Overview#
An airborne ISR platform completes a reconnaissance pass and lands. Within minutes, the imagery products need to be ingested, catalogued, and available to the exploitation team. If the catalog has no record of the collection by the time the analyst queries it, the window for time-sensitive targeting or route confirmation may already be closing. The NPIF Imagery Catalog provides the ingestion tracking and catalog management layer that makes imagery products discoverable immediately after collection.
The module is aligned to STANAG 7023, the NATO Primary Imagery Format (NPIF) standard for airborne sensor data. It gives operators a quick view of ingested imagery volume, mission coverage, classified-image counts, and the latest collection date so teams can confirm that imagery products are arriving, organised, and ready for downstream exploitation.
Open Standards#
- STANAG 7023 (NATO Primary Imagery Format, NPIF): The core format this capability implements; the ingestion adapter parses NPIF binary files according to the Edition 3 segment structure, including General Administration, Platform Data, Sensor Data, and Primary Image segments, to extract mission, platform, sensor-type, and security-classification metadata.
- STANAG 4559 (NSILI, NATO Secondary Imagery Reporting and Archiving): The ISR catalog layer interoperates with NSILI Edition 4 REST endpoints using OGC CSW GetRecords/GetRecordById requests, allowing imagery products to be synchronised from allied coalition catalog services.
- OGC Catalogue Services for the Web (CSW 2.0.2): The NSILI adapter queries remote catalogs using the OGC CSW protocol with OGC filter XML, including bounding-box (OWS 1.1 BoundingBox) and temporal property constraints, for standards-based geospatial discovery.
- STANAG 4774 / 4778 (Confidentiality Labelling and Binding): Security classification labels applied to NPIF records are aligned to the STANAG 4774 classification hierarchy (UNCLASSIFIED through COSMIC TOP SECRET), and the interop-audit layer uses the STANAG 4778 binding-hash mechanism when attaching security labels to exported records.
- ISO 8601: Temporal fields for collection date-time groups and catalog time-range filters are represented in ISO 8601 format, ensuring interoperability with allied systems and downstream exploitation tools.
- GraphQL: All query and mutation operations (image record listing, statistics, file ingest) are exposed through a typed GraphQL API using the Strawberry framework, providing a consistent and schema-validated interface for frontend and workflow integrations.
- OAuth 2.0 / JWT Bearer tokens: Access to every NPIF and ISR catalog endpoint is gated by JWT bearer-token authentication, with organisation-scoped data isolation enforced on every resolver and mutation.
Last Reviewed: 2026-03-25 Last Updated: 2026-04-14
Key Features#
- Mission-Based Imagery Inventory: Organises imagery collections by mission so analysts can track product volume across operations and identify which missions have complete coverage.
- Image Volume Awareness: Summarises the total number of ingested images to show current catalogue depth and confirm that collection rates are meeting operational requirements.
- Classification-Sensitive Monitoring: Tracks classified imagery volume for workflows that must separate protected collections from general-access products, supporting need-to-know enforcement.
- Latest Collection Visibility: Highlights the most recent collection date so teams can identify stale or delayed imagery intake before it affects exploitation timelines.
- ISR Workflow Support: Fits naturally into ISR, simulation, and product-management workflows, with direct pivot paths to exploitation and reporting tools.
Use Cases#
- Airborne Collection Oversight: ISR teams confirm that imagery from current missions has been ingested and catalogued correctly before directing analysts to begin exploitation.
- Product Readiness Monitoring: Analysts verify that required imagery is available before starting exploitation or reporting work, avoiding wasted effort querying an incomplete catalog.
- Classified Imagery Governance: Supervisors monitor protected imagery volume and ensure the right handling posture for sensitive collections throughout their lifecycle.
- Mission Archive Management: Teams maintain a searchable catalog of imagery products for historical comparison, pattern-of-life analysis, and reporting.
Integration#
- NPIF-aligned imagery ingestion workflows (STANAG 7023)
- ISR and simulation workbenches
- Mission and collection tracking services
- Imagery exploitation and reporting workflows