Spy Agency Specializes in Lay of the Land

BETHESDA, Md. — Fans weren't the only folks watching when the New England Patriots defeated the Philadelphia Eagles this month at the Super Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.

So was U.S. intelligence.

Working at an FBI-led command post near the stadium, CIA-trained analysts from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, or NGA, created nearly 200 aerial images, interactive maps, digital walk-throughs and other computerized graphics in event of a terrorist attack or other calamity.

The NGA team quickly downloaded data on Jacksonville bridges, roads and hospitals when a large truck overturned two days before the game. They studied schematics when a water main broke. And they accessed aeronautics charts when a small plane skirted a temporary no-fly zone just before kickoff. The plane landed without incident.

Even after the final touchdown, the intelligence team stayed in place.

"All these people were leaving through little Jacksonville airport the next morning," said Chris, a 32-year-old imagery analyst, the NGA's coordinator for national security events who asked not to be identified further for security reasons. "We had to shift our attention there. We were still operational the next day."

The little-known NGA -- previously called the National Imagery and Mapping Agency -- once focused exclusively on foreign targets as both an intelligence service and a combat support group.

But it has played a growing domestic role since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as part of its mission to identify the "what and where" of anything on Earth that could affect national security -- even pro football.

Over the years, the agency has been transformed from a paper-based culture to a computer-based digital operation. It was the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 that pushed the change into high gear.

Using data from satellites, spy planes and other high-tech surveillance systems, analysts began fusing disparate data on computers, from roads to rainfall.

They linked that information with other layers of data -- including Soviet-era charts of caves in Tora Bora, the rugged mountainous area near the Pakistan border, and surface maps. Among their goals: finding flat spots in the rocky Afghanistan terrain where Special Forces helicopters could land.

For the first time, the NGA rushed scores of support teams into combat to help commanders use the new Web-based technology. By the time U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in March 2003, officials say, once-static maps looked like X-box video games and the once-obscure discipline was gaining respect.