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

EnhancedView Could Take $50 Million Hit - Aviation Week

Aviation Week is reporting that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) may be forced to renegotiate the EnhanceView contract with GeoEye and DigitalGlobe due to an expected $50 Million cut to the agency's 2012 fiscal year budget with the prospect of more cuts in fiscal 2013. The original EnhancedView contract was $7.3 billion over 10 years and was signed in 2010. The contract was roughly split between the two commercial satellite providers. According to a source cited by Aviation Week:

“You’re going to have to find a way to probably restructure the current service-level agreements with both companies if they’re going to take $50 million out,” says one geospatial-intelligence industry official familiar with EnhancedView. “Any reduction in the budget on the service-level agreement means you’re changing the scope of the contract and you have to renegotiate.”

Last week we reported that NGA was going to procure less imagery in 2013 but that Pentagon investments in new spacecraft would continue.

IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society Sponsors “Data Fusion Contest”

From Fabio Pacifici, chair of the Data Fusion Technical Committee of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS), comes word that the organization is hosting the 2012 IEEE GRSS Data Fusion Contest.

Mr. Pacifici writes:

This year the Contest is designed to investigate the potential of multi-modal/multi-temporal fusion of very high spatial resolution imagery. Three data sets of three different types (optical, SAR, and LIDAR) over downtown San Francisco are made freely available by DigitalGlobe, Astrium Services, and USGS. They will include very high spatial resolution QuickBird, WorldView-2, TerraSAR-X, and LIDAR imagery. Optical and SAR data sets will be composed of a total of eight images from two acquisition times in 2007 and 2011.

To enter the contest, participants are required to submit a manuscript on a research topic of their own choosing. Papers should describe in detail the problem addressed, the method used, and the final result.

Deadline: May 1, 2012.

The winning teams will be eligible to win up to $800 and an open access publication on an IEEE GRSS Journal ($3,000 value). More than 500 users from universities and corporations across the globe have registered in just over a month.

More information is available at the contest website

Open Data on Malta Coming and other International GIS News

A plane will be scanning the island to build a three-dimensional map that will allow the planning authority to monitor environmental changes over the years.

The photographic map will carry information such as on air and water quality and noise levels. All data will be available online for free, explained Saviour Formosa, who is heading an EU-funded environment project being carried out by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.

I guess it's LiDAR + other sensors?

- Time of Malta

The Philippine government has made geo-hazard maps, which outline areas prone to natural disasters, publicly available in a bid to reduce vulnerability at community level. 

They are jpegs.

- IRIN Asia

February 1 is the cut-off for companies with onine mapping websites to have a license from the  State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping. Google has applied for one, but does not yet have approval. That suggests its ok to keep running as is, but can't launch anything "new."

- China Daily

Google is guilty of abusing its dominant position with Google Maps per a court in France. It was ordered to pay  €500,000 in damages and interest to the plaintiff and a €15,000 euro fine against Bottin Cartographes. The company, until it was put out of business, offered online maps.

- GPS Biz News

NGA to Procure Less Imagery but More Capacity, FBI RFI for LBS Intelligence

The U.S. Defense Department intends to reduce planned purchases of commercial satellite imagery in 2013 as part of a broader initiative aimed at reducing U.S. military expenditures by $259 billion over the next five years, according to a Pentagon planning document released Jan. 26.

However, the document says the Pentagon will continue to increase its commercial satellite imaging capacity, an indication that planned government-backed investments in new spacecraft will go forward. Commercial imagery was listed among several programs targeted for substantial reductions, the document said, specifying that purchases for imaging capacity that exceeds requirements will be affected.

I read that as NGA will buy less imagery, but will continue to fund EnhancedView. The info comes from a document previewing the 2013 defence budget requests shared in a press release on Jan 26.

- Space News

The FBI is looking for a "geospatial alert and analysis mapping application" that will allow its Strategic Information and Operations Center (SIOC) to "quickly vet, identify and geo-locate breaking events, incidents and emerging threats," according to the RFI.

- Information Technology