When a military satellite finds a base being set up or personnel/vehicles being moved in large numbers in a foreign country, how do they know where to look?
Presumably they don’t have people who scan every square yard of the earth until something changes, and I’m guessing there is an element of other intelligence gathering to use as a guide – but do computers do the rest with something like a before/after comparison every so often and flag up differences? The follow on question from that would be what stops them flagging every car that moves?
In: Technology
We fly satellites over an area we’re interested in, and then we have intelligence analysts look through the photos for interesting stuff. Long ago this was literally a magnifying glass with a poster-sized photo. Now it’s computers with zoom, and also now we have programs that can help identify interesting stuff.
I saw spy satellite photos in the Gulf War. Lots and lots of nothing, and then interesting stuff. Honestly, the analyst was amazing to be able to spot what he did and then be able to recognize what each little smudge was. They are very well trained.
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