NGA releases Tearline, delivering unclassified intelligence via mobile app

On April 21, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency released its latest app, Tearline, into Apple App Store and Google Play, delivering unclassified geospatial intelligence to verified government users via tablets and mobile devices.

Tearline is open to the intelligence community, Department of Defense, allies, and academic and private sector partners sponsored into the system.

“We built and launched the Tearline platform to not only address the commercialization of GEOINT but to deliver high-quality, original content around the clock to senior officials, whether drinking coffee at home in the morning, waiting at the airport or driving around town,” said Chris Rasmussen, NGA’s public software development and GEOINT Pathfinder lead.

According to Rasmussen, “It’s like a banking app, the shell is delivered from the app stores but you need credentials pointed to a secure server for it to work.”

The Tearline mobile application was developed by NGA’s GEOINT Pathfinder project, which answers intelligence questions using only unclassified tools, data, information technology and services available in the commercial and open source world.

Security clearances were not a prerequisite to joining the Pathfinder team, which enabled the project to utilize diverse talent pools. For example, the Android app was coded by an intern from Thomas Jefferson High School, located in Northern Virginia, near NGA’s headquarters.

“As GEOINT shifts toward a more unclassified data future, NGA has an opportunity to tell more stories at the protected yet unclassified level,” said Rasmussen.

Tearline is accessible through commercial app stores and web browsers of any kind.

Interested contributors and readers from DoD, IC and partner nations should email oss@nga.mil for login instructions.

Source: NGA