our geospatial infor-mation, such as detailed installation maps, and then going up a level and using that to create data sets about aggregated trends for, let’s say, energy usage or facility sustainment criteria. What we’re getting to is integrating all of that information, and then doing analysis. Again, our vision is to get accurate, standardized GIS data into the decision mak-ing process.

Now that we have built a solid foundation of GIS data about our installations and operations, it is allowing us to try and solve some thorny questions more quickly and efficiently. Renewable energy, for example, is a national issue and a priority for this administration, and DoD needs to do its part to not be a roadblock. If someone is consid-ering building a new wind farm, we want to know if that will have any impact on DoD operations. A lot of those questions are fundamentally spatial. A wind farm exists in a certain area, and has a certain height, so there are physical implications, for example on low-level flight or line-of-sight communications. Beyond that, there may be more com-plex potential impacts, such as sound or electromagnetic spectrum. So the faster we can assess whether proposed projects will affect DoD operations, the faster development can proceed. By the same token, it’s in our interest to protect our mission capabilities. If information was difficult to bring together in the past, maybe it didn’t get consid-ered—we might have missed something. So our digital information, and the way we can make it more net-centrically available, is really where we’re going. O

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Activity Based Intelligence: The Hard Problems

(Editor’s Note: The Activity Based Intelligence (ABI) Working Group of the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation recently developed a list of 16 “hard problems” facing ABI (http://usgif.org/system/uploads/2635/original/HardProbs_list.pdf). GIF asked executives of key compa-nies in the field what they see as the “hardest” ABI problem, and how should it be addressed. Following are their responses.)

Tipping and Cueing

Integrated solution provides automated, synergistic tipping and

cueing across multiple sensors.

By Eric PattersonDirector of Laboratory Operations

Riverside Research

At Riverside Research, one of the areas we’re working on con-cerns the USGIF ABI Working Group’s Hard Problem #15: “Automated, synergistic tipping and cueing across multiple sen-sors in operationally relevant timelines.”

As a not-for-profit company chartered to advance scientific research in the public interest and in support of the U.S. gov-ernment, Riverside Research has been actively engaged in ABI from the first. We develop and teach Department of Defense-approved education and training courses, as well as design, sup-port and deliver ABI solutions to the intelligence community.

Our Modeling and Application Development Lab (MAD Lab) provides satellite and aircraft mission planning and feasibility research systems to a wide range of customers. To assure ABI-ready mission plan-ning systems, our MAD Lab is researching an integrated solu-tion to provide automated, syner-gistic tipping and cueing across multiple sensors in operationally relevant timelines.

Our solution leverages sev-eral existing Riverside Research approaches and research exper-iments designed to enhance our mission planning systems with this critical ABI facet in mind. In 2013, we initiated an effort to provide such a system capability through our indepen-dent research and development program.

Although we already plan for multi-system,

multi-phenomenology satellite constellations, we needed a tip-ping and cueing mechanism that could tip the requirement deck, and ultimately the mission plan, using actionable intelligence to provide actionable intelligence. It’s easy to imagine an external tip generating a new collection requirement, but with a constel-lation of collectors at our finger-tips, how do we ensure that the right asset is tasked to perform the collection quickly?

Our answer was to architect flexible tipping and cueing con-tent that could simply request the next available collection or provide specific collection con-straints. Once a tip is received, the system uses the tip param-eters, quickly down-selects the constellation, identifies the col-lection opportunity, and sched-ules the collection.

Our first step was to use con-straints, such as last time infor-mation of value, interpretability, confidence, priority and others, to help identify the optimum col-lector and how to rank the tip for collection. As automated analyt-ical systems flourish, so do the number of tips—and not all tips are created equal.

The next step of matching system capabilities with tar-get attributes to further refine the down-select was a little harder. The target type could require a specific collector for a specific phenomenology or a range of phenomenologies. Also, to exploit target attributes such as motion or temperature, the sys-tem will select the best capability

to observe those characteristics. These and other apportionment strategies allow us to prioritize the needs and ensure we use our assets effectively and efficiently.

Most of today’s ABI efforts are focused on the automated anal-ysis of massive traditional and nontraditional data sources to discover patterns and observables (activities) that help focus our human analytical processes. Our theory is that if we connect this system to the warfighter eyewit-ness, we will be able to beat the automated analysis timeline. To this end, we added a capabil-ity that allows the witness to tip collection from a mobile device. Using image bonus algorithms, we account for the possibility of several war-fighters requesting a collection of the same event. The system recognizes overlapping requests to prevent over-tasking assets and burying us further with redundant data.

Once our mission plan-ning tool schedules the col-lection based on a tip from an analytical engine, eyewitness or other source, the system cues the requestor and other systems downstream that the collect is planned. Closing the gap between the collection and analytic ele-ments is just as critical as get-ting the next collection. If we plan a collect based on a high pri-ority, high confidence tip, why shouldn’t the “tipper” be ready to use the new data to refine its assessment?

As ABI, artificial intelli-gence and collection tech-nology continue to evolve, so


too will our mission planning methodologies. All of these advancements help support automated, synergistic tipping and cueing across multiple

sensors in operationally relevant timelines. Riverside Research continues to explore new and innovative ways to enhance our existing solutions or to

provide new ones, and continu-ing our legacy of supporting and advancing our customers “in the best interests of the United States of America.”

The USGIF’s list of “hard problems” associated with ABI includes a number of interest-ing challenges, but the one problem that will be the most difficult to overcome is actu-ally the last one on the list: “Integrated work flow com-position to enable responsive analysis capabilities.”

Unlike some of the other technology-specific problems such as alert automation, activity modeling and grav-itometry, the problem sur-rounding workflow may be the most difficult to solve, as it is a people problem. The ABI community’s efforts to stan-dardize human behavior sim-ply cannot be accomplished by advances in technology alone.

To understand the chal-lenges in addressing workflow, one only has to look at what ABI was designed to do. ABI is not a tool, a technology, a pro-cess, a collection system, or even a “capability.” At its core, ABI can be broken into three parts: analysis, analytics and analysts:

Analysis is the deductive reasoning approach an analyst uses.

Analytics involves the big data tools and algorithms that automate the large sets of data that empower analysts to iden-tify human patterns and antici-pate actions.

ABI also requires multi-ple Analysts working concur-rently who are well trained and

experienced in using each of the two previous points for problem solving purposes.

ABI is empowering analysts to reject traditional problem solving approaches and adopt radical processes and organi-zational constructs to address the hard problems of the IC. It was never intended to be a lin-ear problem solving solution, and one thing we can’t change is teaching humans to think non-linearly.

Another challenge in addressing ABI workflows is that each ABI analyst’s expe-rience is unique. To establish a workflow, one would have to know exactly how ABI is being used by each analyst, every given day. This is simply

aBi’s people proBlem

The ABI community’s efforts to standardize human behavior

simply cannot be accomplished by advances in technology alone.

By Peder JungckVice President and

Chief Technology OfficerBAE Systems Intelligence

& Security sector

ConneCTing The doTs

FasTerFor the power of ABI to be fully

harnessed by the IC at large, the community must continue

to encourage and facilitate information sharing.

By Mike ManzoDirector for GEOINT Mission Processing

& ExploitationGeneral Dynamics Advanced Information

Systems

The intelligence commu-nity is inundated with prolific amounts of data each and every day. With sources ranging from SIGINT, HUMINT, imagery, full motion video and social media platforms, our nation’s analysts are tasked with the daunting responsibility of sorting through these disconnected sources of data to derive and connect actionable intelligence in order to keep our country and our allies safe—the proverbial nee-dle in the haystack.

As the volume of data contin-ues to increase, rapidly deploy-ing ABI solutions is a priority for many IC decision makers. With intelligence pulled from a variety of sources across cyber, geospatial, signal and human intelligence, ABI goes well beyond simply collecting data and storing it. By introducing the tradecraft of analyzing the patterns of life, ABI enhances the dimensions and context of

mission-critical information for analysts, while highlighting areas where more information is required. ABI allows analysts to connect the dots faster and more efficiently and, most impor-tantly, provide decision makers with real-time intelligence.

At General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, we have invested in systems and solutions over the past five years that promote and enhance ABI tradecraft, analysis and exploita-tion. We have developed a cloud-based environment that mirrors the IC infrastructure, allowing us to federate disparate, stove-piped data stores to create a seamless, comprehensive, non-linear system where timely and relevant information is readily available and easily accessible by the entire analyst commu-nity. By setting up a foundation that lets our customers easily discover what data they have and what data they need while

simultaneously deriving action-able intelligence, we are putting the power and promise of ABI directly in the hands of users today.

Additionally, with the roll-out of GDNexus, we are provid-ing an online-based innovation gateway that allows us to part-ner with industry-leading tech-nology providers to quickly deliver proven solutions directly to our customer’s ABI mission decks. From innovative concept to operations, GDNexus helps our customers reduce acquisi-tion risk, increase operational capability and leverage proven technology to take their ABI solutions to the next level.

For the power of ABI to be fully harnessed by the IC at large, the community must con-tinue to encourage and facili-tate information sharing. Only through collaboration will the full potential of ABI be realized.


Secure Online Registration

SS30_GIF_Feb2014_FINAL.indd 1 1/23/14 8:56 AM

impossible. Analysts are con-tinuously integrating ABI into their problem solving pro-cesses in new and interesting ways. Further, with each new sensor and subsequent techno-logical advance, new problem-solving approaches become possible. ABI’s ability to adapt and grow with an intelligence enterprise is making efforts to define workflow virtually impossible, as the processes analysts employ are constantly changing.

The impact of advanced analytics is not solely being felt in the IC. We’ve seen examples of this in many areas outside government, including pro-fessional sports. For example, Major League Baseball teams

operated solely on the collected wisdom of their own analysts, or scouts. But that all changed in 2002, when the Oakland Athletics began supplement-ing their human assessments with rigorous statistical anal-ysis commonly referred to as sabermetrics.

While big data tools helped analysts collect and identify patterns, it was the human analyst that pinpointed the correlation between a play-er’s on-base and slugging per-centage and the player’s likely impact on a team’s offensive success. Like ABI, sabermet-rics is continuing to evolve, and just as sabermetrics is changing the face of baseball, the work analysts are doing

today with ABI is ultimately shaping the future of intelli-gence analysis.

Responsive analysis pro-cesses, like sabermetrics and ABI, require analysts to practice open-ended problem solving as a routine way of doing busi-ness. Analysts simply cannot have their thought processes automated. As such, I see the problem of workflow as one of ABI’s real enduring challenges. In time, each of the other 15 hard ABI problems identified by USGIF will be solved by soft-ware, algorithms, visualiza-tion tools, database software and countless other advances in technology. But the prob-lem surrounding workflow may never be resolved.


ABI presents difficult chal-lenges and opportunities for the U.S. national security mission. ABI can be defined as a disci-pline of intelligence where sub-ject matter experts (SMEs) and subsequent intelligence collec-tion are focused on the activ-ity and transactions associated with an entity, population, set of behaviors, or area of inter-est individually or in combina-tion. Using ABI, the intelligence community can identify pat-terns, trends, networks and rela-tionships, and make real-time predictive and prescriptive deci-sions, from large data collections and multiple sources. These col-lections may include multi-spa-tial imagery, infrared, radar and foundation data.

I’ve chosen to offer thoughts on this challenge identified by the USGIF: “Rapid and relevant multi-INT correlation across disparate sources (including unformatted/unregulated and non-temporal/non-spatial data).”

ABI does not focus on spe-cific targets. Rather, it focuses on events, movements and transactions in order to proac-tively identify risks, threats and opportunities in a given area. The ultimate objective of ABI is to proactively understand and then alter or mitigate actions or behaviors before risks or bad activities occur.

The problem is that SMEs and analysts are overwhelmed by the volume of inputs received to accomplish ABI. Moreover, this voluminous input is fragmented and spread over multiple sensors and systems. Solutions and capa-bilities are needed that integrate, correlate and automatically ana-lyze input received in order to do some of the “analysts’ analysis.”

Massively scalable in-mem-ory analytics technologies such as TransVoyant’s GeoVigilance provide real-time multi-source correlation, temporal alignment,

and automatic or analyst-driven decision support, all of which are fundamental capabilities enabling globally scalable ABI. These technologies process and examine high volume and high velocity multi-dimensional data, correlate it, run complex rules (algorithms) and present activ-ity and/or behavioral outcomes to the analyst.

Using their expertise, ana-lysts create rules that identify both simple and very complex conditions of interest against live and historical data. Alerts and notification processes ensure that when these events or con-ditions of interest occur, the right action officers or deci-sion-makers are made aware of the risk or opportunity. This enables responsive, even proac-tive actions as a result of ABI efforts. These actions focus on altering behavior “left of the risk or opportunity.”

Based on historical informa-tion extracted from “big data” archives, intelligence experts can make existing rules better, or create new, more relevant con-ditions of interest. Take the fol-lowing example: Using his or her experience, an analyst can col-lect relevant information from known sources after an attack on an embassy. Patterns and corre-lations detected in connection with that event enable creation of rules and algorithms that alert authorities in real time of the reoccurrence of these warning signals.

The emergence of afford-able, in-memory real-time and historical analytics technologies automate anticipatory analysis against “now” data by generat-ing alerts, anomaly detection, change detection, object iden-tification, and other informa-tion gathering. The math and the results can be shared glob-ally and instantly. The rules and algorithms are in effect 24/7,

looking for risks or opportu-nities with or without human intervention.

Analysts can walk away from their terminals and work other priority tasks. The intelligence enterprise can begin to optimize its ABI efforts and reduce the suboptimal activities associated with too much looking back-ward, and instead look forward in time. Successful ABI should include a healthy dose of his-torical, real-time, and predictive analytics with a laser focus on outcomes.

Identifying the most impor-tant conditions of interest, trends and patterns based on real-time, multiple data streams is critical to creating a library of algorithms and rules that opti-mize our best intelligence SMEs. These rules enhance ongoing collection efforts. They also pro-mote process efficiency by fil-tering out enormous amounts of data that do not satisfy the dynamic analytics contained in the rules and algorithms.

The library of rules created by our country’s best analysts can be available to all SMEs, presenting the opportunity to further labor efficiencies and enabling the enterprise to dig deeper into its mission. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency officials have made clear that ABI now stands at the heart of the NGA’s mission. This new ABI analytics approach is a step in the right direction, promoting the discovery of conditions of inter-est in time to provide actionable intelligence to decision-makers.

The USGIF’s list of hard problems should give us all pause. It is vital that we use our collective technology resources to address them in a way that makes anticipatory and “now” analysis the norm in those agen-cies that are structuring the rules and algorithms that will save lives tomorrow. O

For more information, contact GIF Editor Harrison Donnelly at [email protected] or search our online archives for related stories at www.gif-kmi.com.

mulTi-inT CorrelaTion

Time data assets help tackle ABI challenges.

By Wayne ChesleyVice President and General Manager

TransVoyant LLC


Like a peacekeeping unit trying to constrain irregular forces that are all that much more difficult to control because they fail to fall within the conventional military categories of organization and command, the military and intelligence communities are struggling to get a handle on the unstructured data that is com-ing at them from a bewildering variety of sources.

Defense contractors are working with defense and intelligence agencies in a budget-constrained environment to better organize and sort through large volumes of structured and unstructured data. It could be from UAVs, social media networks, audio and video files recorded by intelligence operatives and large enterprise networks with thousands of Excel, PDF and Word documents.

“Organizations are dealing with terabytes of data, when for-merly they might have had gigabytes of data, and exabytes when they used to deal with petabytes,” said Gene Zapfel, group vice president for Department of Defense and intelligence at Unisys Federal, which is helping the military work with big data.

“From a technical perspective, a lot of our clients are getting overwhelmed by the amount of data,” said Peter Guerra, princi-pal in the Strategic Innovations Group at Booz Allen Hamilton, referring to enterprise networks. “Data warehousing can’t han-dle it all.”

Working with the Army, Booz Allen has used advanced ana-lytics capabilities to integrate and deliver advanced intelligence capabilities to soldiers operating in remote locations.

The growth in big data in the Department of Defense comes as the result of a confluence of the growth of data from UAVs and

other sensors, as well as the growth in visual and text files and other unstructured data, said Dave Ryan, vice president of the Intelligence Systems Division at Northrop Grumman.

It remains to be seen whether the end of the Iraq War and the drawdown in Afghanistan will result in less UAV data, since the U.S. military is committing fewer conventional ground troops and restricting its footprint outside the continental U.S. to a more rap-idly deployable one, capable of responding to emerging threats.

actionaBlE Data

As opposed to the operational scenarios in Afghanistan and Iraq, DoD officials are now hunting for high value targets and terrorists in enemy nation states with fewer boots on the ground, according to Ryan, trying to find actionable data without the advantages of being able to fly drones over large swaths of land. Some data is clearly coming from human intelligence activities.

Northrop Grumman works on a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) contract through which the company helps officials provide better structure on unstructured data and make sorting through both structured and unstructured data more seamless.

“What makes big data different from traditional data is the diverse nature of the data, as it is coming from video surveillance, Web trends, mobile phones, consumer behavior, social media and so on, and the speed at which that data is coming in,” said Greg Gardner, chief architect of defense solutions at NetApp, a storage system and data software vendor.

DEfEnsE anD intElliGEncE aGEnciEs sEEk BEttEr ways to orGanizE anD sort tHrouGH larGE VoluMEs of structurED anD unstructurED Data.By williaM Murray, Gif corrEsPonDEnt


“Not only that, most of the data growth that comprises big data is unstructured, such as video, a stream of digital data typically stored in a file that lacks fixed fields, is hard to search, is unstructured and hard to manage,” Gardner said.

A combination of automation and human know-how can produce the right result for some organi-zations, but finding the right mix isn’t easy.

“We don’t believe there’s a silver bullet” to the issue of unstructured data and software capabili-ties, said Steve Matthews, vice president of federal business development at Active Navigation, a soft-ware company focused on the discovery and trans-formation of unstructured data for organizations that has found a niche in helping large enterprises such as DoD eliminate redundant, obsolete, and trivial information.

“Software can do 90 percent of the work, but we try to let the experts [within the military] do the rest,” Matthews said.

“We give intelligence analysts tools,” said Ryan. The ubiquity of access to enterprise network data through a cloud architecture has security perils, but also holds a significant upside in enabling ana-lysts and other users to work more efficiently and effectively. “The advantages are significant to the cloud architecture,” Ryan said.

“Imagine swallowing the Internet every day and having to find the needle in the haystack,” Ryan said.

DoD officials sometimes need to find patterns between data that could include audio and video files, social media, and other data written in many languages, trying to find time-sensitive correla-tions between persons, places and things. “A lot of data doesn’t have metadata standards,” Ryan observed, adding that open source data is becom-ing more valuable to DoD and intelligence officials.

While there is much focus on unstructured data, there’s a “ton of structured data coming from drones, UAVs, planes and shipping containers.” Said Zapfel of Unisys, which holds a contract with Air Force Transportation Command to provide DoD shipping services. Moreover, the military can ben-efit by better predictive weather modeling in ship-ping, since more accurate modeling can lead to millions in fuel cost savings.

In such a scenario, the integration between structured data with other structured data in a way that can produce meaningful information is a challenge, said Zapfel, who is clear about the way forward. “The only way is big data tools,” he said.

analytics tools

Data analytics tools can help intelligence analysts better respond to emerging threats. “Intelligence analysts are looking at Twitter, blogs, Facebook and other social media for the bad guys, because that’s where many of them are,” said Rod Fontecilla, vice

president for application modernization and data analytics at Unisys Federal. “Where we are at, I believe, is establishing a technology infrastructure to help us link and analyze this data.”

Companies such as Unisys can build analyt-ics engines that military users can utilize in track-ing such intelligence. “This area is very complex,” Zapfel said. “We need a combination of data scien-tists and subject matter experts [in intelligence] to succeed. That’s the way we approach it.”

Data scientists from companies such as Unisys can respond to the particular needs of DoD and intelligence agencies to integrate the data analytics engine that Unisys has already developed and inte-grate with any DoD or intelligence agency in-house data warehouses.

The military might be able to take advantage of new ways to acquire data analytics tools, given the popularity and acceptance of the reasonable secu-rity risks related to cloud-based computing. The Office of the Secretary of Defense, formerly held back by the cost and time to build infrastructure, is trying different approaches to acquire data analyt-ics as a service, according to Fontecilla.

“We’re not seeing large requests for proposals (RFPs), but rather proofs of concepts in DoD. We’re doing a lot of face to face meetings with military leaders. They may or may not buy big data through an RFP. They may purchase it as a service,” he said.

According to Zapfel, Unisys has flexibility in delivering data analytics capabilities to military organizations. “We can work on premise with the client or we can deliver it as an Amazon-style ser-vice,” he said. The latter service is one that DoD and intelligence users can largely operate on their own, with contractors such as Unisys providing as needed support.

Unisys Federal is no stranger to big data, Fontecilla noted. For more than 15 years, Unisys has worked with what is today the Department of Homeland Security, building and maintaining an Oracle data warehouse with relational databases and applications that now hosts more than 1.3 bil-lion transactions of data each day.

Ryan pointed to how Apple iTunes categorizes and sorts songs for its users to metadata’s tag-ging conventions, which makes it easier for users to sort through large volumes of data. He noted that Northrop Grumman has created a tool that

enables government users to search a video for a particular word or phrase, an example of tagging unstructured data, which enables intelligence analysts to find the “needle in the haystack,” whether it be in a foreign language television or radio broadcast or an audio or video recorded through traditional human intelli-gence means.

The tools for exploitation and extraction of meaningful data from unstructured data sources such as video have improved, said Guy Swope, technical director for Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems’ Data Analytics Center. The challenge

Dave Ryan

Gene Zapfel

Rod Fontecilla

Peter Guerra


for many DoD organizations and their supporting contractors, according to Swope, involves the extraction of meaningful data and the correlation of other data sources to find data that pro-vides context or further information about the initial data discov-ered. “The key question is whether pieces of data are related to each other,” Swope said.

Sensing an ongoing market need, Raytheon has developed four Intersect big data analytics products, including Intersect Dimensions, which enables users to use two-dimensional data to create a richer 3-D model. A second product, Intersect Sentry, can enable intelligence analysts to “set and forget” the product as it monitors a stream of data from multiple intelligence sources for particular metrics or patterns, freeing up the analyst’s time.

“We have made huge strides in the last few years with data standards and our ability to analytically sort through large vol-umes of data in milliseconds,” Ryan said. “One person’s treasure is another person’s trash.”

rEcorDs ManaGEMEnt

Following bad publicity that came after the loss of soldiers’ combat service records, which can affect veterans benefits, Active Navigation has helped the Army better manage records of military personnel who have served in combat, particularly as they transi-tion out of the military, Matthews suggested.

“Not all data is good data,” Matthews said, making reference to a digital copy of a Batman movie found on Army computers during the Afghanistan drawdown, as the service was trying to migrate important data to a cloud for storage. Clearly, that orga-nization didn’t need to keep the movie during its transitioning of data from the enterprise network in Afghanistan to a cloud architecture.

“It’s garbage in and garbage out” for many organizations, Matthews said. Working with the U.S. Central Command, Active Navigation officials helped the command reduce its data in sev-eral enterprise networks by 50 percent, through performing a detailed analytics of data, including unstructured data found in terabytes worth of Excel, PDF, PowerPoint and Word documents that were being processed at the rate of 100,000 to 150,000 docu-ments a minute during the Afghanistan War drawdown, accord-ing to Matthews.

Tagging such documents helps make them more usable within an enterprise network. For example, through the meta-data analysis of a series of situation reports from Afghanistan made possible after tagging unstructured data through Active Navigation’s software, Army officials were able to determine that a number of soldiers coming back from patrols were reporting the need to be vigilant about insurgents and their allies using rice bags as covers for covering improvised explosive devices. “Before the metadata analysis, all of those incidents weren’t previously joined up,” Matthews said. The ability to share such actionable data can save lives.

Matthews noted that video and other data from UAVs is fre-quently considered to be structured data, since much of it has geospatial tagging data.

“Videos from UAVs usually have positional data and metadata,” said Booz Allen’s Guerra. “Parts of them are structured.”

One challenge that DoD officials have is real-time object rec-ognition. Operational scenarios could include scanning of a car

license plate and checking the number against a database of known adversaries, or hunting for the next IED in theater by hav-ing machines process algorithms in real time. “On a broad scale, data is growing,” Guerra said. “DoD has tons of sensors.”

Being able to analyze unstructured data from multiple sources is also a challenge.

“DoD has a lot of data silos,” Guerra said. Pulling together data from various sources changes how DoD works, according to Guerra, who has worked with Booz Allen for seven years, and it also has security and policy implications. In addition, more effi-cient analysis of unstructured data in real time and near real time can also make intelligence analysts’ jobs much easier on the mis-sion side.

The Army Chief Information Office, currently under acting CIO Mike Krieger, has taken significant measures to help com-mands reduce their data clutter through his Enterprise Content Program.

clouD arcHitEcturE

Matthews said that the demand for his company’s services within DoD has climbed significantly the last 18 months, follow-ing the end of the Iraq War and the drawdown in Afghanistan. Working with data in a DoD enterprise cloud hosted by the Defense Information Systems Agency, for example, Active Navigation offi-cials helped DoD act to prevent potential Wikileaks-like data com-promises and identify sensitive and classified data where personal identifiable information needed to be scrubbed from documents.

“Organizations only want to pay for information that is useful, particularly as they transition to a cloud architecture,” Matthews said.

Such an architecture, which has become highly favored in many parts of DoD, requires that enterprises pay for the storage of data on servers connected to the Internet behind password-pro-tected firewalls, with pricing set by the volume of data stored and amount of time the service is used. Reducing redundant, obso-lete and trivial information in an enterprise is ongoing work, and Matthews compared it to cleaning up a garage, which can become cluttered within weeks or months after an initial cleaning up. Engaging in the process just once, as anyone who has tried keep a tidy work desk can attest, is an ongoing job.

Metalogix Software, meanwhile, has seen SharePoint envi-ronments in DoD and the intelligence communities grow drasti-cally with data, according to Pat Park, the company’s director of public sector. The company has moved decisively to meet market demand.

“Metalogix moves just the metadata of the unstructured data into SharePoint and then moves the Binary Large Object to lower-cost alternate storage. By having just the metadata in SharePoint, you are able to organize, search, and manage the data in a single content management system without causing performance slow-downs,” he said. O

For more information, contact GIF Editor Harrison Donnelly at [email protected] or search our online archives

for related stories at www.gif-kmi.com.


Compiled by Kmi media Group staffGIF RESOURCE CENTER

advErtisErs indEx

American Military University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19www.publicsafetyatamu.com/gifBAE Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, C4www.baesystems.com/gxpGeneral Dynamics Advanced Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . .C2www.gd-ais.comMetaVR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3www.metavr.comRiverside Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5www.riversideresearch.orgSony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .C3www.sony.com/4kprojectionSpace Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22www.spacesymposium.org/gi1

CalEndarMarch 23-28, 2014Geospatial Power in Our PocketsLouisville, Ky.www.asprs.org/conferences

April 14-17, 2014GEOINT SymposiumTampa, Fla. http://usgif.org

May 5-9, 2014SPIE Defense Security & Sensing ExhibitionBaltimore, Md.www.spie.org

May 19-22, 2014Space SymposiumColorado Springs, Colo.www.spacefoundation.org

May 19-21, 2014Location IntelligenceWashington, D.C.www.locationintelligence.net

July 14-18, 2014Esri International User ConferenceSan Diego, Calif.www.esri.com

NeXT ISSueMarch 2014

Volme 12, Issue 2

The Voice of Military Communications and Computing

Cover and In-Depth Interview with:

Mark S. Chandler Deputy Director for Intelligence, J2 Joint Staff(invited)

Features:• Mobile Apps

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• Intelligence Reorganization

InsertionOrderDeadline:February20,2014•AdMaterialDeadline:February27,2014


INDUSTRY INTERVIEW Geospatial Intelligence Forum

John YokleyPresident, Chief Executive Officer and Founder

PTFSJohn Yokley has over 30 years of experi-

ence in the field of engineering management and information systems in support of gov-ernment and industry. He established PTFS in 1995 to service the federal government and support the management of the increas-ing growth rate of information by providing and supporting digital content management solutions and related services. He launched multiple new vertical market strategies in 2006 and expanded the ArchivalWare Enterprise Content Management System (CMS) software product line to support dig-ital library markets and exploit emerging geospatial intelligence and government declassification requirements.

Q: How and why did PTFS become engaged in the geospatial marketplace?

A: Content management, as well as library and information science, is a core company competency. In 2006, we sought out niche areas that required CMS but needed addi-tional capabilities to satisfy unique user groups. We believe that the flexibility of a core CMS product tailored to perform unique geospatial content management pro-vides users a platform that readily sup-ports their changing requirements over time. This flexibility and the product’s ori-gin are also the reasons that our solutions support multi-INT requirements so easily. Today we have four such niche areas, includ-ing geospatial.

The most time-consuming part of lever-aging our product to support geospatial requirements was developing significant corporate expertise in the domain area. This is a prerequisite for successful product devel-opment. After that, in some cases it is just a matter of configuring the software with the proper product type and metadata sup-port. We have developed support for hun-dreds of product types since we introduced the product in 2001. It’s worth noting that we have customers outside the Department of Defense and intelligence community that have also helped to form and influence our geospatial product development roadmap and enhancements developed over the last several years.

Q: Where do you deliver value to the intel-ligence community, and where do you see the company moving in the future to sup-port it?

A: PTFS provides geospatial and multi-INT content management functionality to significantly improve analyst produc-tivity as well as support the major pillars of activity based intelligence (ABI). The company has five business units. They include ArchivalWare COTS CMS, which supports the ArchivalWare application including the mission specific modules mentioned above; Systems Engineering/Integration, which builds large CMS solu-tions and manages data migrations/stan-dardizations to meet a diverse set of DoD/IC requirements; and Library Systems and Open Source Solutions, which devel-ops around, hosts and supports Koha, an open source integrated library system solution. This business unit currently hosts 500 libraries and research centers in the cloud. In addition, Digitization and Content Conversion converts a diverse set of hardcopy paper and analog media types into digital content including a high volume of sensitive data, while Professional Services and Staffing staffs operations the government has decided to outsource. Our business units work together to provide integrated, turn-key information management solutions to the community.

In the future, PTFS plans to continue developing its ArchivalWare open archi-tecture, 100 percent browser-based prod-uct with new capabilities and features based on user feedback and trends in our client’s technical approach. Providing CMS as a service is a major component of our strategy to support modular sys-tems design and cloud initiatives. We will

continue to support and develop around open standards such as OGC (WCS/CSW), OAI-PMH, SWORD, Z39.50 and others to provide a CMS integration platform to support partner analytical tools.

PTFS envisions a lot of data manage-ment migrating to the cloud, which will require cloud based CMS security capa-bilities that we provide now but that will be improved and refined as lessons are learned from major cloud data migra-tion initiatives. Finally, we will advance our current Smart Data Package ability to enhance ingested data. Once we make data “smarter,” our techniques will allow the data to find the appropriate users after authentication is complete.

Q: Is partnering with other companies important to PTFS› long-term growth strategy?

A: Yes, we seek out partners who focus on requirements that are synergistic with our product/service offerings. We would prefer to have close relationships with a small number of companies we know and trust rather than many partners that are “one and done.” We currently have strong strategic partnerships with a diverse set of companies ranging from large system integrators to small businesses. We some-times work closely with technology part-ners and tightly integrate their offerings when it makes more sense to buy rather than build to meet unique requirements.

Q: Does PTFS support ABI initiatives?

A: PTFS is currently refining capabili-ties in our product to enhance support for initiatives in all ABI pillars, especially data and sequence neutrality. Specific enhancements are planned in geo-refer-encing non-geospatial products as well as full motion video support to more rap-idly allow analysis to be performed. Some of these new capabilities will be show-cased at the GEOINT Symposium in April in Tampa, Fla. We will also be launching ArchivalWare GS 5.0, the newest release of our geospatial CMS, at GEOINT. O


© 2014 Sony Electronics Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.Features and specifications are subject to change without notice. Sony and SXRD are trademarks of Sony.

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Streamline your intelligence planning from beginning to end with unparalleled search functionality, exploitation capabilities, and product creation for the GEOINT community. Discover your data and reference materials with GXP Xplorer®. Search multiple data stores across the enterprise with a single query to locate imagery, terrain, text documents, and video. View data in any format in a Web browser with GXP WebView. Exploit data with SOCET GXP® to create geospatial intelligence products for planning, analysis, and publication using advanced feature extraction tools, annotations, and 3-D visualization. Deliver actionable intelligence when it counts with the GXP enterprise solution.

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DATE October 2013 FORMAT PDF/X1a

CONTACT Rachel Snyder, (858) 675-2850, [email protected] COLOR CMYK

ART DIRECTOR Justin Panlasigui, (858) 675-2935, [email protected]

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