After decades of global armed conflict to eradicate terrorism, the modern battlefield has proven to be complex and extremely unpredictable. As a result, the demand placed on analysts to rapidly exploit intelligence data to generate accurate intelligence reports is at an all-time high. According to the DoD’s Joint Publication 2-0 (JP 2-0, Joint Intelligence), “Joint Force Commanders (JFCs) require and expect timely intelligence estimates that accurately identify adversary intentions, support offensive and/or defensive operations, and predict adversary future courses of action (COAs) in sufficient details as to be actionable.”

Time (speed), accuracy, and actionable intelligence win wars. The ability to generate timely intelligence reports ensures joint forces are always ahead of the adversary. Accurate intelligence not only protects friendly forces, it also ensures adherence to strict guidelines to the laws of war. And finally, the ability to generate actionable intelligence increases kinetic and non-kinetic operational success. “The success of joint and multinational operations and interorganizational coordination hinges upon timely and accurate information and intelligence sharing,” (JP 2-0).

For GEOINT defense and intelligence professionals, the ability to rapidly exploit geospatial data – commercial, airborne, and national – to extract accurate and actionable intelligence is an important precondition for success throughout all phases of joint operations, regardless of how battles evolve. Data collection is no longer a major challenge for GEOINT with the abundance of collection platforms such as drones, aircrafts, and satellites.

The real hurdle is being able to choose the right datasets for a particular mission and rapidly exploit them to generate timely, accurate, and actionable intelligence. Executed properly, GEOINT analysis enhances “All Source” intelligence activities, enables all phases of mission planning, and supports time-sensitive decisions and actions.

Fortunately, solutions exist to empower analysts to better support their JFCs during operations. For years, NV5 Geospatial has created techniques and algorithms that make ENVI® an Electronic Light Table (ELT) that is very analyst-friendly and contains many easy-to-use tools. Tim Mack, an NV5 Geospatial Technical Account Manager and retired U.S. Army GEOINT Chief Warrant Officer III, noted, “ENVI is becoming the toolkit of choice for many users. Users don’t need advanced training and education in remote sensing or big data science to use ENVI.”

ENVI image processing and analysis software allows GEOINT analysts to spend more time conducting analysis rather than trying to understand the data. Additionally, users can define and automate many of the tasks in their workflows using ENVI Modeler. The simplified, yet robust, ELT capability living in ENVI empowers even the most junior GEOINT analysts to provide timely, accurate, and actionable intelligence to their JFCs.