Geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) is a discipline that harnesses the power of location data to aid the information-gathering process across a variety of fields and applications – from national security to disaster response, law enforcement, environmental monitoring, financial crime investigations, urban development, military operations, war zone reporting and many more
GEOINT can be defined as the combination of geospatial data with various intelligence sources to analyze, visualize and verify location and movement information for people and objects of interest. This rapidly evolving field integrates geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, satellite imagery, aerial photography, maps, terrain data and other types of intelligence, including open sources (via OSINT), to extract useful insights from spatial data.
The applications for GEOINT are as diverse as the datasets it encompasses. In the realm of national security and defense, GEOINT plays a crucial role in intelligence gathering, surveillance and defense planning. Geospatial data provides insights into terrain, infrastructure and human activity, allowing military and intelligence agencies to assess threats, plan operations and strengthen border security. GEOINT can also help support counterterrorism efforts by identifying potential safe havens, tracking terrorist movements and disrupting their networks.
Beyond military intelligence, GEOINT is also an asset to agencies involved in disaster management and orchestrating relief efforts. During natural disasters — such as floods, earthquakes or wildfires — GEOINT can help with rapid damage assessment, emergency response and recovery effort coordination, and delivery of aid to the people who need it the most. Geospatial data allows emergency managers to visualize affected areas, identify critical infrastructure and allocate resources efficiently.
OSINT researchers all over the world use geospatial data to track suspicious shipments, monitor government construction projects, debunk misinformation and even locate missing persons. Whether it's identifying deforestation trends in the Amazon rainforest, tracking wildfires, providing early warning for natural disasters or optimizing supply chain logistics, GEOINT provides valuable insights that help drive decisions across many domains.
GEOINT analysts rely on various methods to gather geospatial data, which fall roughly into three categories: remote sensing, human intelligence (HUMINT) and OSINT.
By combining their tradecraft with specialized data collection and analytics tools, researchers can transform raw geospatial data into necessary evidence to help expose hidden operations, identify illegal activity, expedite relief efforts, predict natural disasters and even bring those responsible for crimes and wartime atrocities to justice. As technology continues to advance, GEOINT collection methods will become even more sophisticated and powerful. This will allow researchers to gain deeper insights into people, places and events around them and make more accurate decisions based on location-specific information.
Several categories of tools and platforms are available to help GEOINT researchers collect, process, visualize and analyze geospatial data.
Silo for Research offers a unique solution to support GEOINT collection efforts. By providing a secure and anonymized browsing environment, Silo enables GEOINT professionals to access geospatial data from different online sources without compromising their security or attributing activity to their organization.
Through Silo's cloud-based architecture, users can browse the web, access geospatial databases and interact with mapping platforms while maintaining complete isolation from potential threats. Silo's managed attribution capabilities allow researchers to access geospatial data from alternative regions and in different languages without tipping off local webmasters. This is crucial because some websites change their content based on the user’s identity and browsing location. By blending in with the local geography, Silo ensures users are viewing the correct information, as it would appear to local users.
Researchers can also use custom, built-in tools like the exif data viewer and Silo Transcription and Translation to avoid giving away their identity when using foreign sources. With Silo, GEOINT analysts can match their online persona to their specific research needs and blend in with the usual internet traffic without arousing suspicion.
Silo also offers a variety of specialized tools, such as an automated collector, helping set up regular automated data capture routines, which can be useful in monitoring movements, identifying trends and predicting certain events. All research content is encrypted and stored securely in the cloud, preserving a proper chain of custody and allowing for ongoing collaboration between different users and groups.
