Commercial
satellite imagery is usually of a high enough resolution
to prove valuable to the military, but some of the equipment used to
display the information comes with handicaps, according to a U.S. Army warrant officer
specializing in the geospatial field who recently returned from Iraq.
U.S. Army Chief Warrant
Officer Jason Feser led a four-person team that was
deployed in Mosul, Iraq, from September 2004 to September 2005. The team's job was
to create map products incorporating geospatial and other intelligence
information.
That task proved
challenging because the data from disparate sources were stored in different formats.
Feser said. "We had to take all these voices and turn it into a choir," he said.
A map of Mosul, for example, would
feature not just the location of a mosque but also would include information on its leader and
his political persuasion, Feser said. A hospital's location would be imbedded
with data including the facility's treatment specialties and management contact information.
Geospatial intelligence
proved useful in unexpected ways, Feser said. When the Mosul military base's
dining hall was hit by a suicide bomber, killing 19 people,
the attacker's collaborators videotaped the incident and displayed
the footage on the Internet. Feser's team compared the video to geospatial data to determine
the location from which the videotape was shot. Forces used that
information to find the co-conspirators' hideout and capture
them, Feser said.
But
for all the benefits of using geospatial data,
there were challenges, Feser said. His biggest complaint was with the Force
21 Battle Command, Brigade-and-Below (FBCB2), a digital
system consisting of software and laptop-sized displays that was used to transmit and receive
geospatial data.
A major problem with the equipment,
Feser said, is its small screen and slow processor. It also can only handle
data that is formatted to National Geospatial-Intelligence
Agency specifications, he said.
According to Feser,
when displayed on the FBCB2, images captured at 1-meter resolution only appeared at 5-meter resolution.
"If I had one wish, I
would replace the FBCB2," Feser said. "We need to own the geospatial fight, and
it sets us back a number of years if we can't push the data to [the soldiers]."
Comments:
mfrederick@space.com
