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Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post from got geoint? As always, the sun rises and sets and here we are … it’s Monday again. Time to dust off our to-do lists and jump into productivity mode. Fortunately, we have been kind enough to pull together all the GEOINT-related news you need to kick start the week in true professional style. So, as we always say, fire up that second cup of coffee and read on. Happy Monday!

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Google is creating gaming concept that brings us back to our childhood. Do you remember those games where you had to guide a marble through a maze by tilting and adjusting the game board? Google is creating virtual version of this where you guide a “digitized” marble through the streets and avenues on Google Maps. The as-yet-to-be-named game will launch next month and, of course, will be on Android-powered devices. Be sure to check out the video about this new game in this post.

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The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) recently issued a study that underscores how the U.S. space industry is losing its competitive edge and risks falling short of future national security requirements unless government reforms our export control system and promotes the international competitiveness of U.S. industry. The report, Competing for Space: Satellite Export Policy and U.S. National Security, surveys U.S. satellite systems and components manufacturers about the challenges the space industrial base faces as a result of U.S. export policies. Among the adverse impacts on industry are loss of global market share and dampening of satellite component sales opportunities to sustain U.S. space technology leadership.

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PBS NOVA recently ran a program that will captivate the most avid GEOINT history buff. The segment called “3D Spies of WWII” highlights how allied intelligence teamed up with brilliant minds from Britain and Hollywood to develop 3D GEOINT solutions that played a major role in crippling Germany’s rocket program and paved the way for a successful D-Day launch. Be sure to check out the entire program in this post. It is truly fascinating!

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Welcome to the Friday’s Food for Thought post from got geoint? For those GEOINTers out there with children, do you ever find that your offspring never fully understand what you do for a living? This is a natural phenomenon because what we do is often complex and difficult to explain in terms that children can understand. Well, this is all about to change. This Sunday USGIF is participating in the International Spy Museum’s “SpyFest: Tradecraft Try-Its” program. SpyFest aims to introduce children to the skills and the tools used by members of the Intelligence Community. So, for this week’s FFFT post, we have decided to focus on ways that we can get our offspring more engaged in GEOINT and the sciences in general. We hope you enjoy and happy Friday!

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We all know that one of the biggest challenges facing the GEOINT sector is being able to synthesize massive amounts of data and make it actionable in near real-time. Both industry and government have made tremendous strides in developing innovations that allow us to manage these data overload issues. Though the Army is now combining Boeing’s A160 Hummingbird unmanned helo and the Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (ARGUS) to create a surveillance system that can capture 80 years worth of video in one day. As Wired Danger Room points out, this new system is highly valuable and will allow us to see for “miles like we were Roger Daltrey.”

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Every so often, we like to focus on a GEOINT-related story that goes beyond imagery and data about our Earth’s surface. And, one piece of news from NASA recently caught our attention. The Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter recently developed maps that reveal features at the Moon’s northern and southern poles — the dark side(s) of the moon. And there was a unique discovery from this data: there is water frost under the moon’s surface in these areas.

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Fully understanding our natural resources is vital to the health and sustainability of our planet. With this in mind, over the past six years, Josef Kellndorfer and Wayne Walker of the Woods Hole Research Center created a detailed map that shows actual tree cover over the U.S. With the help from data from the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Geological Survey, the forests were mapped down to a scale of 30 meters, or roughly 10 computer display pixels for every hectare of land (4 pixels per acre). And, researchers estimate that their mapping database now contains measurements of more than 5 million trees.

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Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post from got geoint? As always, we hope you had a restful weekend and are prepared to take on the world. Even the most dedicated GEOINT professional sometimes needs a little push in the right direction to get the work week started. Thus our ever-popular MMNKO post, which we serve up each Monday on a golden platter. So, we we always say, fire up that second cup of coffee and read on. Happy Monday!

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In the popular movie Ocean’s Eleven, George Clooney and his team hit pay dirt when they shut down the lights at the Bellagio to rob it. It was a highly effective tactic. According to Aviation Week, this same type of tactic could be employed by our U.S. military by using High Powered Microwave (HPM) and Directed Energy to shut down an enemy’s command and control center — without them even knowing what happened. Though as they pointed out, there is a steep educational curve when it comes to convincing both “decision makers both in and out of uniform to turn these technologies into operational weapons.”

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