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How detailed an image can a top end military satellite REALLY get?

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StageLeft

No Lifer
I hear crap like one meter, and then another person says they can read text on a novel and crap. Does anybody have a REAL idea based on facts, and not crap from some movie? Also, is there a pic of an example of their precision?

Cheers!
 
i only have crap in this regard

it is supposed to be a secret, so i dunno how you would get an example without ending up with FBI on your door

"Commercial imaging technology will improve dramatically with the launch of the Quickbird satellite in October. This satellite will have the greatest resolution of any non-military satellite, able to see objects smaller than a meter."
http://www.satnews.com/feature/feature-satellitevsterrorism-oct2001.html

The increasing sophistication of military and non-military satellites is being matched by huge advances in manipulating and assessing data from these satellites. New technologies developed by the Americans now make it possible to ?see more? data from photographs or radar imagery. Recent advances have been so stunning that some analysts say the world has entered into a new era of spying.

America?s National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) in Virginia is credited with creating this new era. The revolution has involved astounding improvements in assessing and manipulating the digital data obtained from various satellites.

America?s intelligence services can now combine visible light imagery with radar and other imagery to make a two-dimensional image multidimensional. By using pictures taken in stereo-optic pairs (or by cameras placed side-by-side) American satellites have been taking pictures that can be transformed into 3D images.

These 3D images allow American intelligence to create virtual reality images of battlefields, and to train military forces to attack these objectives.
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and that article is from October 2001

"But, with the Russian declassification followed by orbiting of civilian commercial satellites, e.g., IKONOS and Quickbird, high resolution imagery (1 to 4 meter range) has proved to have its military applications and is being purchased by many nations. "
http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Intro/Part2_26e.html

http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/index.html
 
Originally posted by: preslove
Well, it's classified, so you're gonna get all these people making sh!t up.
Click to expand...

Shows how much you know. My dad works for NASA and told me they can read the VIN on your car! 😀
 
The modern telescopes can see ojects 1 meter in diameter on the surface of the moon. Sattelites are 5-10 times closer, so you do the math.
 
GetaMapping have data for the UK in 25cm/pixel resolution 🙂

And that's commercial stuff...I can only guess what resolution military stuff can do.


Confused
 
Tom Clancy Books make repeated refernce to being able to read a pack of cigarrettes on the ground... Supose that is possible with all their magical "blow up this section... can you clear that up a bit" routine...
 
Originally posted by: freebee
The satellite people must spend all day oogling nude babes sunbathing in their backyards.
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with a 1 meter resolution, the women better have some pretty enormous tits for them to be picked up 😉
 
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