ENHANCING SITUATIONAL AWARENESSWITH REMOTE SENSING TECHNOLOGIES
Industry Perspective
Advances in Data Management, Analytics and Machine
Learning Are Improving Defense and Intelligence

TURN GEOSPATIAL IMAGERY AND DATA INTO
ACCURATE, ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE
Remote surveillance of the battlefield dates at least to Napoleon’s time when hot air balloons were flown
overhead to gain a better understanding of the terrain and the position of enemy troops. Today we call this Situational
Awareness, and the applications are not limited to active war zones. Balloons have given way toaircraft, drones and satellites, and the onboard spotter taking notes has been replaced with sophisticatedsensors and Artificial Intelligence-based data processing.

Remote sensing technologies havechanged the way wars are waged
and nations are defended. Natural andmanmade topography worldwide has
been mapped to submeter accuracy, andnearly every spot on the Earth’s surface
can be observed safely and unobtrusively
from a platform thousands of feet orhundreds of miles above. Few objects canremain hidden for long, whether cloakedby camouflage or darkness.
Even a great military mind like Napoleon
probably never dreamed of a day when too
much data relating to field conditions or
troop deployments would be considered
a problem. Yet here we are. Defense& Intelligence (D&I) analysts – the tipof the spear when it comes to militarysituational awareness – face a challenge
unprecedented in world history. Numerous
varieties of complex data are coming infaster and in larger volumes thanever before.

This abundance of data is being driven
by a rapidly increasing number of remotesensing platforms combined with dramaticadvancements in sensor technologies.
“Data collection is no longer a major
challenge for the D&I community,” said Jeff
Hildebrandt, D&I Industry Principal, NV5
Geospatial, a provider of software andservices for the analysis and visualizationof remotely sensed data. “The problemfor the analyst is sifting through the hugevolumes of incoming data, finding theright data sets and extracting meaningful
information from them.”
These remote sensing data management
and information extraction issues are
faced by geospatial end users in theprivate sector as well. The problem,
however, is even more acute for the U.S.
D&I community because they typicallyhave access to both commercial andmilitary data collection assets, multiplying
their challenges.

Fortunately, solutions exist today tostreamline the archiving, querying
and retrieval of geospatial data so it
can be disseminated to analysts andwarfighters regardless of their location.
Just as importantly, software automation
supported by Artificial Intelligence has put
complex image processing and analysis
capabilities within reach of
every D&I analyst, allowing the first-passreview of raw data streams in somecases to be performed by machineand freeing the analyst to make critical finalassessments.

MORE PLATFORMS, MORE SENSORS, MORE COMING
For the typical geospatial professional, this may be considered a Golden Age of remote sensing. The availability of
remotely sensed data has never been greater than it is today thanks to dramatic technological advances in sensors
and the platforms that carry them. Two specific factors driving this phenomenon for both the government andcommercial sectors are the proliferation of smallsats and unmanned aerial systems (UASs or drones).
In the small-sat era, entire small satellite constellations can be built and launched for less than the cost of a single legacy platform like Landsatand SPOT. The upshot is that several small satellites can be configured in orbit to capture repeat data over a given point on Earth at a rate of atleast once per day. Closer to the ground, large military drones like the Predator have been deployed for well over a decade, but the low cost ofsmaller UAVs with surprisingly robust sensors has put these data capture devices in almost everyone’s hands, making an enormous volumeof high-resolution image data and full motion video (FMV) available.
Specific to the warfighter and mission planner, two other remote sensing advancements areemerging rapidly, and they will play increasingly important roles moving forward in
the D&I space.
H Y PERSPECTR AL SENSORSThe earliest Landsat satellites captured data in multiple bands of the electromagnetic
spectrum, including the visible and near-infrared. Up to eight discrete bands are now
collected by most ‘multispectral’ sensors. Led by airborne research sensors,‘hyperspectral’ imaging is gaining traction with its dozens of individual spectra. NOAAand Indian Space Organization have hyperspectral satellites under development, and theNational Reconnaissance Office (NRO) was reported in late 2019 to commit funding fora spaceborne hyperspectral platform called HySpecIQ. These hyperspectral sensors will
give data analysts next-generation insights into features on the ground.
SY NTHE TIC APERTU RE R ADAR
Unlike passive optical sensors that can only operate in daylight, synthetic aperture radar(SAR) systems are active sensors, which provide their own energy source, allowing themto collect data day or night, through clouds and in most weather conditions. The active
sensors generate their own waves and collect the reflected and refracted response togather unique information such as details of the composition, shape, configuration andother characteristics of surface features. Different SAR bands can receive returns on
specific objects, with some even able to penetrate jungle foliage to see what is beneath.
For decades, the power sources required to operate these systems limited SAR systems
to use in large satellites or aircraft. However, recent breakthroughs have put SAR sensors
in small satellites – most notably, Finland’s ICEYE – and in smaller aircraft.
Complementing improvements in data collection are equally critical breakthroughs in dataprocessing and exploitation driven by advances in computer power, automation of image
processing algorithms, and integration of Artificial Intelligence into workflows.

MANAGING DATA WITH JAGWIRE™
According to the C4ISRNET military journal, better geospatial data management isamong the top six concerns of the U.S. Intelligence Community. In this context, the datamanagement challenge includes multiple issues – archiving, querying and dissemination.
NV5 offers Jagwire™, a battle-tested
web-based software product providing anend-to-end geospatial data management
solution and delivering near real-timesearch and discovery, image exploitationand information dissemination to thetactical edge. Jagwire is capable ofingesting enormous volumes of incoming
geospatial data, including live video feeds,
satellite imagery, LiDAR point clouds, andGIS vector layers. All an end user needs toquery and filter the data is web access on acomputer, tablet or handheld device. No app
or software is needed.
Regardless of data format, Jagwire handles
the incoming data and then uses variablerate transcoding on the fly to satisfy thebandwidth and viewing capabilities of theend user device. Jagwire instantly federates
the data, making it available to all users assoon as the data sets are in the system.
It can also operate in broadcast mode totransmit select data – such as drone video
feeds – in near-real-time to specific endusers.

“The bottom line is that commanders want to get understandablegeospatial information into the hands of people who can use it as
quickly as possible.”— Todd Gerecke, Product Manager, NV5 Geospatial
Jagwire is designed to deliver imagery and other geospatial files so they are
understandable to personnel with no GIS or image processing background. However, NV5
is currently working on building web-accessible widgets that will allow some end users theability to perform basic manipulation of the data sets via the interface. For sophisticatedanalysts, Jagwire fits seamlessly into a workflow to stream raw data directly into the ENVI®
geospatial analysis software where advanced enhancement, manipulation and information
extraction can be performed.

AUTOMATING INFORMATION EXTRACTION
Data management is critical, but it is only the first step in dealing with the tsunami of incoming geospatial data.
The next step is extracting meaningful information from the wide variety of complex data sets now available.
NV5 anticipated the approaching data tidal wave and developed an information extraction
solution in the form of its commercially available ENVI software. Once a standard image
processing package, ENVI has been enhanced and expanded to become a robust
geospatial data analysis software that allows anyone with minimal training to extract
meaningful information from all types of imagery – multispectral, hyperspectral, thermal,
LIDAR and SAR.
ENVI is a baseline, commercial off-theshelf software application used extensively
by the D&I community and found on mostanalysts’ machines.
“ENVI users don’t have to be remotesensing scientists or big data analysis
experts to derive meaningful informationfrom raw data sets,” said Jeff Hildebrandt.

NV5 has written simplified
instructions on how to use
ENVI and its most popularfeatures. These ‘Pocket
Guides’ are available in PDF
format for download on theNV5 Geospatial Software
website.

Leveraging decades of building geospatial
solutions for the D&I community, NV5
has developed science-based image
analysis algorithms and integrated theminto automated workflows in ENVI. This
enables users to derive answers to themost complicated geospatial queries fromenormous data sets with a few clicks ofthe mouse. Moreover, the ENVI software
gives more experienced users the meansto create algorithms and build customized
automated analysis processes of theirown.
In addition, ENVI is easily extendable
via its scripting language, IDL®. This
enables ENVI users to create customizedalgorithms, workflows and analytics thatsuit their needs.

To facilitate common image analysis
applications and requirements, NV5 hasbundled complex workflows into morethan 200 automated modules or tools(often called ‘Tasks’). These span many
functional areas including georeferencing,
calibration, spectral analysis,morphological filters, classification,
object detection, terrain modeling, point
cloud analysis, SAR analysis, time series
operations, machine learning /deeplearning and many more.
The most popular of these automatedtools is the Feature Extraction Module(ENVI FX), which puts the power of thecomputer to work identifying features
based on their spatial, spectral and texturalcharacteristics. In addition to identifying
features, two or more images acquired
over the same area on different dates canbe loaded into ENVI FX, and with the pushof a few buttons, the software identifies
change that has occurred over time. Thechange can be natural or manmade. It
should be noted the ENVI FX Module
works equally well with LiDAR point clouds,
extracting trees, trees, buildings, powerlines and more from the 3D data.

SIMPLIFYING INFORMATION EXTRACTION FROM
RADAR AND HYPERSPECTRAL
As noted at the outset, data sets are becoming more complex, and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) andHyperspectral are the two leading examples. The complexity of these very useful types of data makes them
particularly difficult to process and exploit. Again, NV5 has leveraged the analytical capabilities in the ENVI
software to automate many of the information extraction functions from these two data sets.
To make SAR data more user friendly,
NV5 has introduced ENVI SARscape, ananalysis module that integrates multiple
processing functions and algorithms into
simplified, and in some cases, automatedworkflows.
As with the other ENVI modules, ENVI
SARscape puts powerful capabilities into
the hands of analysts to quickly and easily
extract meaningful results from SAR datasets.
“What sets SAR data apart from optical
data for D&I analysts is its ability to see
through clouds or at night to reveal what ishappening on the ground any time of day inalmost any conditions,” said
Megan Gallagher, Solutions Engineer, NV5
Geospatial.

With hyperspectral satellite imagery soon
to be more readily available via the planned
HySpecIQ and other commercial small
satellites, military analysts will soon havegreater access to the rich information thatis contained in these complex data sets.
Fortunately, ENVI was originally developed
30 years ago by a team of scientists at theUniversity of Colorado
to tap into hyperspectral imagery.

complicated processing algorithms andcombine them into a single function,
enabling end users with minimal
geospatial expertise to render actionable
intelligence from the many bands of a
hyperspectral image.

NV5 has continued its tradition of creating
simplified pushbutton workflows forthese data sets with a series of workflows
called THOR or Tactical Hyperspectral
Operations Resource. Similar to other ENVI
tools, THOR workflows take numerous> Change Detection

Among the most popular THOR workflows
for military analysts are:
> Anomaly Detection> Target DetectionCUSTOMIZING ANALYTICS WITH DEEP LEARNING
The identification of specific objects in optical imagery, LiDAR point clouds and SAR data sets has
been greatly facilitated by automated recognition and extraction using the ENVI FX module and otherworkflows. While manual mapping of certain items, such as roads, rivers, fields and trees has been
replaced by automated methodologies, there are still numerous other features that military analysts
need to find and map in remotely sensed data sets.

ENVI has a solution for this challenge aswell – the ENVI Deep Learning Module.
A form of Artificial Intelligence, Deep
Learning enables the user to ‘teach’ thesoftware how to recognize nearly any
feature or condition in the data set by its
spatial, spectral or other characteristics.
Where earlier forms of Machine Learningalgorithms required the user to ‘show’ thecomputer hundreds of examples of thefeature to be identified, Deep Learning uses
iterative algorithms that can learn from justa dozen examples in some cases.
“As with the other ENVI modules, you don’t
have to be an Artificial Intelligence expert
to use the ENVI Deep Learning module,”
said Zachary Norman, Product Manager,
NV5 Geospatial. “The module has intuitivetools and workflows that enable users toeasily label data and generate models withthe click of a button.”

D&I analysts have embraced the ENVI
Deep Learning module for the significantsavings in time and effort it provides them,compared with manual processes. In a
common example, an analyst ‘taught’ themodule to identify damaged buildings
using multispectral imagery of a Caribbean
Island following a hurricane. In a matterof seconds, the module then identified
thousands of similar structures that would
have taken days to map manually. More
importantly, the same Deep Learningalgorithm can be applied repeatedly withnew images as they are collected.
For more seasoned imagery experts,
the module gives the option of fusing
information layers from different remotesensing data sets to create more robust
object classifiers.

DELIVERING CONSISTENT,UNDERSTANDABLE INFORMATION
Another challenge for analysts in theD&I community has been ensuring theinformation extracted from geospatial
data is understood in a consistent mannerby end users across a broad spectrumof groups. This is critically important,for example, when commanders fromdifferent branches of the U.S. military
and Allied organizations are receivingassessments.

NGA addressed this issue by developing
extremely exacting standards for how
a processed and interpreted geospatial
information product is to be presented.
NV5 borrowed the NGA template andcreated an ENVI plugin called Report
Generator, which automates theconfiguration of geospatial information
and assessments for output in the official
NGA format.

“Report Generator ensures everyone
across the entire U.S. government –not just the military – sees the same
information presented the exact sameway,” according to Eduardo Iturrate, SeniorEngineering Manager, NV5. “This ensures
the information and its interpretation areconsistent.”

Defense and Intelligence Remote Sensing Technologies© 2023 NV5 Geospatial Solutions, Inc. | 11/23 AL
Use of DoD visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endoresment.
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