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U.S. Army to Showcase Award-Winning Geospatial Technology at 2010 GEOINT Symposium

Published Oct. 27, 2010

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The U.S. Army Geospatial Center (AGC) will demonstrate its award-winning Buckeye program, Geo-referenced PDF project (GeoPDF), and Engineering Field Planning, Reconnaissance, Surveying, and Sketching Set (ENFIRE) during the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s 2010 GEOINT Symposium (New Orleans), November 2-4, at Booth 457.

BuckEye is a program that collects high-resolution, 3-D terrain data using a 39-megapixel color camera and Light Detection and Ranging elevation data to produce unclassified 10-15 centimeter resolution imagery for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and mapping missions in Afghanistan. Approximately 85,000 km2 and 33,000 km 2 of data, primarily over urban areas, has been collected in Iraq and Afghanistan, respectively. The program received Army Greatest Invention of the Year honors in 2006, as well as USGIF’s 2006 Geospatial Intelligence Achievement Award for the program’s valuable contributions to the geospatial capability of coalition forces during the Global War on Terrorism. It was also selected as one of C4ISR Journal’s Big 25 Award finalists (sensor category) in 2008.

GeoPDF allows Soldiers to print easy-to-read maps "on demand" and to access detailed, up-to-date information on Adobe PDF-enabled computers. Both GeoPDF formats, raster and vector, provide a scalable display of the digital map or image with crisp, clear delineation of roads, rivers, contour lines, and other features. The AGC created GeoPDF DVDs for most countries of the world through its partnership with the NGA Research Center, which has produced GeoPDFs of most of its standard map sheets. The AGC is also working with NGA to convert all of NGA’s geospatial intelligence products (maps, charts and images) into the GeoPDF format and to update current files to support the import and export of geospatial data with Adobe Reader for data exchange.

ENFIRE, an Army Program of Record, is a modern digital engineering tool kit that replaces the Surveying Set, Military Field Sketching set, which has been in use since the early 20th century. The set integrates digital components into a common toolkit for collecting and disseminating minefield, reconnaissance and engineering data, enabling engineers to perform reconnaissance, surveying, obstacle reporting, construction site planning, engineering project management, and inventory management rapidly and at a safer standoff distance than analog measures permit. The first unit was fielded in April 2009, with 120 systems distributed to-date. Over 2600 units are scheduled to be fielded through 2015.


Release no. 10-001