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Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post from got geoint? As always, we hope you had a most glorious weekend relaxing with friends and loved-ones. Well, the time has come — the work week has started and it’s time to get down to business. So, as always, we have been kind enough to provide you with all the news you need kick start your week in high fashion. So, as we always say, fire up that second cup of coffee and read on. Happy Monday!

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper honored Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates
On May 25, 2011, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper honored Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates by presenting him with the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal during a ceremony at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence headquarters May 25, 2011. Here’s an excerpt from Defense Secretary Gate’s speech: Thank you. I’m honored to be here today. This has been a good month for the intelligence community. And while operations have gotten a lot of attention lately – and rightly so – we analysts still have our place. One of the lessons I took from my years at CIA was to take a hard look at what appear to be clever or elegant operations – the kind that supposedly can’t go wrong. When I was deputy DCI in the 1980s, I was briefed on a plan to launch balloons into Libya dropping leaflets telling the people to overthrow the government. I told them to make sure the leaflets specifically said that it was Qaddafi they were to overthrow. I could imagine strong westerly winds carrying balloons with a generic “overthrow your government” right across Libya and into Egypt. I thought President Mubarak would not be pleased. Read the full speech here.

USGIF’s GEOINT Community Week Succeeds in Bringing Together 1,513 Community Members
The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) attracted 1,513 defense, intelligence and homeland security professionals to its GEOINT Community Week, which took place May 9–13, 2011, in the northern Virginia area. Events including the USGIF Invitational, GEOINTeraction Tuesday, GEOINT Community Week Career Fair, Army Geospatial and Imagery Conference (AGIC), USGIF Technology Day and the Analytic Transformation Workshop captured attendees’ interests for the week and created an exclusive atmosphere for GEOINT Community members to learn and network with one another. Read the full press release here.

Spacepower Versus Bin Laden
So the nine-and-a-half-year hunt for Osama bin Laden is over. For America it’s been a painful and controversial process as our military and intelligence agencies kept up the search, in spite of all the political and legal controversy. The operation against the head of al-Qaeda was an integrated effort that demanded the best efforts from everyone involved, and America’s military and civilian space professionals deserve at least a small share of the credit. First of all we should praise the men and women who run the spy satellites. The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) should take a (quiet) bow. The satellites they control were able to pinpoint bin Laden’s mansion and, using their archives of space-derived imagery, they and their colleagues at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) were able to determine when it was built and what many of its special characteristics were. Read the full article from The Space Review here.

CEOS And ISU Use Earth Observation Sats To Detect Bugs
Space assets, like telecommunication, location, navigation and remote sensing satellites can play a significant role in preventive and therapeutic medicine on a global scale. Earth Observation satellites are not able to map diseases directly but can monitor the indicators that are associated with disease outbreaks. This information can be processed using mathematical models and augmented by data from ground-based, seaborne and airborne observation systems. Thus, the risk factors of epidemics can be monitored, the spread of diseases can be better predicted and the appropriate preventive measures can be initiated. On the basis of this, students of the International Space University (ISU) identified 29 infectious and parasitic diseases that can potentially be monitored from space using indicators such as vegetation, wetlands, land surface temperatures, flooding etc. Read the full SatNews.com story here.

Juniper Systems Mesa Rugged Notepad Secures TerraGo Mobile Certification
Juniper Systems’ Mesa Rugged Notepad is the newest device to be certified by TerraGo® Technologies for use with the mobile solution of its widely adopted geospatial collaboration software. TerraGo Mobile™ enables front line personnel to access, share and easily update geospatial intelligence as well as collaborate peer-to-peer or with the enterprise using TerraGo GeoPDF maps and imagery. With TerraGo Mobile software, handheld device users can access geospatial maps, imagery and other geospatial intelligence and interactively update them with current georeferenced notes, photos, video and Web services anywhere in the field, whether connected or offline. Read the full press release here.

PCI Geomatics Supporting Esri to Broaden Availability of High Quality Earth Observation Imagery
PCI Geomatics, a world leading developer of geo-imaging software and systems, has been working closely with Esri to make imagery more accessible to a broader user community. PCI’s GeoImaging Accelerator (GXL) technology is currently being used to support the processing of GeoEye data into ortho-corrected and color balanced image products that will be made available for free through ArcGIS Online. PCI’s high performance, automated GXL Satellite image production system will be used to process high resolution GeoEye imagery. In addition to the GXL processing capacity, PCI will also lend its geoimaging technical expertise to the project. The goal of the project is to process imagery and generate accurate imagery content, mosaics and associated metadata for ArcGIS Online. Read the full press release here.

IGNITE 2011 Unites Geospatial Industry Thinkers for Genesis of the Dynamic GIS
Prior to the kickoff of the Hexagon 2011 conference this week, ERDAS is hosting IGNITE 2011, an annual think tank event which will bring together customers and partners to work alongside ERDAS as we define and shape the future of the geospatial industry. As Hexagon now unites industry-leading providers of geospatial software and hardware, it has aligned the means to offer the geospatial industry the Dynamic GIS, an integrated geospatial system capable of translating change, on the fly, into actionable information. Read the full ERDAS press release here.

Tags: Bin Laden, Director of National Intelligence, Earth Observation to Detect Bugs, ERDAS, GEOINT Community Week, Hexagon 2011, Intergraph, James Clapper