-------- Original Message --------
Subject: NYTimes.com Article: Military Technology: 3-D Maps From
Commercial Satellites Guide G.I.'s in Iraq's Deadliest Urban Mazes
Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 15:25:56 -0500 (EST)
From: [log in to unmask]
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
------------------
The article below from NYTimes.com
has been sent to you by [log in to unmask]
/--------- E-mail Sponsored by Fox Searchlight ------------\
SIDEWAYS - NOW PLAYING IN SELECT CITIES
An official selection of the New York Film Festival and the
Toronto International Film Festival, SIDEWAYS is the new
comedy from Alexander Payne, director of ELECTION and ABOUT
SCHMIDT. Starring Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church,
Sandra Oh and Virginia Madsen. Watch the trailer at:
http://www.foxsearchlight.com/sideways/index_nyt.html
\----------------------------------------------------------/
Military Technology: 3-D Maps From Commercial Satellites Guide G.I.'s in
Iraq's Deadliest Urban Mazes
November 26, 2004
By ERIC LIPTON
WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 - The Army commanders in Iraq knew
roughly where they wanted to position their men in Mosul,
but first they had a few questions for Chief Warrant
Officer Jason Feser. What alleys might turn into ambush
routes? Were there any nearby minarets that could serve as
sniper lairs? Where would he place troops to avoid possible
friendly crossfire?
Taking soldiers into any urban environment is hazardous.
But the Army has been using a new tool before going into
Iraq's restive cities, like Mosul and Falluja, that helps
officers answer critical questions and make their missions
somewhat less unpredictable.
The new weapon is called the Urban Tactical Planner, which
combines advanced computer software tools with
high-resolution imagery that is beamed down to earth from a
new generation of commercial satellites. Mr. Feser was able
to provide commanders with a three-dimensional virtual tour
of a mazelike section of Mosul before the first troops from
the First Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, and the Iraqi
National Guard began capturing insurgents last month.
Not only did the commanders simulate flying overhead to
practice air or ground approach routes, but by zooming down
they also saw buildings and streets and spots where
soldiers could assemble with some protection from sniper
fire. The images are not clear enough to make out people.
But schools, mosques and other important buildings were
highlighted. Even ditches or other barriers that might slow
down an approach were marked.
The Urban Tactical Planner is just one of a number of
military and intelligence tools that use high-resolution
commercial imagery. From relief efforts in Sudan, to
mission planning for Air Force flights and Navy ship
movements across the world, space-based imagery by private
companies is now playing an essential role.
"It is the encyclopedia for minutia of Mosul," Mr. Feser
said in a telephone interview from Iraq, after he used the
imaging system to help his brigade prepare for its mission
in Mosul. "Before what we had was a map with markers and
acetate. It was like being a kindergartner with fat
crayons."
Three high-resolution commercial satellites are now
circling the earth, in orbits that range from 280 miles to
400 miles from the ground. The federal government has just
committed $1 billion to help two private companies launch
two more satellites by 2007, to replace the current ones
after their six- or seven-year life span ends.
Watching earth from space is nothing new. Since 1959,
satellite photographs have been central to American
military and intelligence operations, from monitoring
Soviet missile sites to the claims - ultimately unproved -
about unconventional weapons in Iraq. But during most of
this history, the end product has been isolated overhead
shots called "happy snaps," not computerized image mosaics
found in the programs like the Urban Tactical Planner.
The unclassified source of the photographs is also
critical, because the commercial images can be shared not
only with United States partners - troops from the Iraqi
National Guard or aid groups - but also with United States
Army soldiers who often do not have security clearance. An
image from a government spy satellite can be declassified,
but the process is time-consuming. Even Iraqi war prisoners
were shown some commercial images last year in an effort to
locate hidden weapons.
"It allows you a level of detail and exactness that you are
not going to get with any map," said Sgt. First Class Randy
Arndt, who used the images during interrogations of Iraqi
detainees.
As with any new technology, there have been more than a few
serious setbacks. Four of the first high-resolution
satellites built by private companies between 1997 and 2001
dropped into the ocean or burned up in the atmosphere
because of launch failures.
For many potential clients in the United States - farmers,
tax assessors or utilities, for example - aerial photos
from low-flying airplanes still offer a better quality
image. They also generally deliver pictures more quickly.
The average turnaround time for a custom order by a
commercial satellite is 4 to 10 days. But it often can take
weeks, particularly if it is persistently cloudy in the
target area. Small planes, meanwhile, can fly below the
clouds and take much more detailed pictures.
The command center for the federal government's imaging
effort is a sprawling, nearly windowless office complex
outside Washington, the headquarters of the National
Geospatial Intelligence Agency.
It traces its roots to 1803, when President Thomas
Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark on an Army mission to map
the just-purchased Louisiana Territory. The agency, a
division of the Department of Defense, does not own any
satellites. It is instead the primary government consumer
of images collected by commercial satellites, as well as
the National Reconnaissance Office, the supersecretive
federal agency that builds and launches spy satellites.
Geospatial Intelligence - GeoInt to insiders - involves
taking individual images and adding multiple layers of
data, including information from a super detailed
interpretation of the picture, a traditional topographic
map, weather reports, spies or soldiers in the field or
intercepts of telephone calls or e-mail messages.
The commercial satellites now in orbit have about a
two-foot resolution, meaning a black and white object two
feet wide turns up as a single pixel. A card table covered
with a white tablecloth would appear as a tiny dot; only
when an object reaches the size of car - about three pixels
- can viewers distinguish what it is. That is an enormous
step forward from the first civilian satellite, launched in
1972, which had a resolution of about 260 feet. It is still
not as sharp-eyed as the best spy satellites, believed to
have a resolution of about six inches, according to Jeffrey
T. Richelson, author of several books on intelligence.
But the images are still very useful. Early this year, for
example, the State Department asked the geospatial agency
to assess the extent of the ethnic violence in the Darfur
region of western Sudan. Claims had already been made about
the burning of more than two dozen villages. But the United
States government wanted documentary proof. The images
would not be of much use if they were classified, as the
goal was to share this documentation with the world.
So on April 30, agency analysts ordered new images from
Digital Globe, owner of one satellite, asking for scans
within a 36,000 square mile region. It quickly turned up
evidence of the violence: 129 of the 133 structures in one
village had been destroyed, while 180 of the 240 structures
in a second village were gone. In all, 2,351 destroyed
dwellings were identified in the photographs, which were
posted on a federal government Internet site. The agency
also used satellite images to examine refugee camp
locations and help determine safe locations to drop food,
said Paul Rabatin, who worked on the project.
Other government agencies are also relying on satellite
images -particularly in operations outside the United
States and Europe, where it is harder to find plane-based
cameras. The demand has been strongest from the military,
which has had trouble getting its own next generation of
spy satellites into space.
The Air Force, for example, now considers digital images
taken by private satellites to be an essential part of a
computerized mission-planning system that is gradually
replacing traditional paper-map rooms.
As with the Army's Urban Tactical Planner, the Air Force
system, called Falcon View, superimposes data on the
digital images. It provides information that pilots need,
like details about no-strike zones, broadcast tower
heights, airport locations, runway lengths or possible
surface-to-air missile locations. The system runs on a
laptop computer but is downloaded onto a cartridge that is
part of the pilot's avionics system.
When the pilot is flying at high altitude, Falcon View acts
like a map of the nation's interstate highways, showing the
journey with lower resolution photographs or maps that
portray swaths of the earth. But as the pilot approaches
the ground - and the target - the image resolution
seamlessly increases, until it is possible to clearly see
individual buildings and streets.
"A planning process that would have taken hours before can
now be done in minutes," said Maj. Paul Hastert, a C-130
pilot who helps distribute Falcon View, which was developed
by the Georgia Institute of Technology. Moving the vast
amount of data in the imaging systems to locations around
the world has been perhaps the most difficult challenge.
During the conflict in Afghanistan in late 2001 and 2002,
the Air Force used the United States mail to send cartons
filled with CD's to pilots. The Air Force Combat Support
Office set up what it called the Pony Express, delivering
the CD's in person. Delays in creating and distributing the
maps resulted in many missions being flown without
up-to-date information, Air Force officials acknowledge.
Army officials cite similar difficulties. A brigade combat
team in Iraq took 18 hours to move from Baquba to Najaf
instead of the typical six hours, because maps had not been
updated to reflect that a bridge had been knocked out, said
Robert W. Burkhardt, director of the Army Corps office that
is building the Urban Tactical Planner.
The Air Force has tried to speed the movement of the images
from space to users by setting up its own network of
portable ground stations that can download satellite
images. The Army, Air Force and Geospatial Agency are
buying portable computer hard drives with superhigh
capacity so they can deliver updated images in one piece,
instead of in dozens, even hundreds of CD's.
Even with these improvements, the Air Force system still is
not updated as often as commanders would like, said James
G. Clark, who runs the Air Force Combat Support Office.
More images are now being collected than the military can
rapidly put to use.
"Data in Bethesda does you no good if you are in
Afghanistan," Mr. Clark said, referring to the Geospatial
Agency's headquarters. "We are trying to learn from our
mistakes."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/26/international/middleeast/26satellite.html?ex=1102587156&ei=1&en=5c459a607331440f
---------------------------------
Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine
reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like!
Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy
now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here:
http://homedelivery.nytimes.com/HDS/SubscriptionT1.do?mode=SubscriptionT1&ExternalMediaCode=W24AF
HOW TO ADVERTISE
---------------------------------
For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters
or other creative advertising opportunities with The
New York Times on the Web, please contact
[log in to unmask] or visit our online media
kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo
For general information about NYTimes.com, write to
[log in to unmask]
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
|
