NGA Staffer Who Enabled Bin Laden Capture Receives Bonus

A staffer from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) was fetted with monetary bonuses for his work on the imagery analysis that led to the capture of Osama Bin Laden. Per Senior Executives Association spokeswoman Carol Bonosaro, who speaks on behalf of senior government officials:

That [work] enabled us to pinpoint, find, and conduct the raid on Osama bin Laden, which is rather amazing. I think it's unfortunate that the American people don't know what they do.

ESL Students Learn and Teach GPS and other Education GIS News

Teaching high school stduents and elementary students about GPS and having them use it to make maps is not a new idea. What is new in Urbana, IL is that the older students are teaching the younger ones. And, both groups are English as a second language students and the teaching and learning is occurring in English. My head spins considering how much learning could be going on in these hands on sessions.

- News Gazette

West Potomac High School students from Frances Coffey’s Advanced Placement Human Geography class were treated to a visit from Cathi Hoefler and Steven Keating from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency recently. Hoefler and Keating discussed the importance of using data to better predict and respond to natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the 2011 earthquake off the coast of Japan and tsunami.

- Connection Newspapers

California State University, Fresno's Division of Continuing and Global Education has just announced a new online certificate program focusing on Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a field that uses digital technology to manage, map, analyze and display spatial information.

Classes in the 12 credit sequence begin in August. It's Esri-based (included in tuition).

- press release

Director on Value of GIS and Social Media and other NGA News

Wilson's Creek National Battlefield [MO] is commemorating its 150th anniversary this year - but defense officials say the civil war battleground offers timeless lessons in geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) -lessons that can be applied today. ...[NGA] Agents spend three days at the battlefield and almost like a Monday morning quarterback - they ask how things would be different if armies then had this kind of technology.

- KSPR

Dr. Charlette "Cookie" Watkins, a Director at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, spoke to Defence IQ about the power of GIS and social media.

The idea of using social networks of geospatial enthusiasts to assess large areas of the earth for academic reasons has huge potential in the future. The recent example that comes to mind is the National Geographic sponsored event to find Genghis Khan's tomb using commercial satellite imagery and an army of geospatial volunteers on the internet. They had a virtual workforce that could be quickly trained to look for and identify simple clues that more experienced analysts could take a deeper look at. This is only a glimpse of the power of the social environment of the internet.

- DefenceIQ

Currently, two [NGA] Geospatial Analysts from Stuttgart, Germany are mapping out the terrain for African Lion 2012 in southern Morocco. AL-12 is a bi-lateral exercise between U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Africa, the Utah National Guard, and the Kingdom of Morocco. It's the 8th annual African Lion exercise in the country.

The 10-day exercise includes ground, amphibious and aerial training for approximately 800 Marines, 400 Army Reservists and 900 Moroccan military. It’s spread across four geographically varied locations, to include flat deserts, vast mountain ranges, and miles and miles of coastline.

- http://www.dvidshub.net/news/86809/national-geospatial-intelligence-agency-mapping-africa-one-country-time">DVIDS Hub

FOSS4GNA 2012 Day One Plenary: Recapping Roots and NGA Rhythms

The opening plenary of Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial North America (FOSS4GNA) was essentially a review for any of the 360 people in attendance already familiar with the topic.

Continue reading...

DHS to Re-solicit Remote Sensing for Homeland Security Procurement and other Federal Gov GIS News

In reference to the subject solicitation for Remote Sensing services, the Office of Procurement Operations, Enterprise Acquisitions Division (OPO/EAD) intends to cancel the procurement and re-solicit... 

It's not 100% clear why, but maybe the documents were just confusion. The cancellation notice goes on:

As a result of the response from industry, the Geospatial Management Office and the OPO/EAD will be streamlining the evaluation criteria in order to clarify for the vendors the basis on which their proposals will be evaluated.

- notice via @MAPPSorg

It's been a few years since the news of a new NGA HQ began. Another big milestone occured last week: the master plan was approved.

The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) approved the final plan for a redeveloped intelligence community campus in Bethesda, Md., last week.

The 39-acre campus and former home of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency will support 3,000 employees and be run by the Defense Intelligence Agency, according to the Army Corps of Engineers, which is developing the site. Construction should be finished by the end of 2013.

- Federal Times

The NGA released some imagery from the GAMBIT and HEXAGON satellites. The birds and their details were release last fall, but a few images became available in January. Sadly, they are not available for analysis.

The GAMBIT and HEXAGON satellites were formally declassified last September on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the National Reconnaissance Office.  At that time, the NRO released voluminous documentation on the development of those satellites.  But the associated imagery, which is held by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, was not released.  Now a small number of satellite images have been made public.

However, the newly disclosed images are not originals, but are embedded in “posters” published by the NRO.  As such, they do not lend themselves to detailed analysis, complained Charles P. Vick of GlobalSecurity.org.  Nor are the original negatives of the declassified photos available for public inspection.

- Secrecy News

• AGRICULTURE. Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Matz has been hired by the National Geospatial Coalition to “consult and advocate regarding funding and use of geospatial imaging in federal agriculture programs,” according to lobbying disclosure records. Former Rep. Charlie Stenholm (D-Texas) is lobbying for the coalition.

Olsson, etc. is not a person but a law firm. And, the organization is not the National Geospatial Coalition (no such thing so far as I could find) but rather the Agriculture Geospatial Coalition, LLC, which I wrote about in 2009 (APB coverage).

- The Hill