The President's signing of the FY04 Defense Appropriation Budget will introduce the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), formerly the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA). This name change better describes the mission of this national-level intelligence and combat support organization-to provide timely, relevant, and accurate geospatial intelligence that supports national security.

Developing Partnerships

Geospatial Intelligence, the analysis and visual representation of security-related activities on the earth, blends imagery, imagery intelligence, and geospatial information to describe any object, natural or man-made, that can be observed and referenced to the earth. Geospatial Intelligence provides the "what" and "where" of objects and their surroundings. It enables us to know the past, capture the present, and assess the future by identifying and understanding trends and relationships.

Since September 11, 2001, NGA has increased its application of Geospatial Intelligence expertise, critical to our traditional foreign intelligence mission, to the domestic Homeland Defense and Security mission. NGA, USGS, and other federal geospatial data holders have developed partnerships to leverage the capabilities and expertise that each provides. Through these partnerships, NGA serves as the "broker" of domestic geospatial data for the Homeland Defense and Security community. As co-chairs of the Federal Geographic Data Committee and Homeland Security Working Group, the NGA and USGS are leaders in defining and disseminating geospatial data standards to ensure interoperability at the federal, state, and local levels. NGA's unique ability to fuse intelligence threat information with geospatial analytic expertise to develop flexible information solutions is critical to performing the Homeland Defense and Security mission effectively.

NGA has a long-standing role in Homeland Defense and Security. For example, for more than a decade, NGA has supported Lead Federal Agencies (LFA) during domestic natural disasters by supplying imagery-derived products to customers, like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). NGA also deploys analysts to provide on-scene analysis and operational planning support. NGA will continue to dedicate a team of analysts trained to support the unpredictable, immediate, and dynamic needs of the disaster response community.

LtGen (Ret) James R. Clapper became the Director of NIMA just two days after 9/11. He quickly and firmly directed that his agency provides maximum support to recovery efforts. General Clapper also established the Homeland Security Division within NIMA's Office of the Americas to provide a cadre of personnel dedicated to the Homeland Defense and Security mission on a full-time basis. This division has six principle business areas:

Each of these business areas collaborate and work hand-in-hand to integrate domestic and critical infrastructure data, conduct domestic threat analysis, support special security events, disaster preparation and response, transportation security, and homeland security/defense-related activities.

NGA support to LFAs, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for Special Security Events (SSE), serves as a good example of how the capabilities, data, and expertise of the Homeland Security Division come together to advance the Homeland Defense and Security mission. Using commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) products and vendor assistance, NGA has developed a Web-enabled operational support tool known as PALANTERRA. This tool, which supports "thin" and "thick" client usage, provides a Common Operational Picture (COP) via real-time data access in a virtual, analytical, and spatial environment. Through an easy-to-use Web interface, users access integrated, high fidelity urban and national-level critical infrastructure data.

PALANTERRA also affords customers the ability to customize the data to meet their unique needs and preferences. It allows on-site collection and integration of temporally sensitive spatial data to enhance real-time operations. In addition, this tool allows secure wireless data input from the field and supports the integration of multiple data types. These data types-text, geo-referenced motion video, digital still images, LIDAR, commercial imagery, terrain and elevation data-support the creation of fused products, perspective scenes, fly-throughs, and dynamic line-of-sight analyses.

The coordinated procurement of data by NGA and USGS has saved taxpayers over more than $20 million dollars in less than two years. Though licensing agreements restrict the public distribution of commodity data, it is available to all federal agencies, including the military, and to state and local responders for security and disaster-related events. Commercial imagery procured by NGA's partner agency, the USGS, is hosted on The National Map and is available for use in the public domain.

The Homeland Security Infrastructure Program (HSIP) is the outcome of a joint effort between NGA, USGS, and the FGDC to develop minimum essential data sets to conduct their missions in support of homeland defense and security. HSIP uses the USGS's National Map as its foundation. NGA is enhancing this foundation by adding additional domestic geospatial information containing critical infrastructure data. Critical infrastructure data are made up of other nationwide layers, high-density urban data, data along the nation's land and maritime borders, and mission-specific data. The Nunn-Lugar-Domenici 133 priority cities identified for data densification defines the urban portion of the HSIP database. HSIP provides a common frame of reference for critical infrastructure vulnerability analysis, situational awareness, and domestic crisis consequence management. A multi-year program, HSIP has the goal to maintain the currency of imagery, most of which is one-foot color ortho-rectified at three years or less. The ability to achieve this goal depends on available funding.

At the request of the FBI, NGA provides geospatial intelligence data and analysis to enhance situational awareness and assess security vulnerabilities. NGA deploys teams to federal command posts to provide real-time situational awareness and common operational picture, high-fidelity tactical threat analysis, Web-enabled services, counter-terrorism analysis, and enhanced crisis management. NGA has supported numerous Special Security Events, such as the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, NFL Super Bowls, National Governors Association Conferences, Fourth of July celebrations, and Fleet Week/National Air and Sea Shows. Looking ahead, NGA, at the request of the FBI, is already planning support for upcoming events like the 2004 Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

Key Mission

A key NGA mission is to provide support to disaster response and recovery efforts to provide immediate assessments regarding the extent and scope of damage caused by natural and man-made disasters. FEMA's Federal Response Plan recognizes NGA as the Executive Agent for Geospatial Intelligence. In this role, NGA has supported responses to fires, hurricanes, floods, tornados, and the Shuttle disaster.

NGA also actively supports critical infrastructure analysis and border protection initiatives. NGA provides visualization of critical nationwide infrastructure data including roads and bridges, the railroad network, oil refineries and pipelines, waterways, seaports, airports, and other vector layers. The agency's support to the Cross-Border Initiative is helping the Immigration and Naturalization Service monitor remote, illegal entry points along U.S. borders.

From a system architecture perspective, much of what NGA has accomplished over the last year focused internally to establish the groundwork to support the agency's customers. As announced at the recent GEOINT Conference, an exciting new effort to address a national GIS enterprise architecture has begun. The principle members of this much-needed effort are DHS and USNORTHCOM as the primary customers and NGA and USGS as the major geospatial data providers.

In conclusion, NGA brings its geospatial intelligence capabilities to bear by providing situational awareness, vulnerability assessments, and disaster response and recovery analysis to its military and civil Homeland Security customers. NGA further supports the Homeland Security and Defense missions by partnering with USGS and other federal government agencies to build an integrated database of imagery, elevation, and critical infrastructure data over the United States and its borders.