FAIRBANKS, Alaska, Dec. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) awarded GeoNorth Information
Systems (GNIS) a five-year, $15
million contract for persistent surveillance services of the
Arctic region. Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) will provide a scalable
geospatial processing platform to enable the surveillance
project.
GNIS will leverage Lockheed Martin's Rosetta technology, which
includes a versatile and highly automated set of commercial and
civil image processing tools that scale and adapt to deliver
precision geospatial intelligence products to the NGA. GNIS, a
wholly owned subsidiary of the Tatitlek Corporation, an Alaska
Native Village Corporation, will work with Lockheed Martin and the
University of Alaska Fairbanks' (UAF)
Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF), under the banner of the Arctic
GeoData Cooperative. GNIS and the partners will build, improve,
monitor and maintain terrain elevation models of the Arctic
region.
"The Arctic region has significant global implications for
environmental, economic and security factors," said Gil Metzger, director of Applied Research at
Lockheed Martin. "It is critical that we document and monitor
this demanding environment with the best technologies
available. Lockheed Martin is proud to be part of this
innovative Cooperative that establishes both an operational domain
awareness capability and a foundation for advanced research."
The cooperative team will leverage each member's unique
expertise and capabilities to provide a one-of-a-kind solution to
partners like the NGA.
"The Arctic domain poses many challenges," said Jon Heinsius, general manager of GNIS. "Not only
is it an area much larger than the whole United States and Canada combined, but its remoteness, intense
weather conditions and unique characteristics are not found
anywhere else in the world. The Cooperative's combined academic and
commercial approach provides the NGA with tremendous flexibility to
meet their current and future needs."
As the prime contractor, GNIS will perform overall project
management, conduct day-to-day operations and provide access to
commercial remote-sensing platforms through its existing direct
receiving station located at ASF. UAF brings broad Arctic-related
research and development, problem solving and the ability to refine
existing scientific algorithms and methods to support specific
project requirements. Lockheed Martin's Rosetta tool-set will
transform the large volumes of sensed data into correlated
geospatial intelligence products.
"The Cooperative is going to be a supportive environment where
participants can bring ideas, technologies, algorithms and research
for development, testing and validation," said Dr. Nettie La Belle-Hamer, director of the Alaska
Satellite Facility. "The concept is to explore and nurture new
ideas to take what we learn today to build for tomorrow."
About GeoNorth Information Systems
GeoNorth Information Systems is a satellite imagery
and geospatial solutions provider specializing in collection
and processing of remotely sensed information, enterprise
geographic information systems, and custom application & web
development. Our clients include federal, state and local
governments as well as large enterprise commercial clients in the
energy, natural resources, engineering and similar fields.
Established in 1999, GNIS is an Alaskan Native-owned Corporation
and Small Business Administration certified 8(a) firm. GNIS is
headquartered in Anchorage,
Alaska, with offices in Fairbanks, Washington, D.C., and Loveland, Colorado. GNIS is a subsidiary of
the Tatitlek Corporation.
About Alaska Satellite Facility
Alaska
Satellite Facility is an integral part of the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Geophysical
Institute. ASF downlinks, processes, archives and distributes
remote-sensing data to users around the world, promoting,
facilitating, and participating in the advancement of scientific
research, field operations and commercial remote-sensing
applications that benefit society. ASF has three major components:
a satellite tracking ground station that is part of the
NASA's Near Earth Network system; a Distributed Active Archive
Center that processes, maintains and distributes NASA's archive of
synthetic aperture radar data; and an Enterprise that focuses on
applications of remote-sensing data.
About Lockheed Martin
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a
global security and aerospace company that employs approximately
100,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the
research, design, development, manufacture, integration and
sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.
This year the company received three Edison Awards for
ground-breaking innovations in autonomy, satellite technology and
directed energy.
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SOURCE Lockheed Martin