Geographic information systems (GIS) play a constantly evolving role in geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) and United States national security. These technologies allow a user to efficiently manage, analyze, and produce geospatial data, to combine GEOINT with other forms of intelligence collection, and to perform highly developed analysis and visual production of geospatial data. Therefore, GIS produces up-to-date and more reliable GEOINT to reduce uncertainty for a decisionmaker. Since GIS programs are Web-enabled, a user can constantly work with a decision maker to solve their GEOINT and national security related problems from anywhere in the world. There are many types of GIS software used in GEOINT and national security, such as Google Earth, ERDAS IMAGINE, GeoNetwork opensource, and Esri ArcGIS.
Background
Geographic information systems (GIS)
A GIS is a system that incorporates software, hardware, and data for collecting, managing, analyzing, and portraying geographically referenced information. It allows the user to view, understand, manipulate, and visualize data to reveal relationships and patterns that solve problems. The user can then present the data in easily understood and disseminated forms, such as maps, reports, or charts. A user can enter different kinds of data in map form into a GIS to begin their analysis, such as United States Geological Survey (USGS) digital line graph data, contour lines, elevation maps, topographic maps, geological maps, and satellite imagery. A user can also convert digital information into forms that a GIS can identify and utilize, such as census tabular data or Microsoft Excel files. Users can easily capture digital data in a GIS. If the data is not digital, then users will need to employ various techniques to capture the data, such as digitizing maps by hand-tracing with a computer mouse, utilizing a digitizing tablet to collect feature coordinates, using electronic scanners, or uploading Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates. GIS applies to the geographical facets of various aspects of everyday life, such as transportation, logistics, medicine, marketing, sociology, ecology, pure and applied sciences, emergency management, and criminology. GIS is also utilized in all three areas of intelligence: national security intelligence, law enforcement intelligence, and competitive intelligence
Geospatial intelligence (GEOINT)
GEOINT, known previously as imagery intelligence (IMINT), is an intelligence collection discipline that applies to national security intelligence, law enforcement intelligence, and competitive intelligence. For example, an analyst can use GEOINT to identify the route of least resistance for a military force in a hostile country, to discover a pattern in the locations of reported burglaries in a neighborhood, or to generate a map and comparison of failing businesses that a company is likely to purchase. GEOINT is also the geospatial product of a process that is focused externally, designed to reduce the level of uncertainty for a decisionmaker, and that uses information derived from all sources. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), who has overall responsibility for GEOINT in the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC), defines GEOINT as "information about any object—natural or man-made—that can be observed or referenced to the Earth, and has national security implications." Some of the sources of collected imagery information for GEOINT are imagery satellites, cameras on airplanes, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and drones, handheld cameras, maps, or GPS coordinates. Recently the NGA and IC have increased the use of commercial satellite imagery for intelligence support, such as the use of the IKONOS, Landsat, or SPOT satellites. These sources produce digital imagery via electro-optical systems, radar, infrared, visible light, multispectral, or hyperspectral imageries. The advantages of GEOINT are that imagery is easily consumable and understood by a decisionmaker, has low human life risk, displays the capabilities of a target and its geographical relationship to other objects, and that analysts can use imagery world-wide in a short time. On the other hand, the disadvantages of GEOINT are that imagery is only a snapshot of a moment in time, can be too compelling and lead to ill-informed decisions that ignore other intelligence, is static and vulnerable to deception and decoys, does not depict the intentions of a target, and is expensive and subject to environmental problems.
GIS use in GEOINT and national security intelligence
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