The U.S. Army Commercial Imagery Team is a specialized team providing high resolution unclassified commercial satellite imagery to U.S. forces, coalition forces, and non-government organizations that can be openly shared with coalition partners and Afghan and Iraqi counterparts.
The CIT is an operational element of the 1st Space Brigade, a subordinate command of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/U.S. Army Forces Strategic Command. The team is operational control to U.S. Central Command and works in conjunction with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the topographic community, the intelligence community and CENTCOM’s Commercial Imagery Collection managers.
The CIT has a unique, direct relationship with the NGA and the commercial imagery providers, Digital Globe and GeoEye. The CIT has an agreement with the NGA that allows the receipt of raw imagery directly from DigitalGlobe and GeoEye over a 45 megabytes per second connection into a Virtual Ground Terminal (VGT) that automatically processes the raw imagery into an ortho-rectified NITF format.
This minimally processed imagery can be provided to units with organic geospatial support (S2/J2, topographical teams, geospatial support teams, etc.) so they can manipulate the images as needed. Or the CIT can package imagery into a finished format, such as GeoPDF, GeoTiff, JPEG, Mr.Sid and hard copy maps to units lacking organic geospatial assets.
The CIT has 72 terra bytes of archived commercial imagery covering a large portion of the CENTCOM Area of Responsibility. This allows the CIT to rapidly process and deliver imagery requests, many times within hours of the request. This archive grows each month with updated collections of pan-chromatic (black and white) and multi-spectral (color) images. All of the archived imagery is less than one year old ensuring the relevancy of the products provided. The CIT also has a direct access relationship with NGA Source for the submission of commercial imagery new collects.
A second key task of the CIT is to provide Mobile Training Teams to Iraq and Afghanistan to teach TalonView to requesting units. This training focuses on training the users on how to request commercial imagery and how to use TalonView to manipulate the imagery to create their own products.
The CIT sends mobile training teams to Iraq and Afghanistan on a monthly basis to teach Iraqi and Afghani governmental organizations to use TalonView, a Microsoft Windows-based mapping application published by the NGA that displays various types of maps and geographically referenced overlays. In some cases, the Iraqi and Afghani personnel have become adept enough with the system to teach it to their compatriots. In those cases, the CIT members simply assist the Iraqi and Afghani trainers.
A U.S. Army soldier (l) from 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and a U.S. Army interpreter (c) look over a map with an Iraqi army soldier from 8th Brigade, 2nd Division, before starting a search of the Ninewa Forest in Mosul, Iraq. In some cases, soldiers need unclassified satellite imagery to coordinate with citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The images come in large, multiple-gigabit-size files that can take a couple of hours for the team to download from the suppliers, so e-mailing them to warfighters in remote locations without state-of-the-art communications systems usually is not an option. Instead, the team often must arrange for hand delivery via courier or mail, which of course slows the total dissemination time.
However, the team expects to complete an upgrade to its communications systems this spring. The effort includes an upgrade from a single one-megabit-per-second line to two direct service lines, each one capable of 45 megabits per second for a total capability of 90 megabits per second. Furthermore, one of those lines will go directly to the team deployed in Bahrain so that data will reach the warfighters much more quickly. The upgrade also will provide a capability to transmit images to any user with a Global Broadcast System receiver, including some remote forward operating bases. “It’s a data burst capability, and it will greatly enhance the way we’re getting imagery out there,” Col. Curry emphasizes.
The CIT has been deployed to CENTCOM since 2004 answering thousands of requests for imagery, providing education to hundreds of coalition partners and supporting hundreds of military units, coalition partners and non-government organizations. Even though deployed to U.S. Central Command, the CIT has provided products to U.S. African Command in an effort to thwart would-be pirates, and products in support of humanitarian relief efforts for the Haiti and Japan earthquakes for Southern Command and Pacific Command.
The team also has provided imagery of the Horn of Africa for U.S. forces involved in anti-piracy efforts. The images are clear enough to locate boats operating illegally in the area or hiding along the coastline, where it would be time-consuming and dangerous for anti-piracy forces to search for them. Furthermore, they have provided situational awareness images in South Korea since tensions with North Korea flared last year, and they supported relief efforts during flooding in Pakistan this past summer. During Pakistani flood relief efforts, U.S. forces were able to share the unclassified, pre- and post-flooding images with the Pakistanis, helping to send food and medical supplies into devastated areas. “Having the CIT do their job by providing up-to-date images enabled forces to save lives, time and money helping out our neighbors—providing life support and building bonds between the two nations,” Col. Curry says.
The CIT also is trying to establish a program of record, which would allow it to support a wider range of missions simultaneously, possibly including homeland security missions or relief efforts in nearby countries such as Haiti. “What we have is exactly what is needed for first responders—those who don’t have up-to-date maps or imagery products. The CIT enables planners, commanders and individuals on the ground to do their jobs—to expedite relief, support or life-saving missions,” Col. McArdle says.
For more information about, or support from, the U.S. Army’s Commercial Imagery Team, contact:
Maj. Jeffrey Lakey, USA, space operations officer, 1st Space Brigade,
Jeffrey.Lakey@smdc-cs.army.mil, (719) 554-8742; or Brandon Martinez, technical adviser, 1st Space Brigade,
Brandon.Martinez@smdc-cs.army.mil, (719) 554-1139
For support in U.S. Central Command, contact:
Cit.rfi.centcom@me.navy.smil or
cit.rfi.centcom@me.navy.mil. The 24-hour assistance line: 011-973-3838-2178.Primary Defense Switched Network number: (318) 439-6215.
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