PDF - Imaging Notes

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PDF - Imaging Notes

THE WORLD’S GUIDE T O COMMERCIAL R EMO T E SENSING
Spring 2004
Vol. 19
No. 2
More than imagery … intelligence
Securing airports
Warfighter use of imagery
Geospatial technology
& world threats
©2004 SPACE IMAGING
www.imagingnotes.com
SPRING 2004
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contents » vol.19 » no.2
departments
spring 2004
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12
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31
Cover Image
Dublin Airport
MarketScan
Industry Info
Policy Watch
A Challenge from Europe: GMES
Events Calendar
28
features
12
16
20
22
25
Law Enforcement
28
Securing Airports
Transit-based technology solutions
Geospatial Technology and
World Threats
Modeling of disaster scenarios in American cities
Warfighter Use of
Commercial Imagery
Better battlespace situational awareness
Optical Processing
Adding shape-based search technology
More Than Imagery —
Intelligence
The transition of earth imagery to a critical
element in homeland security
GIS mapping and AVL technology
SPRING 2004
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cover image
The World’s Guide to Commercial Remote Sensing
Spring 2004 / Vol. 19 / No. 2
PUBLISHER
Myrna James Yoo
Publishing Partnerships LLC
[email protected]
ART DIRECTOR
Jürgen Mant zke
Enf ineit z LLC
jmant [email protected],
www.enf ineit z.com
EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTIONS
Imaging Notes welcomes contributions
for feature articles. We publish articles on
the remote earth imaging industry, including applications, technolog y, and business.
Please see Contributor’s Guidelines on
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to [email protected].
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Imaging Notes is published quarterly by
Publishing Partnerships LLC,
PO Box 11569, Denver CO 80211
Imaging Notes (ISSN 0896-7091),
Copyright © 2004
by Space Imaging LLC,
12076 Grant Street,
Thornton, CO 80241
Regarding national security
and defense, airports, ports
and other points of entry
are significant.
This is an IKONOS natural color image
of Dublin Airport in the Irish Republic,
locally known as Aer Rianta, Dublin. This
airport is some 10 kilometers north of
the city of Dublin, which is on the eastern shore of the island of Ireland.
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The image, acquired October 19th,
2002, is superimposed with an airport
mapping database (AMDB) developed
by Space Imaging Solutions. These
vector GIS databases implemented
in ESRI Shapefiles provide extensive
details about the runways, taxiways,
aprons, parking positions, hangars
and other surface features of the
airport. This airport is also known as
EIDW, its designation by the International Civil Aviation Organization. «
Although trademark and copyright symbols
are not used in this publication,
they are honored.
© 2004 Space Imaging LLC
Imaging Notes is printed on
20% recycled (10% post-consumer
waste) paper. All inks used contain
a percentage of soy base. Our printer meets
or exceeds all federal Resource Conservation
Recovery Act (RCRA) Standards.
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ASPRS — 70 years of service to the profession
NEW!
The Manual of Remote Sensing, 3rd Edition
Volume 4: Remote Sensing for Natural Resource Management &
Environmental Monitoring
Andrew B. Rencz, PhD, Editor-in-Chief
Volume Editor: Susan Ustin
848+ pp. Hardcover + CD Rom. 2004.
ISBN: 0-471-31793-4
Students $120
Stock # 4571
ASPRS Members $150
List Price: $198
Volume 4 addresses the use of remote sensing technology in
natural resource management and environmental monitoring.
Comprehensive, authoritative, and up-to-date, it covers
terrestrial ecosystems, aquatic ecosystems, and agriculture
ecosystems, as well as future directions in technology and
research.
Chapters
1. Soils and Soil Processes
2. Biophysical Remote Sensing Signatures of Arid and
Semi-arid Ecosystems
3. Arid Regions: Challenges and Opportunities
4. Temporate and Boreal Forests
5. Tropical Forests
6. Tropical Freshwater Wetlands
7. Rivers & Lakes
8. Coastal Margins and Estuaries
9. Grazing Agriculture - Managed Pasture, Grassland
and Rangeland
10. Dryland Crops
12. Application of Image-based Remote Sensing to
Irrigated Agriculture
13. Environmental Processes: State of the Science and
New Directions
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market scan
Industry Info
Research Available
Space Organizations Create
National Alliance
The 10-Year Industry Forecast, sponsored by NOAA and NASA, is available
from ASPRS for $25 U.S. The Executive
Summary is available free of charge from
the website.
www.asprs.org
U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation
The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation is a consortium of
government, industry, academic and
professional organizations that share a
mission focus around the development
and application of geospatial intelligence data and geo-processing resources
to address National Security objectives.
Founder and Chairman of the Board is
K. Stuart Shea, vice president and executive director of the Space & Intelligence
Operating Unit, Northrop Grumman
Information Technology, TASC. Steven
Jacques is vice president of Operations.
He is a legislative and business development consultant for Space & Intelligence
programs, Jacques & Associates, Inc.
The group is producing the GEOINT 2004
Symposium in October, formerly GEOINTEL 2003.
www.usgif.org
Four leading space organizations — the National Space
Society, Satellite Industry
Association (SIA), The Space
Foundation, and Washington
Space Business Roundtable
— created the National Space
and Satellite Alliance (NSSA).
NSSA members will coordinate
their Washington operations,
programs and activities to
provide more cohesive and unified
advocacy of space policy issues in
Washington and more effectively
serve their members’ interests.
The stated mission of NSSA is
“to marshal the resources of the
space and satellite advocacy
community to most effectively
advance the exploration and development of space as well as the
utilization of space and satellite
systems and technologies.”
Brian Chase, vice president of
Washington Operations for the
Space Foundation, is the first
elected chairman of NSSA.
www.spacealliance.org
Dubai Police Using Imagery for Security Operations
Dubai Police awarded Space Imaging Middle East a contract to deliver
multi-scale satellite imagery of the country, after the imagery was used to
support the police security operations during the IMF meeting held in Dubai
in September 2003.
SIME collected 1-meter, high-resolution imagery of Dubai derived from
the IKONOS satellite while the rest of the UAE was collected with a resolution of 5-meters from the IRS satellites.
The imagery is also used as an accurate background reference in an
existing vehicle tracking system. The GPS system of each vehicle is linked
to an IKONOS-derived map in the operation control room. Dubai Police also
complemented its existing base maps with IRS 5-meter resolution imagery
for the entire UAE.
www.spaceimagingME.com
Geospatial Intelligence Provided to U.S. Department of Defense’s Grand Challenge
The Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA) — the
research and development arm of the
Department of Defense — held the
first Grand Challenge off-road race
of robotic land vehicles on March 13.
The top team from Carnegie Mellon
University, called “The Red Team,”
used 10,000 square kilometers (3,861
square miles) of IKONOS satellite
imagery to help guide its ‘Sandstorm’
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robotic vehicle. The vehicle ran
7.4 miles of the 150 mile course,
further than any other.
Space Imaging donated the
imagery, worth $198,000, in
hopes that it will become a core
component in the development of
this leading-edge technology. The
color IKONOS imagery was used in a
layered set of geographic information systems (GIS) data to develop
Applications
The Kista Arctica vessel breaking through the icy waters of
the Disko Banke region of the Davis Strait. This region is
located off the west coast of Greenland. © Royal Arctic Line.
Greenland’s Icy Water Navigated
With RADARSAT-1 Imagery
The Danish Meteorological Institute
(DMI) signed a 2-year contract with RADARSAT International for the continued
near real-time supply of RADARSAT-1
data (within 2 - 4 hours from acquisition). The satellite data is used to
create ice charts and reports that are
sent via satellite to the bridges of ships
while navigating the dangerous waters
of the Greenland Sea. RADARSAT-1 data
is delivered within hours of acquisition
to DMI via a network of three RADARSAT-1 ground receiving stations: KSAT
(Norway), QinetiQ (United Kingdom),
and Gatineau (Canada).
This will be the 6th consecutive year
that DMI has been using RADARSAT-1
data. The satellite data has now fully
replaced the use of aircraft for ice
reconnaissance.
www.rsi.ca
potential race routes. Other data
layers include USGS digital orthoquad (DOQ) aerial imagery, USGS
digital elevation models (DEMs),
DARPA-defined race corridors, differential GPS coordinate information
obtained from ground reconnaissance, and LIDAR and sub-meter
aerial imagery in select corridors.
IKONOS satellite imagery was the
only commercial satellite imagery
used in the DARPA Grand Challenge race, though other companies
supplied imagery for teams that did
not participate. Initially, 106 teams
NASA Uses A “Sleuth” To Predict
Urban Land Use
According to researchers from the
University of Maryland and Woods
Hole Research Center, developed land
in the greater Washington-Baltimore
metropolitan area is projected to
increase 80 percent by 2030. Scientists used a computer-based decision
support model loaded with NASA
and commercial satellite images to
simulate three policies affecting land
use and declining water quality in the
Chesapeake Bay estuary.
Observations from Landsat and
IKONOS satellites were used in a
United States Geological Survey
(USGS) computer model, called
SLEUTH. The model was applied to
23,700 square kilometers (9,151
square miles) of the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area.
NASA funded the study, with additional funds from the Chesapeake
Bay Foundation. NASA’s Earth Science
Enterprise is dedicated to understanding the Earth as an integrated
system and applying Earth System
Science to improve prediction of
climate, weather, and natural hazards
using the unique vantage point of
space. The study is published in the
March issue of Environment and Planning B. It explains how models may be
used to forecast the effects of urban
growth and runoff on the Chesapeake
Bay estuary system.
www.nasa.gov
www.envplan.com/epb/epb_
current.html
Companies and Contracts
Pictometry and Intermap Form Partnership
Pictometry International Corporation, provider of a patented information
system that captures digital aerial oblique and orthogonal images, as well
as related software, has partnered with Intermap Technologies, which is
building an unprecedented database, called NEXTMap, of highly accurate
digital topographic maps. Pictometry will be able to offer its customer base
of local, county, state and federal government end users the option to
combine Pictometry’s digital images with Intermap’s terrain elevation data
to create more accurate mapping products.
www.pictometry.com
www.intermaptechnologies.com
Coastal California Data Collected by NOAA
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal
Services Center has completed the development of landcover and change
data for the coastal zone of California. These data provide coastal resource
managers, land planners and other researchers with valuable information
about the state’s coastal landcover and how it changes over time.
Through a contract with Boeing-Autometric/Earth Satellite Corp, landcover data was produced for the year 2001, as well as retrospectively for 1996.
Landcover data produced as a part of its Coastal Change Analysis Program
(C-CAP) consist of a 22-class system in which land cover types are classified into different categories, with special emphasis on coastal features
such as wetlands. Development of C-CAP forest classes was supported by
data from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Fire
and Resource Assessment Program, which were used to enhance the final
product. The NOAA Coastal Services Center is now working with the United
States Geological Survey to incorporate these data into The National Map, a
comprehensive, up-to-date, digital map of the country.
Currently, NOAA is in the preliminary stages of developing coastal landcover and change data for the Gulf of Mexico and is completing data sets for
Oregon and Washington.
www.csc.noaa.gov/landcover
Posters Available
Posters of IKONOS imagery are for sale from Space Imaging’s online store.
The store has over 100 posters of universities, cities, golf courses, race
tracks and other landmarks available and are typically delivered within 10
days. New categories and posters are being added to the inventory weekly.
Each poster is created from the best IKONOS imagery available and is
printed on photographic quality paper. These gallery quality prints are available in 3 sizes: 24x30 ($50), 16x20 ($35), and 8x10 ($25).
www.spaceimaging.com/store «
applied, with 86 submitting
technical papers on time. Of
these, 14 entered the race.
In 2005, the DARPA cash award
will increase to $2 million for the
team that fields the first vehicle
to complete the designated
route of the next challenge
within a specified time limit.
www.spaceimaging.com/
grandchallenge
www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge
SPRING 2004
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policy watch
A Challenge from Europe:
Global
Monitoring for
Environment and
Security (GMES)
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SPRING 2004
Over the past three decades,
Europe has developed a series of
Earth observations satellites. Most
of them have been developed by the
European Space Agency (ESA) in close
cooperation with the space programs
of member countries. Europe now
has a substantial Earth observations
infrastructure, which it has used to
support a variety of European public
good applications, such as agricultural policy, environmental policy,
and resource management. Major
elements include ESA’s Envisat, ERS
1 & 2, France’s SPOT, and Eumetsat’s
Meteosat satellite systems. Several new systems are in the planning
stages. However, this impressive array of satellite systems, which deliver
high quality data, has lacked a robust
data and information infrastructure
to support it, one capable of delivering useful information products routinely and reliably to customers.
In an effort to bring greater coherence to Europe’s use of its satellite
Earth observation systems and its in
situ systems (air, land, and sea) and
to provide the basis for future system
planning, ESA and the European Union
(EU), with the European Commission
(EC) as the EU’s executive agent, have
teamed in a program entitled Global
Monitoring for Environment and
Security (GMES). It is an ambitious
program focused primarily on the
pursuit of sustainable development
and protection of the environment,
and increasingly on security, broadly
defined. When fully operational, it will
serve as the cornerstone of Europe’s
responses to global as well as regional
environmental and security concerns.
GMES is the next major Europe-wide
space project after Galileo. Like Galileo, it is jointly managed by both the
EU and ESA with participation from
Eumetsat, governmental agencies,
non-governmental organizations, and
private firms.
The early stages of GMES are now
underway. The EU and ESA together
have allocated nearly ¤200 million
over four years to develop a series
of useful applications and the data
and information systems to support them. Individual states and the
private sector are devoting approximately another ¤100 million to the EU
effort. The EU is providing research
funding for developing applications
in environmental monitoring and
management, regional development,
environmental risk reduction, crisis
management, and humanitarian aid.
ESA is funding the development of the
information systems to deliver the
information to end users. With other
funding, ESA is also developing new
Earth observation satellite systems.
Officials expect the entire system to
be fully functional by 2008.
GMES constitutes a central element in Europe’s strategy to use space
technology to foster European innovation and to give Europe a greater
global role in the environmental
debate over global warming, pollution,
and other global issues. It will also
support Europe’s growing interest in
using space systems to support European security, the precise meaning of
which is under development. It is the
second space-related “flagship” program after Europe’s Galileo position,
navigation, and timing system.
GMES is part of a rapidly changing
political environment for space activities in Europe, one that includes
a new space policy thrust led by the
European Union. The new policy was
detailed in a November 2003 European Commission White Paper, “Space:
A New European Frontier for an
Expanding Union: An Action Plan for
Implementing the European Space
Policy.” This white paper has received
the endorsement of both ESA and the
EU Parliament.
The policy urges a sustained,
long-term effort to develop scientific
knowledge and applications through
space technologies, and to maintain
independent access to space. It will
be supported by an industrial policy
aimed at “developing a competitive
and innovative industrial base and a
geographic spread of activities,” for
example to the 10 Eastern European
countries that are entering the EU this
spring. It gives priority to the development of civil and commercial space
technologies, particularly in launch
services and satellite capabilities. This
changing political environment also
includes a drive to broaden the scope
of ESA’s portfolio of technology development to include technologies with
explicitly dual-use characteristics,
such as advanced satellite communications, high resolution remote sensing, inter-satellite laser communication, and electronic surveillance.
GMES offers both a challenge and
an opportunity to the United States.
The challenge: The early phases of
GMES are centered on rationalizing the
many different environmental data
sources within Europe and giving them
coherence. This early effort will help
to define needed new capabilities in
both space and in situ systems. Thus,
if implemented successfully, GMES will
lead to the development of autonomous European capabilities to monitor
the global environment, and of a vastly
strengthened and highly competitive
European geospatial private sector. It
will also serve as an effective scientific
counterbalance to U.S. positions in the
international governance of the global
environment in the decades ahead.
The opportunity: Europe’s long
term goal for GMES is to improve
citizens’ quality of life and security
by supporting environmental risk
management and sustainable development. Hence, these capabilities
will enable Europe to be a substantial
partner with the United States and
many other countries in establishing a truly global Earth observation
program as called for at the Earth
Observation Summit hosted by the
White House in July 2003. The experience with GMES will provide useful
organizational “lessons learned” for
that major effort.
Despite the optimistic picture
that EU and ESA documents on GMES
present, Europe faces many hurdles
in bringing this ambitious program to
fruition. The size and scope of GMES
and the complex structure of space
activities within Europe suggests
that bringing long-term coherence to
GMES will require continual vigilance
and attention to detail in the program. Europe must rationalize several
different data access, pricing, and
distribution policies, not only within
Europe, but also with potential partners beyond Europe. Further, the EU
and ESA must find effective ways to
bring the 10 new members joining the
EU this spring into the program. Some
countries, such as Poland and Hungary, may also wish to join ESA, which
would assist the effort of merging the
interests of the expanded EU and ESA.
Finally, over the long term, Europe
will have to find effective ways to
Paris
maintain focus, momentum, and coordination as new scientific findings
suggest new directions for applications. Nevertheless, GMES is an exciting development for the geospatial
community. Not only Europe but also
other countries will benefit from a
successful GMES program. «
Ray A. Williamson is research professor of space policy and international
affairs in the Space Policy Institute
of The George Washington University,
Washington, D.C.
SPRING 2004
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Law enforcement
Transit-based technology solutions
The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District
(BART) is a combination aerial/subway transit system that spans four counties
and 22 cities in California. BART transports 50 percent of the Bay Area commuter traffic across the San Francisco Bay and carries one-third of commuters
into Oakland, connecting over 250,000 riders to their destinations daily. The
District has a number of specialized departments to ensure smooth operations of
the system; one such department is BART Police.
The Police Department’s responsibilities include protection of BART patrons, of its
own more than 2,000 employees, and of property throughout the district. BART Police
is staffed with 280 employees, consisting of 215 sworn and 65 civilian employees. The
department receives, on average, over 50,000 service calls a year, to which officers are
required to respond. The tracking of this information and associated processes was
dependent entirely upon manual processes and one 1960s mainframe computer, until
the department’s recent technological journey. Although far from complete, some of
the projects initiated in the last year include the procurement of a new Computer Aided
Dispatch (CAD) and Records Management System (RMS), the addition of a department-wide document imaging system, creation of an intranet, and implementation of a
Geographic Information System (GIS). Of these technologies, GIS is the most comprehensive, as it involves not only the hardware, but also a number of mapping software
packages, data customization and significant changes in workflow processes.
The implementation of the GIS was a five-month process, during which the department embarked on an extensive needs analysis. A number of divisions within the Police
Department participated in the assessment by assigning their employees as members of
the project team. These members identified a number of department needs, including
staffing, technology and process changes. The project team was also responsible for
researching GIS companies and grants available for public safety. BART Police chose
to purchase their GIS from MapInfo Corporation, which coincidentally was offering a
software grant for public safety. Once awarded the grant, BART Police began project
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SPRING 2004
Carissa Goldner
CAD/RMS Administrator
BART Police Department
Oakland, Calif.
www.bart.gov
implementation, with the help of local MapInfo resellers. The GIS was released for use
in the department in November 2003. Since
that time, the department has used the GIS
to address effectively a number of critical
areas of weakness identified during the needs
assessment: (1) minimal functionality of the
department’s mainframe; (2) the inability
to effectively share data internally or crossjurisdictionally; (3) the inability to perform
effective homeland security analyses; and (4)
shrinking departmental resources.
(1) IMPROV ING DATA M A N AGEMEN T
BART Police used the data management strengths of the GIS to counteract the
weaknesses of the mainframe CAD/RMS.
Information such as date, time and location
of calls for service was extracted from the
mainframe and imported into the GIS in
a text format. This information was combined, in the GIS, with a number of imported
Access databases that gathered information
about victims, arrests, property, suspects,
and suspect methods of operation. Once this
information was concentrated into a single
location, it was organized a number of ways
and analyzed for patterns and consistencies.
Furthermore, the data was then available for
SPRING 2004
13
The department has used the
GIS to address effectively a
number of critical areas of
weakness identified during
the needs assessment.
presentation in both visual or data form to
a number of departments within BART. For
example, the supervisor of the Information
Technology Division may want a numeric
report showing how many computers exist
at each station, whereas the Chief of Police
may want a visual report of the technology
resources. Using the same data sets, this
information could be distributed to both
in several minutes. Furthermore, this data
management capability has also helped
BART Police address the challenge they face
in sharing information across the department and with other law enforcement agencies within the four counties through which
the BART system crosses.
(2) INF OR M AT ION SH A RING A ND
C ROS S - JURISDIC T ION A L COOPER AT ION
BART Police was enabled to better share
information internally through the GIS
in two ways. Primarily, the grant, which
included a software package that allowed
the publication of maps in a Web-enabled
environment, in combination with the Police
Department’s new intranet, became the main
platform for sharing analyses from the GIS.
Secondly, because technicians were able to
post both visual and data format reports,
a larger number of people were able to understand the findings from the analyses. Although BART Police has not yet been given
permission to post these reports on BART’s
public Web site, the team has been able to
distribute reports to surrounding jurisdictions via mail and meetings, which was never
previously accomplished.
(3) GIS F OR HOMEL A ND
S EC URI T Y A N A LYSIS
To perform homeland security analyses,
BART Police used the GIS to identify geographical liabilities and assets and to analyze
14
SPRING 2004
how the location of those facilities will impact BART during an emergency. The identified liabilities include the Transbay Tube (a
section of the system that crosses underneath
the San Francisco Bay), tunnels, subway and
aerial structures, and structures straddled by
freeways. Assets identified through analysis
in the GIS include hospitals, parks, schools
and freeways within a few miles of the
system. Analysis of the assets and liabilities
in relation to BART is complex and is still
under way, as the role of each can change in
a given disaster scenario.
(4) SHRINKING R E SOURC E S A ND
IMPROVED GOVERNMEN T EF FIC IENC Y
The final weakness identified in the
needs assessment that has been addressed
through use of the GIS is the management
of shrinking resources without the degradation of performance or service. One
scenario that demonstrates the power of
the GIS for BART Police can be found in an
analysis of annual calls for service, staffing
and technology resources. The number of
calls in these three categories at each station
within the BART system was recorded at
the time the GIS was implemented. Analysis of the information demonstrated that the
department had resource inconsistencies in
two particular areas. A simple redistribution of staff and computers could increase
the department’s efficacy without cost.
In addition to the four primary needs
identified by the project team, the GIS also
gave BART Police the ability to perform
functions of crime mapping and routing.
Crime mapping is the primary use of GIS
at law enforcement agencies. Typically,
agencies map the number and location of
incidents within their jurisdiction, often
with focus on specific crimes by type.
The routing tool, not commonly used at
other law enforcement agencies, is a valuable application of BART Police technology.
Routing is used to dispatch officers to and
from calls for service locations. Since major
freeways in the Bay Area straddle many
BART stations, officers use the freeways to
quickly move from one call location to the
next. In instances where an accident has
occurred on one such freeway, however, officers experience an increase in response time
to the call. In order to avoid this problem,
BART Police uses its GIS routing software
in combination with the California Highway Patrol, which provides real-time access
to traffic conditions, to advise officers of the
quickest route to their call location. This
specialized use of routing coupled with realtime traffic information is rarely used by
other law enforcement agencies nationwide.
The function of routing also gives rise to
the possibility of more highly technical uses
of the GIS such as the inclusion of mobile
devices for beat officers. BART Police has
foot beats and vehicle patrol beats; officers
on some of these beats have laptops or handheld computing devices. Inclusion of the GIS
on these devices would empower officers to
retrieve routing information without the assistance of dispatch. Furthermore, the next
logical step from routing and GIS on mobile
devices is the creation of a Global Positioning System (GPS). Since officers will already
have access to routing capabilities at their
fingertips, the process of getting routes from
the GIS will become much more efficient
when the system inherently knows where
the officer is. In this instance the officer will
be able to bypass telling the GIS where he is
at the moment and can focus on destination
information.
There are, however, a number of concerns on behalf of officers nationwide that
GPS is going to be used merely as a form
of absentee supervision. BART Police is
currently researching the ability to provide
officers in the field with a GPS tool while
ensuring that the information will be used
solely for functions related to routing and to
identifying officer locations during emergencies, or when the location has not been communicated to dispatch.
Other uses for GIS not typical at law enforcement agencies, but planned for BART,
are the use of aerial imagery, closed circuit
television cameras, crime forecasting, and
victim profiling. Aerial imagery can be used
in the GIS to perform tactical analyses where
the positioning of resources can be planned
for specialized operations. For example,
BART Police performs a number of undercover operations to stop identified crime
trends at specific stations. The GIS can display the precise locations of the incidents of
the trends, and locations where staff, surveillance equipment, and vacant police vehicles
can be positioned to minimize the incidents
or apprehend the offenders. Furthermore,
BART Police is tasked with performing
crowd control functions for a number of
sporting events and concerts. The GIS can
be used to show the most effective placement of barriers and staff to help protect
patrons and employees alike and to ensure
that people are able to board trains before
stations become overcrowded.
BART Police has a number of existing
Closed Circuit Television cameras (CCTV)
spread throughout the system. These are
used to discourage criminal acts on the
system, to act as witnesses to crimes and
to aid officers in identifying suspects. GIS
can be used to help plan an appropriate
environmental design for the most efficient
use of the cameras.
Other advanced analyses that can be performed through the GIS at law enforcement
agencies include crime forecasting and victim
profiling. Forecasting is a function of crime
analysis in which the analyst uses a number
of mathematical equations relating to date,
time and location to identify the most likely
time and place a repeat offender will commit
the next crime. Profiling, on the other hand,
deals primarily with broad category details,
such as race and method of operation.
A number of additional uses for GIS
in law enforcement may not yet have been
identified. Others may not yet be documented. Because BART Police realized the
potential for GIS at their agency a year ago,
an in-depth research of both academic and
practical sources of information on the topic was completed prior to implementation.
The project team found that GIS is currently limited primarily to crime mapping
and analysis functions. Although this fact
may not accurately reflect the potential for
uses of GIS in public safety, it may reflect
a lack of documentation about this powerful technological tool. As the use of GIS at
BART expands, findings will be shared in
verbal and written form. Even though we
only have begun to reap the benefits of
implementing such a powerful tool, expectations for additional uses of GIS remain
high at BART. «
SPRING 2004
15
Figure 1
In this
scenario,
a nuclear
“suitcase
bomb”
explodes in
downtown
Houston,
demolishing
a nine-block
radius,
shown
in red.
Seventeen
mileper-hour
winds
blow the
radioactive
cloud east
(the plume
spreading
toward the
bottom of
this page),
with
lethality
diminishing as the
plume
travels.
16
SPRING 2004
Modeling of disaster
scenarios in several
American cities
Whether during a terrorist attack
or a natural disaster, the ability of the public
and private sectors to react effectively depends
substantially on how well they have planned
their response strategies. To plan such responses requires an understanding of a variety
of attack scenarios. Spatial technologies are
instrumental for threat assessment.
During the past few years, state and federal
legislators, their staffs, the media, first responders, and numerous other organizations have
learned a great deal about terrorist threats. This
education has been bolstered by such tools as
satellite imagery and geographic information
systems (GIS), which can be used to forecast and
model potential hazardous events and the emergency response to those disasters.
For instance, using desktop or Web-based
GIS, analysts can model the dispersion of a
nuclear, radiological, biological, or chemical
plume. Specialists can overlay these models onto
a city map to examine how attacks would affect
given areas and populations. Further layers such
as satellite imagery can provide additional understanding, including topography and other information for remote locations. Threat-assessment
advisers then can run various scenarios to plan
optimal evacuation routes and determine where
to place decontamination facilities and chemical/
biological detectors.
Among some of the well-tested programs
for visualizing these scenarios both at home
and abroad are Consequence Assessment Tool
Sets — Joint Assessment of Catastrophic Event
(CATS-JACE or C-J) and Hazard Prediction
and Assessment Capability (HPAC). Used primarily for domestic threat assessment because
of its in-depth U.S. city-level data, C-J is a
set of models that simulates both natural and
Dexter Ingram
Professional Staff Member
House Select Committee on Homeland Security
Washington, DC
http://homelandsecurity.house.gov
Joe Ingram
Senior GIS Consultant
Ingram Engineering Inc.
Brookeville, Md.
www.IngramEngInc.com
SPRING 2004
17
manmade catastrophes, from earthquakes
to chemical weapons attacks to hazardous
material spills.
With a few extensions, C-J enables users
to generate predictive models and conduct
casualty and damage assessment. HPAC,
similar to C-J but with more international
data and a larger variety of unconventional
threat scenarios, is more often used to
model threats abroad. The two GIS computer models have proven invaluable for
policy briefings, public education and event
preparation during the past few years.
In a graphic front-page
story, he described the
results of a nuclear
bomb small enough to
be hidden in a briefcase.
MODELING WITH WEATHER AND FACILITIES
Developed by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) just after
the first Gulf War, the Defense Threat
Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
distributed C-J to support emergency
managers’ training exercises, contingency
planning, and logistical planning, as well as
to calculate requirements for humanitarian
aid and force protection. The GIS interface
allows users to combine and manipulate
multiple layers of information on a variety
of visual information backgrounds and
maps to assess affected persons, property
and infrastructure. C-J can be used regardless of the user’s level of expertise or access
to information. The technologies allow
the modeling of scenarios based on current weapons technology and past results
from biological, chemical and radiological
experiments.
The models are based on data pulled
from the DTRA database and combined
with more than 150 other databases, including census, nuclear plants, military bases,
ports and chemical processing plants. In
addition, the new JACE program allows for
an actual satellite image to overlay a traditional GIS street map theme. Commercial
space remote sensing companies now can
provide in-depth satellite imagery of build18
SPRING 2004
ings, which opens a new world of analysis.
Currently, such firms can develop scenarios
that assess structural damage to buildings
and casualty estimates for those within.
The analysis becomes even more accurate when it links directly to the National
Weather Service (NWS) and pulls regional
weather for the time the simulated event
takes place. This can involve either forecasted weather or, if the event is too far away
for an accurate forecast, historical averages
of weather over the past 20 years. The program then produces a map that shows the
areas and populations affected and the level
of lethality of the attack.
HOMEL A ND S EC URI T Y SC EN A RIOS
At the request of U.S. House and Senate staff — as well as media outlets such as
The Houston Chronicle, Washington Times,
York Daily Record, and The Times (London)
— C-J was used to model a variety of
scenarios involving several American cities. Specifically, simulations done included
dirty bombs detonating in downtown areas; a crop duster spreading anthrax, sarin,
botulinum toxin, or nerve gas over large
populations; a nuclear reactor leak; a missile intercept; and a nuclear explosion. In
Houston, the media used the latter model to
challenge local government officials regarding their disaster-preparedness plans.
Following the first anniversary of Sept.
11, Mike Hedges of The Houston Chronicle
interviewed local authorities and first responders to see if his city was prepared for
the terrorist attacks modeled. He also asked
local, state and federal officials to describe
how they would respond to these scenarios.
In a graphic front-page story, he described a
nuclear bomb small enough to be hidden in a
briefcase. It would level downtown Houston,
flattening many of the 58 skyscrapers and
killing up to 130,000 workers.
This simulation included data from ESRI
StreetMap, the National Weather Service
(NWS) and the National Imagery Mapping
Agency (NIMA), now called the National
Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA). StreetMap contained the necessary detailed road
information and map layers of downtown
Houston. The C-J software ties to NWS’s
database to get the latest forecast information
to determine the plume dispersion. Additional
map layers (buildings, parks, water bodies,
and so forth) came from NGA sources. All
the data were plotted in a geodetic coordinate
system (degrees latitude and longitude).
The simulation demonstrated the bomb
exploding outside City Hall, destroying it,
the Houston Police Department’s headquarters, and the Harris County administrative
offices. It would have killed most local leaders and law enforcement officials, crippling
the city’s ability to respond to the disaster.
Based on the simulated weather data, the
wind dragged the radioactive cloud through
the East End and beyond the I-610 Loop,
killing 10 percent of those in its stream and
leaving thousands more ill (Figure 1).
Houston authorities had considered
disaster scenarios in planning emergency
responses, but the simulation and Hedges’
article fostered debate about how prepared
the city was for an attack. The discussion
pointed out deficiencies for the city to address. Following Houston’s lead, many other
localities performed simulations to test their
preparedness.
AT TAC K S F ROM OVER T HE BOR DER
Soon after Sept. 11, the Heritage Foundation Homeland Security Task Force used
C-J to help assess port and border security
threats. The analysis showed the U.S. is still
vulnerable even if the attack doesn’t start on
U.S. soil. The group ran four nuclear and biological scenarios, looking at the border cities
of Detroit, Michigan; San Diego, California;
Buffalo, New York; and El Paso, Texas.
One of many mock border scenarios
modeled a nuclear explosion in Mexico
across the border from El Paso. After
purchasing an old Soviet suitcase nuclear
weapon in Central Asia, a terrorist smuggles
it into Mexico to detonate it near the U.S.
border. Traveling by car, the suicide bomber
makes his way toward El Paso. South of the
border, he pulls into a vehicle inspection
station and detonates a 3-kiloton nuclear
bomb, equivalent to 3,000 tons of dynamite.
In this scenario, much of El Paso is devastated, even though the bomb exploded on
the other side of the border. Prevailing winds
blow radiation to San Antonio. Authorities
do not know if this is a single attack or a
precursor to other attacks. Fortunately it’s
just a simulation. But it does help to better
prepare the local and federal authorities and
first responders who would be involved in
such a catastrophic attack.
MILI TA RY COMM A ND A ND CON T ROL
As useful as the previously discussed models are, GIS software that enables battle management modeling is even more advanced.
In addition to C-J and HPAC, the U.S. Air
Force, for instance, uses its own command
and control mapping software for its Theatre
Battle Management Core Systems Unit Level
(TBMCS-UL). This GIS software, deployed
at Air Combat Command, Europe Command and Pacific Air Force Command bases
around the world, monitors conventional attacks as well as nuclear, biological, or chemical attacks on a particular installation. Base
commanders and decision makers then can
determine how best to use their war-fighting
assets and more importantly, how to protect
military and civilian personnel via bunkers
and protective clothing.
Exercise scenarios similar to those
done with C-J and HPAC are done with
great regularity in Operational Readiness
Exercises using the TBMCS-UL mapping
tool. Likewise, the GIS data supplied for
TBMCS -UL may come from a variety of
sources to include both government (NGA,
FAA, Air Force Civil Engineers) as well as
commercial vendors. Additionally, this collected data will be placed in a GIS repository
and used for other Air Force visualization
needs, such as Base Realignment and Closure 2005 (BRAC 2205) initiative.
The idea is that facility managers and
sweep teams can use the map application as
a reporting tool before, during and after an
attack or incident occurs on an installation.
Automated chemical and biological detectors
also feed into the application. The tools can
run from minimum data sources such as facility and runway map layers that have been
vectorized/digitized from satellite imagery
for remote locations, to a fully surveyed
Garrison base, which can include additional
layers from streets to golf courses. These exercises help commanders streamline recovery
efforts and give them realistic expectations of
a base’s recovery time after an attack.
Whether preparing for or responding to
domestic and global threats, the use of geospatial technology on homeland defense and
emergency planning has been monumental
since the events of Sept. 11. Regardless of
whether GIS tools are supporting active
military operations or incidents closer to
home, having access to current data and the
ability to analyze the data saves lives and
property. Awareness of these tools/data,
in addition to following data standards,
can aid in increased interoperability while
decreasing duplication of efforts. «
MM Imaging notes Ad
2/19/04
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SPRING 2004
19
Page
Bolstering
the use of
ISR with
battlespace
situational
awareness
figure 1
Warfighter use of
commercial imagery
Providing commercial remote sensing
data directly to our nation’s warfighters could
prove beneficial. This premise is consistent
with the commercial space guidelines of the
National Space Policy: “to the extent feasible,
pursue innovative methods for procurement
of space products and services.” In an April
25, 2003, National Security Order, President
George W. Bush reiterated plans to use commercially available satellite images to the
greatest extent possible to meet U.S. military,
intelligence, foreign policy, homeland security, and first-responder needs. With sub-meter image resolution, the commercial remote
sensing industry has become an important
information source to the warfighter.
Over the last few years, Air Force Chief of
Staff Gen. John P. Jumper has been emphasizing the need for “horizontal integration of
our manned, unmanned, and space assets in
order to provide real-time actionable, exploitable intelligence to commanders.”
He also contends that our military’s
success depends upon reducing the find, fix,
20
SPRING 2004
track, target, engage, and assess (F2T2EA)
cycle and upon achieving persistent Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance
(ISR) capabilities. These needs are driven
by the military’s transformation or shift
from the threat-based approach of the Cold
War era to a capabilities-based approach
focusing on information superiority, precision engagement, and rapid global mobility.
The new approach trades armor (or inches
of steel) for better information and intelligence, characterized by battlespace situational awareness unveiling the battlefield
environment to combatant commanders
and decision makers.
The United States has a variety of ISR
assets providing warfighters the information they need to conduct their missions,
which range from turning back aggression
and helping to secure peace to providing assistance to Humanitarian Relief Operations.
Battlespace situational awareness requires
persistent surveillance and real-time direct
tasking of ISR assets. The ISR systems in
Figure 1 are the “organic” assets that are
tasked directly from the theater controlled
by the Combatant Commander. Commercial remote sensing satellites operational
today have the potential to augment the
military’s suite of ISR assets supporting battlespace awareness, especially if they can be
tasked like an organic asset.
An example of a commercial remote
sensing system that can be tasked directly
is Space Imaging’s IKONOS. Raytheon
(Waltham, Mass.), as a co-owner of Space
Imaging (Thornton, Colo.), performs the
development and support for the end-to-end
ground architecture that receives, tasks, processes and disseminates imagery. The system
receives orders from customers, generates
collection tasking, uplinks commands to the
satellites, receives and archives collected
imagery and telemetry data, and generates
products for distribution.
Raytheon has delivered over 12 regional operational centers (ROC) or
ground stations to customers throughout
the world, including Space Imaging affiliates: Space Imaging Middle East (Dubai),
Japan Space Imaging (Tokyo), Space
Imaging Asia (Seoul), Space Imaging
Eurasia (Ankara), and European Space
Imaging (Munich), as well as Space Imaging Southeast Asia (Bangkok). The customers of these remote systems have the
ability to uplink collection requirements
“on the pass” and receive data back while
figure 2
Derr Bergenthal
Sr. Principal Engineer
Raytheon
Aurora, Colo.
www.raytheon.com/businesses/
riis/index.html
The military is shifting from the
threat-based approach of the
Cold War era to a capabilities-based
approach focusing on information
superiority, precision engagement,
and rapid global mobility.
figure 3
the satellite is over the station. The ROC
architecture provides the capability both
to directly task the payload from remote
ground terminals and to downlink imagery, facilitating direct tasking of the satellite by battlefield commanders.
The ISR assets in Figure 1 are independent systems that require centralized control
to effectively exploit their capabilities. This
control is provided, in conjunction with the
Joint Task Force, by the Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS), which Raytheon is developing for the Air Force. For
commercial imagery systems to be included
in the military’s suite of ISR assets they must
be effectively integrated into an ISR management system to reach their full potential. As
part of DCGS, Raytheon’s ISR Warrior supports the management ISR sensor platforms
such as the U-2 high altitude reconnaissance
aircraft and the Global Hawk and Predator
unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs). Raytheon’s ISR Warrior architecture can extend to
new sensors such as those provided by commercial remote sensing systems.
Figure 2 shows a pictorial representation of a theater battlespace managed by
ISR Warrior, which centralizes control and
visualization of assets, thus improving intelligence information. It provides real-time
mission monitoring, which reduces timecritical targeting and F2T2EA timelines.
The ISR Warrior also provides the operator
with the tools to affect and expedite deciwww.imagingnotes.com
sions once ISR decisions have been made.
ISR Warrior is a Web-based decision
system that provides the warfighter a consolidated picture of the theater battlespace.
It accomplishes this through the visualization
of ISR assets overlaid with order of battle,
collections plans and planned targets along
with tip-off information from Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT), and Moving
Target Indicator (MTI) sources. ISR Warrior
provides the ability to re-task ISR assets in
support of time-critical/time-sensitive targeting. The 3-D capabilities shown in Figure 3
give the operator the ability to view weather
information, terrain delimitation data, and
threat domes. The operator can monitor each
platform’s collection and navigation plan,
track the asset’s position and the sensor’s
field of regard or field of view.
The commercial imagery challenge to
support warfighters will be integrating its
capability and other ISR sensors to enhance
tactical surveillance and time-critical targeting. To be of significant military value, the
contribution will be measured against the
tactical F2T2EA and the ability to support
accurate and real-time battlefield situational
awareness. Can commercial imagery systems work effectively with other ISR platforms? Horizontal integration is the key to
improving persistent surveillance. For commercial imagery direct to the warfighter, the
path to horizontal integration is through the
DCGS and the cross-platform coordination
of its ISR Warrior component.
A military exercise, such as those conducted by U.S. Joint Forces Command,
using a directly tasked commercial remote
sensing system and ISR Warrior would
be an ideal way to evaluate the benefits of
providing commercial imagery directly to
the warfighter. Through wargames, we can
determine circumstances where commercial
imagery is particularly valuable or where
it can compensate for the unavailability of
other ISR assets. We can show the power of
fusing commercial imagery with data from
other assets in near real-time. We can also
show to an ISR Warrior operator the utility
of using commercial imagery to dynamically
re-task other assets and vice-versa. Re-tasking is instrumental to reducing the F2T2EA
cycle by changing ISR collection activities on
the fly in response to the dynamic battlefield
environment. «
SPRING 2004
21
Adding shape-based search technology
New technology with implications for
Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) in satellite imagery is being investigated in the Research department at Space Imaging (Thornton,
Colo.). Look Dynamics (Longmont, Colo.) has developed a technology
that allows the encoding of image clips as shape information through
optical processing.
The resultant shape information from a number of images may be
stored in a database for subsequent search. To search a shape database,
a model image clip is passed through the encoding system to obtain its
shape information, which is then used to find matches. The technology
requires no knowledge of specific image objects (such as definitions for
airplane or truck) prior to the creation of the databases. Thus, an image needs to be passed through the optical engine only once to enable
searching of its contents and does not require reprocessing when new
search models are defined.
The availability of satellite data has increased tremendously in
recent years. The advent of commercial satellites carrying high-resolution sensors has also increased the amount of data available for study
and processing. Far more pixels exist than can be inspected by human
eyes. Automated processing methods for analyzing these pixels are
becoming more and more crucial as the manpower required to review
those pixels further and further surpasses that which is available.
The technology developed by Look Dynamics could be part of a potential solution to this now-intractable problem. Encoding an image by its
content, as shapes, could require significantly less storage than pixel data.
Because the processing is optical, the generation of databases of such shapes
is far faster than could be achieved by a comparable system based on conventional digital processing technology. Another key factor is that the nature
of the search objects does not need to be known when the image encoding
is done and the databases are generated. Entire archives of imagery could be
encoded as shape representations for later object search and retrieval.
22
SPRING 2004
The technology was originally created for imagebased searches of the internet. The new exploration of
this technology applies it to satellite imagery. It may be
applicable not only to wide-area search, but to feature
extraction and change detection as well.
The majority of approaches to image storage and
retrieval rely on some combination of color, texture and
shape information extracted from the imagery. One texture-based approach (Puzicha et al. 1997) uses Gabor
filtering to achieve image segmentation and subsequent
image retrieval. Manjunath and Ma (1996) use Gabor
filters to characterize texture as well, in conjunction with
a user interface that allows the analyst to delineate a portion of an image (containing some uniform texture) to
use as a query. There are also approaches which use color
or shape information only. Stricker and Orengo (1995)
attempt to improve the utility of color histogram measures for image indexing and retrieval by characterizing
objects with the dominant features of the color distribution instead of the entire color histogram. Folkers and
Samet (2002) use Fourier descriptors to approximate basic geometric shapes that, in some spatial arrangement,
can characterize objects in a logo database.
The Look Dynamics system is unique in that it is
an analog-based approach to a problem which has
traditionally been approached from a purely software
SECTION N+2
FULL IMAGE
SECTION N+1
Figure 1: Generation and storage of shape information
(Charles deGaulle International Airport, Paris)
SECTION N
Donna Haverkamp
Sr. Research Scientist
Laurie Gibson
Director of Research and
Product Development
1Klps
Space Imaging
Thornton, Colo.
www.spaceimaging.com
OPTICAL ENGINE
GENERIC SHAPES
SHAPE DATABASE
SPRING 2004
23
standpoint. The optical portion of the system can process 260
square kilometers in one second, a far greater speed than any software implementation.
To enable the searching of image databases by shape, Look
Dynamics has developed technology combining analog and
digital processing. This proprietary imagery has the potential to
rapidly extract, store and search for patterns from all types of
imagery. Look Dynamics’ new application has two components:
an optical engine that extracts patterns from images and a database in which the pattern information is stored.
Various approaches to indexing images by shape have been
proposed, but none have been sufficiently robust or fast to use in
real-world applications. While a system may be able to handle a
few thousand images, it will not scale to larger databases due to
the processing required. This limitation is inherent to the complexity of extracting shapes and patterns from
imagery. Algorithms implemented on digital
processors are simply not fast enough. The
Look Dynamics system uses an optical
engine to carry out the shape extraction and
encoding at optical speeds. This system does not
perform optical correlation, and it does not use the
optical engine for searching. Instead, the optical engine provides an encoding process that extracts
a characterization of the shape information
within an image. These characterizations,
or “fingerprints,” are then stored in a database that can be searched in software.
With the Look Dynamics system, an image is brought in only one time. Preprocessing
is performed on the image using a pair of Intel
computers, and it is loaded into a custom electronic board that drives the input spatial light modulator (SLM) and
controls system timing. The image is displayed on the SLM, and
the shapes are extracted optically as a whole (not pixel-by-pixel)
and detected on a photo-diode array. Another Intel computer takes
the output of the photo-diode array and converts it to the shape
fingerprint, which is stored in the database.
To “load” a satellite image into a Shape Feature Database, a full
image is divided into subsections (image clips) that can be fed to the
optical engine. These 512 x 512 pixel subsections are down-sampled
to the SLM’s 8-bit resolution, then contrast-stretched and edge-enhanced before formation on the SLM. Laser light reflected off the
SLM projects the image as collimated beams of light, which pass
through a lens and onto Look Dynamics’ proprietary silicon chip,
the Antilles. The Antilles chip breaks the image into Fourier components and reprojects them to an image sensor. Line segments “seen”
at the sensor are stored as shapes in the database. See also Figure 1.
For each image clip, the shape characterization, or fingerprint, is
extracted and stored in the database together with information about
the source image and section number. In the future, the database
should be able to contain shape-based characterizations of millions
of images, prebuilt and waiting to be searched. When a client formu-
lates a query, he can use an image or a (scanned) map or drawing.
The query can ask for images and locations within them that match,
contain, or are similar to the example. The system encodes the query
example by shape using the optical processor and then searches the
database for similar shapes. The query returns what it finds with a
score or confidence measure.
Encoding of the imagery as shapes that can be searched upon
and matched implies a number of applications for this technology.
Wide-area search, feature extraction (roads, buildings or any of a
number of natural or man-made objects), and change detection are
all current problems that this technology may help solve.
Efficient shape database search implies that this technology could
be used as a focus of attention for any of the aforementioned applications. Quickly narrowing in to areas likely to contain objects or
changes which need to be identified or found would be an extremely
effective prefilter. The kind of pixel-intensive
processing necessary for accurate object
identification or change detection is not
feasible over large amounts of image data.
The Look Dynamics technology could point
the more compute-intensive algorithms to areas
likely to contain content of interest. Using the optical processing technology in tandem with a suite of
software-based solutions tailored to individual applications could create a powerful hardwaresoftware hybrid technology for a number of
image-processing applications.
Space Imaging and Look Dynamics
have worked together to adapt this technology for satellite imagery. A performance
baseline has been established using a number
of IKONOS image clips. After an initial round
of investigation, areas for improvement were identified. Modifications of the system to incorporate these improvements and plans to
re-evaluate system performance are in progress. The full potential
of this technology and the opportunity to utilize it in conjunction
with IKONOS data for image processing applications will be realized in the future. «
The optical portion
of the system
can process
260 square
kilometers
in one second,
a far greater speed
than any software
implementation.
24
SPRING 2004
REFERENCES
Folkers, A., and H. Samet, “Content-Based Image Retrieval Using Fourier
Descriptors on a Logo Database,” 16th International Conference on Pattern Recognition, vol. 3, August 2002, pp. 30,521-30,524.
Manjunath, B. S., and W. Y. Ma, “Texture Features for Browsing and Retrieval of Image Data,” IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine
Intelligence, 18(8), August 1996, pp. 837-842.
Puzicha, J., T. Hofmann, and J. M. Buhmann, “Non-Parametric Similarity
Measures for Unsupervised Texture Segmentation and Image Retrieval,”
Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and
Pattern Recognition, San Juan, June 1997, pp. 267-272.
Stricker, M., and M. Orengo, “Similarity of Color Images,” SPIE Conference
on Storage and Retrieval for Image and Video Databases III, vol. 2420,
February 1995, pp. 381-392.
The transition
of digital earth
imagery, once
considered
simply data,
to a critical
element in
homeland security
Saddam Airport, Bagdhad
More than
imagery —
intelligence
Donn Walklet
CEO
Terra-Vista, Inc.
Lafayette, Calif.
www.terra-vista.com
The proverbial “eye in the sky”
has come a long way in 60 years, from the
earliest operational use of aerial photography
during World War II to the current use of satellites by the military, civil authorities, and
industry—for a wide range of applications.
Along the way, the world has become a
much more dangerous place, as tragically revealed in the 9/11 acts of terrorism and their
aftermath. The United States no longer faces
a predictable and definable threat from an
adversary like the Soviet Union. Its enemies
have disappeared into the shadows of “asymmetrical” warfare, reverting to seemingly unpredictable strikes at the country’s infrastructure and unprotected population centers.
Fortunately, over the last decade, new
technology has given us tools to combat terrorism by gathering intelligence in near realtime. The U.S. military has changed its mode
of procurement from a procedure known as
MILSPEC (military specifications) contracting—driven by a meticulous, time-consuming and costly process of custom crafting
hardware and software—to a method
known as COTS (commercial-off-theshelf), thereby exploiting the efficiencies of
hardware developed for the private sector.
This capability is being used today in
Iraq in the form of a command and control
system known as the Theatre Battle Management Core System or TB-MCS. TBSPRING 2004
25
MCS is a Web-based system for planning,
managing and executing the air war. Fifty
computer programs keep track of the latest
information on targets, weapons, fuelloads, weather and navigation. Combined
with manned surveillance aircraft like
JSTARS (Joint Surveillance Target Attack
Radar System) and unmanned UAV/RPV’s
like the Air Force’s Global Hawk, in addition to precision munitions like the GPSguided J-DAM, the military has completed
the transition towards “network-centric”
warfare, a faster way of sharing tactical
information and deploying offensive and
defensive forces.
The end result of this successful transition by the military is the availability of
Unlike other catastrophic events, these seemingly
uncontrollable disasters are completely preventable.
will provide an edge in defending the U.S.
from outside threats.
Domestically, the potential applications of this technology are numerous and
diverse. Practically every component of the
economy, from transportation to energy
production, is vulnerable. Thus surveillance of some kind is being applied as a
defensive layer in the security process. For
example, the Coast Guard is tasked with
protecting the inland waterways and ports
that are the lifeblood of international
commerce. The overhead perspective is the
ideal vantage point to monitor ship and
1
functional and affordable tools to process
the high volumes of geographic raw data
produced by airborne or satellite-based
sensors. Equally important is the parallel
development of broadband communication technology to move data anywhere
in the world in real-time, paired with
database capabilities permitting the
cataloging and organization of complex
geographic information. The customization of these technologies to serve a specific task, like homeland security, is the
final step in creating a capability which
26
SPRING 2004
barge traffic in real time, using existing
aerial and satellite imagery as a reference.
In the near future, ships and barges will
be required to have GPS equipment onboard capable of instantly communicating
via satellite their location and status. Combined with other sources of information,
such as proximity of pipelines and nuclear
power plants, along with the graphic display of Coast Guard resources, such as
patrol boats, the Coast Guard will have the
equivalent of the military TB-MCS command and control system. Ultimately, or-
ganizations like the Coast Guard, FBI, and
local law enforcement will have access to
real-time sources of imagery from airborne
platforms, with all data processed from its
rawest form and geographically oriented
into a useable form of intelligence that will
give decision makers exactly the information they need when they need it.
Figure 1 shows a computer display of a
possible Coast Guard surveillance scenario
along the Mississippi River in which barge
traffic containing dangerous cargo is being
tracked in real time.
In this context, digital earth imagery
from satellite and aircraft platforms is transitioning from an isolated source of information to one that is an integral part of a decision-making system in which the imagery
is an important, but not the only source of
intelligence. Imagery will frequently be the
reference layer, often replacing or supplementing the digital street map as a way
of determining the location of important
resources. Imagery becomes much more of a
critical layer in itself when it is created in real
time, processed and integrated with other
types of data, as a surveillance source of
intelligence—again, similar to the military’s
JSTARS and Global Hawk systems. It is
this visual intelligence showing the status
of a dynamically evolving situation that
demonstrates the use of imagery rising to its
greatest potential.
However, at this point, strategists
among the homeland defense constituencies need to think outside the box. As the
recent terrorist acts on the commuter rail
system in Spain have demonstrated, asymmetrical attacks may come where and
when you least expect them.
For example, imagery and associated
command and control systems may be configured to deal with one of modern society’s
most devastating disasters, wildland fires.
These disasters traditionally have been
ignited by natural forces such as lightning,
but now are frequently attributed to malicious arsonists or, not an unlikely threat,
to potential terrorists. Wildland fires are
among the most dynamic and destructive
of natural or manmade calamities. To date,
the process of dealing with wildfires has
been more reactive than proactive. In other
words, fires ignite, are often influenced by atmospheric conditions and winds, and spread
rapidly as time progresses, until countermeasures are applied.
Wildland fires parallel other types of
natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes, with one
important exception—unlike other catastrophic events, these seemingly uncontrollable disasters are completely preventable.
Many of these conflagrations, like the
2003 Southern California fires, could have
been contained if they had been identified
early and isolated using rapid response
tanker aircraft and helicopters—a scenario
that closely parallels the military aerial
command control capability embodied in
TB-MCS. Any fire fighter will readily acknowledge that time to respond to fires is
the key variable in their suppression.
Figure 2 shows an example of such a system in which fire bosses get the “big picture”
and rapidly respond to new threats in the field
with instantaneous access to intelligence.
Airborne sensors can detect early ignition
of a fire. In a tactical mode, the raw imagery
generated by these sensors is converted into
a digital photomap in near real time. That
information can then be combined with a
variety of other data, such as road networks,
location of known hazards, aerial tanker
attack plans, and real-time meteorology
overlays, to generate a complete intelligence
database. Fire bosses can direct operations in
the field in a manner that allows field crews
to receive only the information they require
when they need it.
There are many variations on this theme,
in which imagery generated, analyzed
and delivered in near real time can have a
dramatic impact in limiting or containing
the threat of terrorism. The availability
of technology at an affordable price is no
longer an issue. Institutional inertia may be
the greatest inhibitor to the adoption of this
technology, and this roadblock will disappear as government and the private sector
successfully demonstrate the benefits that
imagery, integrated into a command and
control system, can generate. «
Communications
satellite
Central data analysis/
command and control
center
Tanker aircraft
with heads-up display
depicting target data
2
GPS-enabled data reference subsystem
Aircract/UAV
thermal IR sensor
IP link
to PDA
IP link
to ground
tranceiver
Portable ground transceiver
On-site command, control
and targeting
GPS-enabled PDA
fire zone
SPRING 2004
27
An overwhelming increase
in the volume of commercial air traffic in
the last half of the twentieth century has
increased the demand on aircraft ground
taxiing (known as surface movements) at
the world’s airports. This change resulted
in a corresponding increase in the potential
for runway incursions, both by unauthorized
aircraft and by ground vehicles outside of
their operating locations. The problem created by the increase in volume culminated
in the most serious ground accident in the
history of aviation at Tenerife, in the Canary
Islands of Spain on March 27, 1977, when
two 747 airliners collided in the fog with
catastrophic loss of life.
Many international organizations such
as NASA, the Flight Safety Foundation,
and universities such as Stanford University and Ohio University have made significant strides toward the implementation
of enabling technology to reduce runway
incursions and to enhance the efficiency of
airport surface operations.
Early solutions included the implementation of Surface Movement Guidance and
Control Systems (SMGCS) at a number of
airports. An SMGCS has a number of lights
and sensors that control taxiing operations.
Subsequent follow-on work with multilateration radar technologies is in progress to enhance tools for air traffic control authorities
(known as Air Traffic Management or ATM)
to control airport surface movements.
However, display technology was also
needed to provide flight and, potentially,
ground vehicle crews with enhanced situational awareness, which required a moving
map of the airport. The primary goal is to
give pilots “synthetic” views of their positions on the airport, as if they could actually
see outside in clear daylight weather conditions. With the publication of a global GIS
standard known as DO-272, airports could
be consistently mapped in order to provide
that needed situational awareness.
Figure 1 is an example of such an airport
mapping database (AMDB), constructed
by Space Imaging’s Solutions organization.
28
SPRING 2004
One of the significant enabling technologies necessary to adopt the widespread use of
airport mapping is the ability to define and exchange position information. The recent
implementation of the GPS Wide-Area-Augmentation-System (WAAS) constellation
by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) greatly enabled geopositioning. Instead
of a location solution that was no better than 25-50 meters, the WAAS improved the
quality of raw GPS to 1-2 meters laterally, and 2-3 meters vertically.
These AMDBs would have multiple uses, including surface movement awareness
information for air traffic controllers, flight crews and ground vehicles. Other uses
include graphical depictions of future changes to support future trips and Homeland
Security surveillance and response needs. New GIS, satellite imagery and GPS technology have allowed airports to more effectively manage these needs.
Following the tragic events of 9/11, a stronger emphasis was placed upon the security
of air traffic, not just the safety of air traffic. Once steps were taken to better secure air
traffic in-flight (with reinforced cockpit doors, air marshals and improved screening), the
security of surface movements became more of a focus for improvement.
The airport “environment” is comprised of fixed and movable assets. The AMDB
will take care of mapping the fixed or permanent installations on the airport, both airside
(where the aircraft can actually taxi) and groundside (all areas of the airport not used for
aircraft taxiing). However, AMDB cannot track movable assets, which are principally
ground vehicles.
GIS mapping and automatic vehicle location (AVL) technology
FIGURE 1
Example of a GIS map
of San Francisco
International Airport
FIGURE 2
Example of
AVL with
authorized
areas for
baggage
carts and
fuel trucks
in yellow
By Dejan Damjanovic
Domain Manager,
Air & Marine
Transportation
Space Imaging
Thornton, Colo.
www.spaceimaging.com
Tracking ground vehicles for flight operations coordination is
the primary concern. Other requirements include tracking ground
vehicles for: (a) asset management purposes; (b) operational efficiency; (c) security surveillance; (d) flight operations emergency
response; (e) terrorist or security emergency operations.
At any given airport, it is likely that 10 to 20 times the number of ground vehicles exist as do aircraft. Since any truck can
potentially carry explosive or hazardous cargo, airport authorities need to find better ways of monitoring their locations.
AVL (automatic vehicle location) example: Baggage carts and
fuel trucks ought to stay on the “thatched aprons,” or yellow
taxiways. They should never be on the red runways (Figure 2).
Fortunately, the trucking industry worldwide has been using a technology known as automatic vehicle location or AVL
for much of the past several decades. The
principal components of an AVL system
include:
(a) GPS receiver and a wireless data
link in each remote vehicle;
(b) Master station, capable of receiving
all data link transmissions from the
remote vehicles;
(c) Capture software and data
logging, capable of replaying
portions or complete routes being
driven by the remote vehicles;
(d) Mapping and/or monitoring software to track the vehicles’ positions.
Initially, AVL required explicit polling
of the vehicles, as radio transmission speed
was limited. With the implementation of cellular analog and then digital transmissions,
those speeds increased by many orders of
magnitude.
With this increased bandwidth, it
has become feasible to monitor the exact
routes being used as well as the speed and
directions of the vehicles. This close monitoring allows the detection of unlawful
movements and triggers alarm conditions
SPRING 2004
29
when the vehicle strays significantly from a planned routing or location. Driver identification using a smart card or similar digital signature to attach a person to a vehicle
is a simple matter.
Much like air navigation, AVL supports progressive monitoring of a route from location
to location, including complete velocity and direction that can be refreshed to the second.
With the low driving speeds found in surface movements, it is fully feasible to use this type
of technology to report on the movement of ground vehicles on an airport, at any size
airport in the world.
Figure 3: AVL Behavior Example: Perimeter Security Vehicle should pass along the
black roadway along the shoreline at least once every two hours.
One of the significant advantages of AVL technology is the ability to observe or monitor
the behavior of the ground vehicles, not just the position. If we re-examine the table from the
FIGURE 3
AVL behavior
example
of route
for security
perimeter
vehicle
Has a vehicle gone from a state of transmission to silence?
Is the driver of this vehicle qualified
to operate the vehicle in restricted areas
(such as fuel farms, customs areas or hazardous material storage)?
FLIGHT OPERATIONS EMERGENCY RESPONSE
Can we identify the vehicles that are
trained to respond to this type of emergency?
Can we identify that those vehicles
are equipped with drivers trained in that
purpose?
Can we identify that all other vehicles
have left the area of the emergency?
Can we identify if any vehicles are impeding the response to the emergency?
T ERRORIS T OR S EC URI T Y
EMERGENC Y OPER AT ION S
Can we identify other vehicles from
external agencies needed to respond to
the threat (National Guard, Police, Fire
or TSA)?
Can we ensure that those vehicles not
responding to the threat are kept away
from the area of the threat?
previous paragraphs, we can assign some kind of behavior to each of those categories. This
would allow us to define when the actions of the vehicle are not consistent with the expected
behavior and thus need to trigger an alarm.
Following is a list of ground vehicle monitoring purposes and the relevant questions:
A S S E T M A N AGEMEN T PURP OS E S
Can we identify the location?
Can we identify the driver?
OPER AT ION A L EF FIC IENC Y
Has the driver of this vehicle surpassed his/her hours on the job?
Is the vehicle being operated during its known hours of operation?
Has a vehicle exceeded the speed for its chosen task?
Has the vehicle gone from a state of transmission to silence?
S EC URI T Y SURVEILL A NC E
Has a security vehicle driven along the entire fence/perimeter in the past period of time?
Has a vehicle gone outside the known area of operation for this type of vehicle?
Has a vehicle exceeded the speed for its chosen task?
30
SPRING 2004
In the increased level of security that
has become commonplace in the airports
of the world, several new geospatial
technologies have combined to assist
enhanced monitoring of ground vehicles.
Those technologies include:
(a) GIS databases of the airports,
AMDB. These support vector mapping of the airport at
positional accuracies down to 1
meter RMSE, when derived from
high-resolution satellite imagery.
(b) The Wide-Area-Augmentation-System implemented by the FAA, which
allows positioning vehicle and
aircraft on the above maps to within
1 – 2 meters.
(c) Widespread and economical
availability of wireless and cellular bandwidth.
(d) Automatic Vehicle Location
(AVL) technology that can
combine all of the above to enable strict monitoring of airport
ground vehicles. «
2004 events calendar
may
Honolulu
2–5
Airport GIS Conference & Exhibition
Hilton Back Bay
Boston, Mass.
www.airportnet.org/
3–5
IMAGIN Annual Conference
Holiday Inn South
Lansing, Mich.
www.imagin.org/
10 – 14
GEOMATICA 2004
Sede Palacio de las Convenciones
Havana, Cuba
www.informaticahabana.com/
12 – 14
GeoSpatial World 2004
Fontainebleau Hilton
Miami Beach, Fla.
www.geospatialworld.com/
23 – 28
ASPRS 2004 Annual Conference
Adam’s Mark Hotel
Denver, Colo.
www.asprs.org/denver2004/
index.html
23 – 27
Bentley International
User Conference
Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin
Orlando, Fla.
www.bentley.com/biuc/
24 – 27
Canadian Hydrographic Conference
(CHC 2004)
Ottawa Westin Hotel
Ottawa, Canada
www.chc2004.com/
25 – 27
24th EARSeL Symposium
New Strategies for
European Remote Sensing
Inter University Centre
Dubrovnik, Croatia
www.earsel.geosat.hr/
Ottowa
28 – 29
june
july
7–9
12 – 23
GISMAP 2004
Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort
Honolulu, Hawaii
www.higicc.org/gismap.asp
ISPRS 20th Congress
Convention and Exhibition Centre
Istanbul, Turkey
www.isprs2004-istanbul.com/
14 – 18
18 – 20
50th OpenGIS Technical
Committee Meetings
Southampton, U.K.
www.opengis.org/
Public Participation GIS Conference
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, Wis.
www.urisa.org/ppgis.htm
16 – 18
46th International Symposium
Electronics in Marine
Zadar, Croatia
www.vcl.fer.hr/elmar/2004/
20 – 23
97th Annual Canadian Institute of
Geomatics Conference
Westin Hotel
Ottawa, Canada
www.cig-acsg.ca/page.asp
Workshop: Remote Sensing of Land
Use and Land Cover
Inter University Centre
Dubrovnik, Croatia
www.earsel.geosat.hr/
SPRING 2004
31
THE WORLD’S GUIDE T O COMMERCIAL R EMO T E SENSING
Spring 2004
Vol. 19
No. 2
More than imagery … intelligence
Securing airports
Warfighter use of imagery
Geospatial technology
& world threats
12076 Grant Street
Thornton, CO 80241 USA
2
SPRING 2004
SPRING 2004
3

PDF - Imaging Notes

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