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We hope everyone had a restful weekend. For many on the east coast, it was a very wet weekend. However, on a positive note, daylight savings happened on Sunday morning. So, time to “Spring forward” and lose an hour – which is fine by us! For this week’s MMNKO post we offer a myriad of industry new stories including updates on GeoEye, DigitalGlobe, Lockheed, Garmin, Intermap, and much more. As we always say, fire up that second cup of coffee and read on!

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Yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced that Letitia Long, deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, will serve as the next director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). Long will assume the NGA leadership later this year, and will be replacing Navy Vice Adm. Robert Murrett who has served as NGA director for 4 years.

“Yet another great leader for NGA and the NSG,” said USGIF President Keith Masback about the announcement. “I’ve had the privilege to work with and around Tish on and off for more than 10 years. She has a unique set of experiences that have prepared her superbly for this opportunity. Moreover, Tish has a well-deserved reputation of going at every challenge with drive, passion and common sense.”

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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 a recharged and ready to take on the world. The big news we cover this week is the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency awarding $1 billion in engineering contracts as part of its “TASER” program, as well as Army Gen. David Petraeus’ support of closing the prison camps at Guantánamo and more. As we always say, fire up that second cup of coffee and read on!

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EADS North America has received a five-year contract to provide commercial radar satellite data to the U.S. government’s National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) for use in intelligence, military and homeland security applications. The data will be provided by the geo-information service provider, Infoterra GmbH, an EADS Astrium subsidiary that holds the commercial exploitation rights for the German radar satellite TerraSAR-X. This Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract has a value of up to $85 million, and involves the supply of imagery from TerraSAR-X, an EADS Astrium-built synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite, along with related products and direct downlink services. The data will enable the NGA to provide other U.S. government and DoD agencies improved information acquisition capabilities — particularly in bad weather and low light conditions. Read the full press release here.

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Happy Monday. It seems that we are in the throws of Winter with nearly 70 percent of the country covered in snow as we speak. So, what does this have to do with Monday? Well, think about it…Monday and Winter are both relatively unpleasant parts of life that most of us like to avoid, but alas we can’t. Winter will keep coming and so will Mondays. So why not embrace Mondays with our ever popular Monday Morning News Kick Off post? As we always say, fire up that second cup of coffee and read on.

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Welcome once again to the Friday’s Food for Thought post on got geoint? This week, we decided to take a look back at geographic history and make note of some very important dates and milestones. For example, on January 27, 1888, the National Geographic Society was founded. And, did you know that in 1351 The Medici sea atlas was published that contained a ‘world’ map? Yep, you can learn about that, and much more in this historic GEOINT post. Oh, and as the late Bob Marley once said, “In this great future, you can’t forget your past.” Happy Friday!

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While we are known for providing a comprehensive news summary post on Monday mornings, sometimes the news cycle is just too big and we like to occasionally do a “Tuesday News Round Up” post. This week, we have plenty of industry-related news including ManTech receiving a ‘non-conflict status’ with the NRO, the ESA ending a spending freeze and BAE System’s partnership with NOAA. So, as we always say on Monday, fire up that second cup of coffee and read on!

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Welcome once again to the Monday Morning Kick Off post. We hope everyone had a restful weekend. As always, we have compiled all the actionable news you need to kick start your work week. Of course, the news cycle these days is being dominated by news regarding U.S. drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Taliban claimed they shot one down, the U.S. has increased it overall strikes in response to the CIA deaths, and the U.K. plans on using drones to spy on citizens. Oh, and of course, we included some more industry related news from the OGC and Envitia. Happy Monday!

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The U.S. military has access to the world’s best topographic maps. It is now trying to build “culture maps” that include details such as a region’s tribal affiliations, ethnicity, religion and language. The commander of U.S. Central Command, Army Gen. David Petraeus, in a number of speeches has repeatedly said that “human terrain” is the decisive element in counterinsurgency operations. “His remarks have had a rippling effect across the intelligence community,” said Jesse Wilson, who works at the command’s Afghanistan Pakistan Intelligence Center of Excellence. Officials there are pairing human terrain analysts with traditional intelligence teams. Traditional intelligence, based upon satellite and aircraft imagery of the geophysical environment, worked well in past wars where open battle spaces far removed from civilians were the norm. Commanders needed to know the lay of the land in order to attack the opposing force. But in current conflicts, they are relying upon soldier interactions with the local people to gather information. Check out the full article from the NDIA’s National Defense Magazine here.

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USGIF member company GeoEye announced yesterday that it has partnered with Google Earth and has made available satellite images of the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake. The devastating earthquake hit Haiti on Monday has caused untold property damaged and casualties. As we posted yesterday, GEOINT plays a critical role in natural disasters and GeoEye is certainly helping by providing the data and imagery needed to assess the situation. And, as Admiral Murrett said “GEOINT saves lives.” Along those lines, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) announced its efforts on the Haiti front. And, finally, USGIF member company FortiusOne has been busy updating its public site with quake and demographic data. To learn more about FortiusOne’s efforts click here.

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