The days when defense and intelligence agencies had nearly exclusive domain over satellite imagery are over.

And Longmont’s AllSource Analysis, founded last year by former DigitalGlobe and CIA staffers, is making the most of the new playing field, expanding its commercial offerings, so that businesses can get the imagery and expert analysis that was once reserved for governments and heads of state.

The commercial intelligence company and its analysts once offered a fairly narrow array of visual data on oil refineries, construction sites, refugee movements, and ships at sea.

But these days, according to AllSource Analysis co-founder and Chief Marketing Office Chuck Herring, its information sources and customer base have mushroomed.

“We use social media, news feeds, ground information, ground photos, private databases, all kinds of information and you get a much clearer picture than if you have just one ingredient.”

International deal

Making the aggregation of the additional content possible was an agreement signed last month with BAE Systems, one of the world’s largest aerospace and defense contractors. This new strategic alliance with BAE brings multi-source imagery analysis products to a wide variety of commercial and governmental industries for the first time.

BAE is a British multinational defense, security and aerospace company headquartered in London with offices across the globe.

“With BAE Systems’ Geospatial Software as a Service technology platform and the AllSource analyst network of military and commercial intelligence veterans, we’re driving geospatial analysis into new commercial markets that will have access to best-in-class, imagery-based analytical content,” AllSource CEO Stephen Wood said.

AllSource Analysis employs more than 50 imagery, geospatial, and research professionals who understand the technologies and processes needed to extract critical information from complex technologies and resources. Their analysts integrate multiple data sources to deliver insights to energy, finance and government clients.

Satellite content comes from sources such as DigitalGlobe, AIRBUS, Skybox, BlackSkyGlobal and others.

Fast growth ahead

The market for commercial satellite imaging globally is forecast to reach more than $5 billion by 2019, up from about $2.1 billion now, according to New York City-based Transparency Market Research. The growth is driven by increased demand for applications such as oil and gas (energy) sector and natural resource management. Insurance, real estate, city planning and fleet management are also emerging as potential commercial applications.

A freer regulatory environment is helping drive growth as well. In 2014 the U.S. government lifted restrictions on the use of high-quality satellite images in a move that was welcomed by industry, but could have serious privacy implications for the man or woman on the street.

If satellite imagery continues to improve, enabling the identification of individuals, then the issue of privacy could grow in significance.

But the The AllSource team believes drone use is more worrisome than atmospheric surveillance when it comes to privacy. “I know of no privacy advocacy group that is concerned about satellite imagery,” Herring said.

Portals

In the third floor conference room of AllSource headquarters at 1325 Dry Creek Drive, Chief Geospatial Officer Andy Dinville is running through the browser-based portal that offers up this new information. He’s zeroed in on a small island in the South China Sea and is comparing images from 2005 and 2014. In 2005 the island showed a few structures and a single road. In 2014 there is a landing strip, and several other buildings with camouflaged rooftops.

“China is very openly asserting itself,” Dinville said. “They are going in and manufacturing islands for control. What is the implication of that? We can watch that process, those events, and then activate analysts accordingly to monitor the situation, update and access risk, security, military position and risk to local economics. There is a lot of shipping, fishing, oil and gas in the region. So there are a lot of things that are affected.”

“Our analysts can take this imagery, and then look at open source information and research, gather that information and then produce a report,” Dinville added.

Insurance companies are also interested in this technology and what AllSource brings to the table.

“We had a major global insurance company call us the other day,” Herring said. “They are interested in what we do for two reasons: underwriting a port, insuring a port. They want to know what kind of activity is in that port. What percentage is military, what are cargo ships, how many are cruise ships. Those all have implications in insuring that port. If there is an event, a natural disaster, an explosion, we need to get a quick assessment of what’s going on. They want to know if the docks are damaged, the ships are damaged. Is the infrastructure down?”

Real time answers

And companies want that information quickly.

“This new platform will help us with speed because now we’re working in one environment, where you do all your work. With the data partnerships we have, with the platform we have, what we do is truly near real-time,” Herring added.

AllSource customers can tailor their packages to their specific needs.

The first level of service provides a quick, first-phase analytic product with insight pertaining to a specific area of interest within 24-48 hours. This includes current or emerging events or activities with analysis.

A higher level of service would be a more in-depth analytical product containing additional imagery and more complex information about significant aspects of the area of interest. It would cover a larger geographic area and more historical imagery to enhance situational context, offering deeper analysis of events and the potential implications.

Lastly the high-end service would also include more analysis, historical trends, measurements, competitive intelligence, supply chain information, capacity and facility status, plus a large-scale assessment of a significant geographical area, with historical imagery to provide a specific and detailed understanding of the evolution of an area of concern.

“We have a background of understanding how events can grow, and then how do these events relate back to the customer,” geospatial specialist Andy Dinville said. “Whether it’s economics, whether it’s finance, whether it’s military, whether it’s humanitarian or natural disaster… we understand the process, and the tools to answer the questions.”

Worldwide, real time

Al Gasiewski, a professor of electrical, computer and energy engineering at the University of Colorado in Boulder said the emerging field is ripe for expansion. “There are so many possible applications. Businesses, the military, the environment, and humanitarian groups to name just a few. This industry is seeing steady growth,” he said.

One of their first customers was the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), which is using AllSource to help keep the group current with what’s happening on the ground.

“We’re monitoring the status of North Korean political prisoner camps,” said analytics officer Joe Bermudez Jr., who has presented his findings to the United Nations.

“North Korea is one of the most severe human rights violators in the world today. They have established a series of political prison camps. A lot of them are bigger than Boulder County,” he said.

“We bring out the truth about these camps.”

Serendipity

It was during their work for HRNK that AllSource analysts found what may be a new submarine in North Korea.

Bermudez Jr. wrote about it for 38 North, a web site devoted to analysis of North Korea. It’s run by the U.S.-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

“It is too early to identify the missions intended for this new class of submarine or the position it could occupy in the Korean People’s Navy’s future submarine forces,” Bermudez reported. “If the design is successful and enters production as a patrol submarine, the new boat will have greater range, patrol time and weapons capability than the existing KPN fleet.”

Energy

The energy industry is also a growing market segment for AllSource.

If an oil facility in Iraq was recently taken over by terrorists, analysts at AllSource can study all the resources at their disposal to discover if the oil is still being pumped and if there is an increase or decrease in production. They study traffic patterns, the types of trucks in the area, and any related changes.

Closer to home an oil company might want to know if a competitor is still looking for oil or if they have found the black gold and are ready to produce. This type of competitive intelligence could also become a large part of the AllSource business, Herring said.

Analysts can also identify oil pipeline leaks long before the oil company, by analyzing changes in vegetation along the pipeline from satellite images. That would help a customer stop the leak before it turned into a major problem. “We see events developing, which is fascinating,” Bermudez Jr. said. “Tools like this, where you now combine people on the ground, and micro-local reporting from citizen journalists and from news feeds, allow you to have an incredible, detailed in-depth understanding.”

BAE approached AllSource about a strategic alliance, because they saw imagery analysis as a growth opportunity, Dinville said. BAE saw the commercial potential, Herring said, because they have the software which up until now was being using primarily by governments around the world. Now that software is available n the commercial arena.

AllSource Analysis has a core staff of eight, with 25 analysts under contract, and 50 more available if needed.

Marketing and advertising efforts have been almost nonexistent.

“So far it’s been word of mouth,” said Herring. “When we’re ready to put out the word, we will. We’re confident in this.”

Vince Winkel: 303-684-5291, winkelv@times-call.com or twitter.com/vincewinkel