GeoData Policy

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2008, Issue No. 109
November 10, 2008

Secrecy News Blog:  http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

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COMMERCIAL SATELLITE IMAGERY SHEDS LIGHT HERE AND THERE

As the quality and availability of commercial satellite imagery continue to improve, the technology is adding a new dimension to public understanding of world events, while both enhancing and challenging national and global security.

“Last month, the most powerful commercial satellite in history sent its first pictures back to Earth, and another with similar capabilities is set for launch in mid-2009,” wrote Peter Eisler in USA Today last week.  “The imagery provided by those and other commercial satellites has transformed global security in fundamental ways, forcing even the most powerful nations to hide facilities and activities that are visible not only to rival nations, but even to their own citizens.”  See “Google Earth helps yet worries government,” November 7.

Iraqi insurgents, among other non-state actors, have also taken advantage of the new capabilities offered by satellite imagery.  A 2006 dispatch prepared by the DNI Open Source Center (first reported by USA Today) documented “the use of Google Earth for tactical planning of rocket attacks against U.S. military targets in Iraq.”  See “Iraqi Insurgency Group Utilizes Google Earth for Attack Planning,” July 19, 2006.

A newly disclosed GeoEye commercial satellite image of the site of a suspected Syrian nuclear facility at Al Kibar that was taken on November 23, 2007, some two months after it was bombed by Israel on September 6, 2007, shows rather rapid reconstruction of the destroyed facility.

“I’d say it confirms that the Syrians were in a really big hurry to get the site covered up,” said Allen Thomson, a former CIA analyst who has studied the case.  “The previously available DigitalGlobe picture of 24 October 2007 showed only a mound of dirt.  By a month later (the GeoEye pic), what appears to be a thick slab (you can see that it casts a shadow) was in place.  And January 11 imagery shows the new building up and the roof in place.”

The new image was released last week courtesy of GeoEye / Space Imaging Middle East.  It appears on page 1170 of an extensive open source compilation (large pdf) on the Israeli Strike in Syria prepared by Mr. Thomson.

Launched on September 6th,  the world’s highest resolution commercial remote sensing satellite, GeoEye-1 , released its first image today. GeoEye-1 can acquire black-and-white imagery in panchromatic mode* at a 0.41-meter ground resolution and color imagery in the multi-spectral mode* at a 1.65-meter ground resolution. That’s close enough to zoom in on the home plate of a baseball diamond, noted Mark Brender, GeoEye’s vice president of communications and marketing. GeoEye-1 will provide very high resolution imagery to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), but others only will be able to obtain imagery that is processed to half a meter [19.7 inches] ground resolution because of U.S. government restrictions.

According to Brian X. Chen (WIRED Science, 10/8/08), Google has an exclusive relationship with GeoEye, “meaning the search-engine giant will be the only online mapping site using the satellite’s photos.”

• GeoEye Press Release, October 8, 2008
• Google’s Super Satellite Captures First Image, Brian X. Chen, WIRED Science, October 8, 2008
• GeoEye’s Next Generation Color Satellite Imagery, GeoInformatics, October 25, 2007

* “Panchromatic” = a single wide band in the visible part of the spectrum;  ”multi-spectral” = the green, red, and infra-red bands of the electromagnetic spectrum; “pansharpening” = a suite of techniques used to fuse/merge panchromatic and multi-spectral imagery to increase the spatial resolution of the multi-spectral images (color), while simultaneously preserving the spectral information contained within the multispectral images.

As reported by GISCafe.com on June 10, 2008:

DULLES, Va., June 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — GeoEye, Inc. a premier provider of satellite, aerial and geospatial information, announced that the glass mirror blank for its advanced, next-generation Earth imaging satellite has been delivered to ITT Corporation. Last fall, GeoEye announced it had contracted with ITT to begin the phased development of the camera for GeoEye-2, slated for launch in the 2011 timeframe. …

GeoEye-2’s glass blank mirror was completed and delivered to ITT last month. The company’s Rochester, N.Y.-based Space Systems Division will begin grinding and polishing the mirror that measures 1.1 meter in diameter later this summer. The satellite will be of the same general class as GeoEye-1 but will benefit from significant improvements in capability, including enhanced direct tasking, and the potential to collect imagery of the Earth’s surface at 0.25-meter or 9.75-inch ground resolution [underlining added].

Rob Mitrevski, vice president and director of Commercial and Space Science Systems, ITT Space Systems, said, “The telescope and camera assembly for GeoEye-2 will benefit from decades of expertise ITT has amassed on behalf of the U.S. Government and other commercial customers. Once operational, the satellite’s imaging system will provide a resolution and accuracy never achieved before in commercial remote sensing.”

GeoEye believes the market will be ready for another sensor to serve the growing geospatial or location-based market in the U.S. and overseas in the 2011-2012 timeframe. While GeoEye has an operating license from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to build and launch a satellite constellation with this extremely high ground resolution of a quarter meter, the final decision regarding GeoEye-2’s resolution has not yet been made. If the satellite is built to achieve this high resolution, under current licensing constraints, only the U.S. Government would be allowed access to imagery at this highest resolution. All other customers would receive imagery at the highest resolution allowed by U.S. regulations, currently 0.5-meter or 19.5-inch ground resolution[underlining added]. In addition, GeoEye’s agreements with foreign customers involving large volumes of imagery generally require approval from NOAA.

For full text of the article, visit: http://www10.giscafe.com/nbc/articles/view_article.php?section=CorpNews&articleid=543530