GXP Mosaic

Climate change, greenhouse gases, vegetation removal, environmental degradation, resource exploitation — these issues are popping up in the media worldwide. Everyone is affected, regardless of background, religion or nationality. Fortunately, the science of remote sensing and photogrammetry are at the forefront of better understanding issues such as this.

Environmental concerns of a regional or global scale require technology capable of handling large and complex tasks. Space-based sensors are perfectly designed to allow agencies and governments to look beyond the man made boundaries of state or territorial borders and to take an ecosystems approach to monitoring and measuring change. Moreover, with what I call “temporal remote sensing,” we can take better advantage of more than 25 years of satellite imagery in archive for most, if not all parts of the globe. Previously, the time difference in capturing large areas of land was seen as a disadvantage in trying to capture an environmental state at a given point in time. However, the relevance of temporal data is influenced by time.

Environmental issues, temporal data and change detection are key issues that are being addressed by many governments, both individually and in a regional cooperative fashion. In maximizing the benefits of temporal data, BAE Systems’ SOCET GXP^® and SOCET SET^® software are perfectly suited. SOCET GXP is an ideal tool for highlighting changes between images captured over time, while SOCET SET provides robust functionality for mosaicking vast areas of imagery, and to build surfaces for climate models and potential flood damage assessment.

This is an exciting time for remote sensing and photogrammetry as the science is having a rebirth in the pursuit of environmental protection, an issue of great importance not only in the Asia-Pacific region, but worldwide.

Sincerely,

Rob Coorey
Director Sales, Asia-Pacific
BAE Systems GXP

In many applications, customers need a bare earth digital terrain model/digital elevation model (DTM/DEM). SOCET SET’s NGATE and ATE modules generate a digital surface model (DSM), which has points on top of trees and buildings. Customers spend a significant amount of time editing these points down to the bare earth. Some customers spend as much as 65% of their DTM production budget on editing. To address this need for efficient editing, we have developed six new bare earth tools, which will be available in SOCET SET v5.4.1 later this fall. The six tools employ new filtering algorithms to create bare earth surfaces over areas with dense tree canopies, and urban areas with trees and buildings. The bare earth tools also help in the editing of small objects such as dense grassland and brush, by removing anomalous spikes and wells based on terrain histogram profiling. In SOCET SET v5.4.1, these six new tools are part of the Interactive Terrain Editing (ITE) module. In future releases, bare earth tools will be integrated with NGATE for generating DSMs, DEMs or both.

Software link-up with Google Earth helps military mission planners

Connect to Google Earth with SOCET GXP

A new version of BAE Systems’ image analysis and mapping software enables analysts to evaluate and share intelligence data more effectively by integrating with Google Earth, and the ESRI geodatabase. SOCET GXP v2.3, available in September, interacts with Google Earth in real time for quick, 3D color visualization and gives geospatial context to objects of interest, resulting in enhanced intelligence for mission planning. With additional tools for detecting changes from one day to the next, analysts can anticipate conditions such as rough terrain or collapsed bridges and pinpoint operational routes more accurately.

It also provides a direct connection to the ESRI geodatabase, the Environmental Systems Research Institute’s common data storage and management framework. Connection with the database allows users to work with data over secure networks for accurate, timely analysis.

An image of a location in San Diego Bay is synchronized between Google Earth (right image) and SOCET GXP interface (left image). The thin green line outlines the area of interest the user is working with, which is shown in the SOCET GXP window.

“Out in the field, where SOCET GXP is used to make quick decisions, efficiency and accuracy are crucial,” said Dan London, BAE Systems’ vice president for Geospatial eXploitation Products. “With the integration of Google Earth and ESRI database, SOCET GXP transforms data into usable intelligence.”

The SOCET GXP upgrade enables analysts to use familiar tools and universal file formats to edit, store, and retrieve information, avoiding time-consuming searches for hard-copy reports. The application also supports the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s Spatially Enabled Exploitation initiative to standardize image data formats for optimal information sharing across global networks. The application produces image graphics – such as roads, buildings, and targets – using a ground coordinate system that records latitude, longitude, and elevation data, eliminating the need for manual registration.

SOCET GXP v2.3 runs on Microsoft^® Windows and UNIX^® Solaris^™ 8, 9, and 10 operating systems and supports ground space graphics for a wide range of government and commercial sources.

SOCET GXP v2.3 features all of the functionality required to satisfy typical image analysis production workflows. This release adds seamless integration and synchronized viewing with Google Earth, and introduces a direct, bidirectional link to the ESRI geodatabase or SOCET SET feature database for dynamic viewing and editing of feature data. Also new in SOCET GXP v2.3 is Spatially Enabled Exploitation (SEE), the NGA initiative designed to enhance image exploitation by creating attributed ground space graphics in a connected enterprise geodatabase environment. SEE allows the analyst to answer critical questions using spatial, attribute, and temporal queries. In addition, smart vector attribution supports external ESRI multi-user/personal databases, shapefiles, and SOCET SET feature databases.

AutoSOCET adds an autonomous geospatial analysis workflow: automated triangulation, terrain data generation, orthorectification, and mosaicking.

Other notable features include:

• Graphical situational display (GSD) capabilities and import, editing, and export for Graphrep/IRR MIL STD 2525 symbols
• NITF image ingest and NITF format file save with SPIA tags; image products can be ingested by the NGA Image Product Library (IPL)
• Auto-populated templates, Ruler, CGS and stereo mensuration, and image chipping
• Multispectral imagery (MSI) container creation in combination with custom per band or per image LUT application offers additional flexibility for image analysis
• New terrain visualization tools for thorough image analysis

SOCET GXP’s fundamental photogrammetric architecture is complete, and we are well on the way to full integration, moving the remainder of SOCET SET’s full functionality into SOCET GXP, which has the same rigorous sensor models as SOCET SET for highly accurate georeferencing.

Click here for a comprehensive summary of SOCET GXP v2.3 release enhancements, as well as those planned for SOCET GXP v2.3.1.

With the release of SOCET SET v5.4, we are proud to offer the much anticipated Next-Generation Automatic Terrain Extraction (NGATE) module. NGATE provides users with the capability to create surface and terrain models from stereo imagery at a level of accuracy not previously available from a fully automatic algorithm without assistance from manual editing. NGATE is licensed as an add-on to SOCET SET’s Automatic Terrain Extraction (ATE) module. By allowing terrain to be generated down to the pixel level of the input imagery, NGATE provides detail that would otherwise be left out of a surface or terrain model derived from stereo imagery. The benefits to you are a more accurate product with less manual editing. BAE Systems has used NGATE for almost a year now, including very early versions, in our service work for the U.S. government, and project managers report that the time spent on manual editing has been reduced by more than 30%.

This new release includes additional enhancements for handling georeferenced imagery and products derived from imagery. Sensor models imported and optionally triangulated within SOCET SET can be easily exported to Rational Polynomial Coefficient (RPC) georeferenced images in NITF format as a product that can be used with other image applications. The Universal Triangulation (UTri) within SOCET SET’s Multi-sensor Triangulation (MST) application can now support the adjustment of thousands of images. Furthermore, MST can now accommodate triangulation of Leica ADS40 imagery (Level 1 data). We continue to provide enhancements to legacy SOCET SET features such as data import, extraction, and product generation, based on your suggestions.

Click here for a detailed list of SOCET SET v5.4 release enhancements.

The release of SOCET SET v5.4.0 did not include a developer’s kit environment for export. Therefore, third party products such as ORIMA and PRO600 will not be available until SOCET SET v5.4.1. SOCET SET v5.4.1, is scheduled for release in October 2007.

Software patches are now only available for download via FTP access. Please contact a customer support representative for your region for assistance:

Americas: socetgxp.support@baesystems.com
Europe, Middle East, and Africa: socetgxp.emea.sales@baesystems.com
Asia-Pacific: socetgxp.asia.sales@baesystems.com

Using SOCET GXP's SEE functionality, store graphics and features with their ground coordinates and attributes in a geodatabase for future retrieval and updating.

SEE is the NGA initiative designed to enhance image exploitation by creating attributed ground space graphics in a connected enterprise geodatabase environment. SEE allows the analyst to answer critical questions using spatial, attribute, and temporal queries. In addition, smart vector attribution supports external ESRI multi-user/personal databases, shapefiles, and SOCET SET feature databases.

SEE: vector-supported image analysis

• Connect to a database, create features, or query existing features
• Extract information from imagery and save it for future analysis
• Rely on accurate vectors to detect changes over time
• Eliminate searches for historical textual data to determine changes
• Streamline exploitation process

Visual Coverage Tool (VCT)

To assist with data management, VCT is designed to display image and product libraries graphically in ground space for any geographic location.

Tips

• To clean up coverage display, click the image types to view. Each coverage type is color-coded to the corresponding coverage type button.

SOCET GXP Link Manager

The Multiport can display multiple panels to view and exploit imagery. A linked relationship can be created between multiple panels in the same or different Multiports. When linking multiple panels, panning, zooming, and rotating maintain the same center point in each panel.

Tips

• If panels to link are located in the same Multiport, click the Link Panels icon on the View toolbar to create a link. To break the link, click the Free from Relationships icon on the View toolbar.
• To automatically link images in separate panels within the same Multiport, access the Workspace Manager by selecting Tools > Preferences > Tools > Link Manager. Select the checkbox at the bottom of the page to link images automatically that are part of the same Multiport.
• To share annotations plotted in a linked relationship, check the Auto-Apply Graphics option in the Link Manager window.

Customize Multiport toolbars

The SOCET GXP Multiport provides access to all exploitation tools. View up to four panels of data in one or more Multiports; each panel can contain an unlimited number of data sets. Adjacent or overlapping images and shapefiles are quickly visualized in a single panel mosaic. Multiple images are stacked for temporal analysis.

Tips

• To change the properties for a group of selected graphics of the same type, use the Graphic Format toolbar.
• To save Multiport toolbar customizations as a preference, select View > Toolbars > Save Windows Layout as Preference > User Multiport.