NGA helps U.S., allies play to win arctic competition

NGA geodetic earth scientists James Beale and Alicia Metzger used a gravimeter to collect marine gravity data while crossing the Northwest Passage on the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy in 2021.

Mapping the Arctic

One of the best-known of NGA's collaborative Arctic products is the ArcticDEM project. ArcticDEM was created following a 2015 executive order calling for enhanced coordination of national efforts in the Arctic, and it is the first ever publicly available, high-resolution, satellite-based elevation map of the Arctic.

ArcticDEM is a collection of digital elevation models at 2-meter resolution that encompasses all land area north of 60° north latitude, as well as all territory of Greenland, the State of Alaska in its entirety, and the Kamchatka Peninsula of the Russian Federation. NGA partnered with the National Science Foundation, the University of Minnesota, and other members of the academic research community, private sector and international partners on the ArcticDEM initiative, which supports hundreds of scientific users.

A digital elevation model is a 3D representation of a terrain's surface, created from terrain elevation data. Analysis can be done on DEMs to determine - or detect changes in - topography, shoreline, coastal erosion, ice crevasses, glacier flows, landslides, and tsunamis, as well as changes due to the effects of climate change, which are amplified at the poles.

In July 2023, NGA, the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Science Foundation announced a significant agreement to extend ArcticDEM and its continued public access through 2032. Under the agreement, the NRO modified its existing Electro-Optical Commercial Layer contract to provide the U.S. government with long-term access to elevation models created using commercial imagery collected over the Arctic and Antarctic. The DEMs will be publicly available on NGA's website and via NSF's Polar Geospatial Center at the University of Minnesota.

NGA also intends to use the Arctic data to produce a global high-resolution (2-meter) digital elevation model of the entire Earth by 2026 with the help of the GeoData Cooperative in a collaboration between NGA, DOD, federal civilian agencies, academia and industry to produce 3D GEOINT products.

In addition, with its recent product maps of Norway's claimed maritime limits and boundaries in the Arctic region, NGA completed last year a multiyear effort to map all of the claimed maritime limits and boundaries in the Arctic region. These data support official USG policy positions on Arctic claims.

Monitoring the Arctic

From ground subsidence and terrain instability to shoreline changes and even gravity, NGA and its partners also monitored the rapidly changing physical landscape of the Arctic.

NGA partners with the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory on Project Frostbyte to measure and analyze ground subsidence and terrain instability due to permafrost thaw across the Arctic region. Teams provide ground truth to enable comparison of scientific datasets collected using mobile, airborne and spaceborne sensors.

As part of NGA's work, the agency leverages commercial remote sensing solutions to detect and monitor permafrost changes in the Arctic to better understand its near- and long-term impacts, including the impact to both existing and future military airfields and infrastructure.

Mapping ground surface instability due to permafrost thaw is challenging because the thaw state of permafrost and the associated instability cannot be directly observed with satellite imagery. However, scientists know that when permafrost thaws, unstable terrain with high ice content subsides or sinks.

So, instead of developing a capability to observe permafrost directly, NGA seeks a way to map permafrost thaw subsidence for locations where permafrost thaw is a threat to infrastructure.

"Nothing now looks at permafrost from space and says that a specific terrain will become unstable,'' said Elizabeth "Rachel'' Bernstein, Ph.D., a scientist in NGA's Research & Development component. "Project Frostbyte uses satellite data to see whether a specific point of interest will become unstable when it thaws.''

Researchers use high-resolution reference data collection on the ground to validate high-resolution data collected by airborne and satellite sensors capable of measuring vertical change as small as a centimeter, allowing for better predictive analysis and better planning for what's to come.

Several NGA initiatives also support gravity data collections and modeling in the Arctic that drive data improvements. Gravity models are used to improve satellite orbit determination, help aircraft navigate more accurately and allow for accurate determination of height above sea level - all of which are increasingly important as the Arctic becomes a more enticing strategic and commercial asset.

A new Arctic Gravity Model was created and publicly released in 2020, and in 2021, NGA bolstered its Arctic gravity work further with the pioneering research Metzger and Beale did aboard the USCGC Healy - aided by what was then NGA's newly purchased Dynamic Gravity Systems gravimeter. Since then, researchers at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks have been analyzing the NGA data from the Healy along with other data they have collected.

"One of my goals is to get back on there with the gravimeter and run it continuously,'' Metzger said. "It's difficult to collect data, and it takes a lot of coordination. That is why I am grateful for our partnerships with other agencies and academia, both domestically and abroad."

Navigating the Arctic

Of course, NGA has another important role in the Arctic - one that it serves around the globe: Safety of Navigation.

Safely navigating the ever-changing Arctic region is a challenge, and it relies on accurate and timely geospatial data NGA provides. From more traditional measures such as warning of icebergs and measuring maritime traffic densities to forward-leaning satellite-computed bathymetry and automated sea ice detection, the agency works closely with partners to maintain and improve navigation in the region.

Among the current Safety of Navigation programs:

• NGA's 24/7 Maritime Watch provides urgent safety of navigation messages about icebergs, military closure areas and other hazards to all nautical vessels transiting the Arctic region. Its safety of navigation products for the subsurface arctic allow submarines to transit submerged in the Arctic region.
• NGA's publicly available Pan-Arctic Web Map includes multiple layers of information and data on Arctic ice, bathymetry, search-and-rescue zones, navigation warnings and maritime boundaries. The map and derived products help our partners understand the current state of the Arctic environment, develop route plans and understand characteristics of the physical environment.
• The Global Maritime Traffic Density Service, or GMTDS, developed by NGA, is available to users via a web application with a map-based data visualization. The service provides a snapshot of global maritime traffic densities aggregated by month for billions of satellite and terrestrial-based Automatic Identification System data covering 2011 to present. NGA has expanded the base capability of GMTDS by providing dedicated polar projections to address map projection challenges specifically in the Arctic and Antarctic. GMTDS data is valuable for ocean use deconfliction in the Arctic region, such as the overlap of vessel traffic with subsistence whale hunting. Customers also use GMTDS to pursue a wide range of research goals, such as characterizing carbon emissions of ocean-going vessels, including black carbon deposits from the increasing traffic in the Arctic.

NGA's work in advancing safety of navigation specialties such as Arctic bathymetry and sea ice mapping is also proving to be significant for maritime transit in the region.

Traditionally, airborne LiDAR and survey boats are used to map the seafloor to provide coastal depth information. However, in remote areas satellite capabilities are often relied upon. NGA's Satellite Computed Bathymetry Assessment, or SCuBA, an unprecedented capability developed by NGA R&D scientists, leverages NASA ICESat-2 Space LiDAR to derive coastal depth information in shallow water locations, which allows NGA to inform customers of dynamically changing coastal areas in the Arctic as a result of climate and weather. The capability is especially useful in denied areas where expeditions, operations and littoral activities take place.

Meanwhile, NGA also collaborates with the U.S. National Ice Center to improve sea mapping through automating exploitation of satellite synthetic aperture radar imagery to generate a daily ice edge and marginal ice zone chart, a key product for Arctic navigation. The resulting process, known as Snowfox, is both faster and capable of resolving more details than manual efforts.

"Snowfox changes what a team of analysts would have to spend a day doing into just doing quality-control checking in minutes,'' Bernstein explained.

NGA and the National Ice Center also created a capability to visualize where Polar Class vessels could safely navigate the ice edge and sea ice pack in the Bering Strait. These findings have implications for ship selection for certain Arctic routes and for ship acquisition planning for Arctic maritime operations.

From permafrost to sea ice, mapping to navigation, bringing NGA's various capabilities to bear in the Arctic in collaboration with our partners is proving key to gaining a better understanding of the region.

"Everything can be monitored to some extent with GEOINT; it just may require different tradecraft than we use in areas not covered with snow and ice,'' Bernstein said.

All of NGA's various cooperative efforts to collect and disseminate Arctic data have one thing in common: They provide insights about this rapidly changing region, noted James Griffith, director of NGA's Source Operations and Management component.

"NGA is committed to leading the way in understanding the Arctic,'' Griffith said. "In the face of both increasing strategic competition and intensifying climate changes, we know those looking out for the national security interests of the U.S. and our allies are counting on us.''

Written by: Adam Goodman