BEAUFORT, S.C. - The 169th Communications Flight from McEntire Joint National Guard Base in Eastover, S.C., utilizes Eagle Vision 4 to capture a satellite photograph of the Beaufort area to assess damage in the simulated earthquake during the Vigilant Guard 2008 exercise April 21 - 24.
Eagle Vision is a military mobile ground satellite that communicates with commercial imagery satellites. It provides the military with the newest images to assist ground troops. It is a useful asset to the first responders in any emergency or simulated scenario.
Eagle Vision is the only mobile satellite system in the world. There are five in various locations around the world that are able to be deployed where they are needed. The first is in Germany at Ramstein Air Base, the second is in the Middle East, the third is in California, the fourth is located in South Carolina and the fifth is in Hawaii and is frequently deployed to Thailand.
The scope of the satellite in South Carolina reaches from the East Coast to the Mississippi River. The Mississippi River to the West Coast is in view of the satellite in California. The satellite in the Middle East is used primarily for engineering purposes.
The system can be used for intelligence to support the warfight, or engineering to help construction operations, or for mapping and disaster relief, according to Lt. Col. Gene Brislin, team chief with 169th Communications Flight.
"It was used during Katrina, and the floods in Missouri to assess damage and to locate particular structural damage," said Brislin.
During a disaster, an older image of the area is loaded into the computer then the Google Earth program can locate certain buildings such as hospitals or retirement homes. When the new image is taken, the image can be imposed on top of the older one to identify particular buildings and determine the damage the disaster caused.
The satellite has radar imaging that can be used during hurricanes or in areas that tend to stay under cloud cover.
It can take one to two days to pre-plan the image. Once it is planned, the picture can be taken at morning and be ready for use in the afternoon. When the system is deployed, approximately seven people are needed to operate it.
"The main component is the mobile ground satellite also called the data acquisition segment, which receives the image," said Master Sgt. Troy Wilkerson, a satellite operator with the 169th Communications Flight. "After the image is received it is loaded into the data integration segment then the operator can manipulate the image to lay it over a previous picture. The initial communication element distributes the image."
"During Desert Storm, the military found that their satellites were constantly transmitting and had reached their limit," said Brislin. "The military started buying time from commercial satellites to collect images."