MAPS, JETS, AND CHATS

- From com­mer­i­cal satel­lite pic­tures, the Army is putting together 3D maps of Mosul and Fallujah.
– Out of a 737 pas­sen­ger jet, Boeing is mak­ing an anti-​​sub spy­plane.
– In online chat rooms, the CIA and the National Science Foundation are hop­ing to catch ter­ror­ists schem­ing.
THERE’S MORE: With a pro­gram called FalconView, the Air Force has been cook­ing up satellite-​​generated 3-​​D maps since 1995 in Bosnia, notes Defense Tech pal CA.

“One of the best things about FV is not just that you can place items on imagery, but that you can ‘drape’ that imagery over 3-​​D Digital Terrain Elevation Data. This is what enables the hi-​​fidelity fly-​​throughs [of the area]. More cum­ber­some tech­nol­ogy, using [gov­ern­ment] imagery, has been around for years. But time and progress now allows it to get to the field…
Hi-​​fidelity imagery is not only a boon to the troops, but also to the intel­li­gence com­mu­nity. Now lower-​​priority, lower-​​fidelity require­ments (like low-​​resolution maps, envi­ron­men­tal stud­ies) can be [han­dled by] com­mer­cial [satel­lites], and not take up valu­able “national” resources as they have always done. The main draw­back to com­mer­cial is lack of assets (though improv­ing), and lack of time­li­ness. But the capa­bil­ity is great if you want to, say, get mid-​​res city graph­ics of major Iranian cities, or pro­duce mid-​​res famil­iar­iza­tion prod­ucts of Iranian nuclear/​missile facilities. 

November 26th, 2004 | Uncategorized | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.