Satellite images and other GEOINT data that the
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency recently released to government and non-governmental organizations will be used in the fight against the Ebola virus in West Africa, UPI reports.
The images, maps derived mostly from imagery generated by DigitalGlobe, will be used in disease response and in predicting the spread of contagion, according to the report. The data is available through NGA’s EnhancedView program.
In addition to imagery and maps, the data includes demographic information, critical infrastructure and information about local economies, education levels and medical facilities.
Related: Army setting up comms for Ebola response
In October 2014, NGA created a website for federal agencies and their partners to get easy access to all unclassified information related to the Ebola outbreaks, using ESRI’s ArcGIS platform hosted on Amazon cloud, according to an announcement on NGA’s own website.
“We are looking at multiple locations and we are trying to provide support,” said Tim Peplaw, GEOINT mission manager for NGA’s Integrated Working Group – Readiness, Response and Recovery. “It’s not single-threaded. It’s not just one event taking place, it’s happening on the entire western part of the (African) continent.”
