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policy watchThe Times TheyAre A-Changin’Global TransparencyIn case you had not noticed, the worldof remote sensing information delivery ischanging rapidly. Once largely the provinceof experts trained in the arcane skillsof processing and analyzing imagery, nowremote sensing technology allows theaverage computer user to go online withGoogle Earth and search the world forimages of far away places with strangesounding names. Or, that same computeruser can search out an overhead image ofhis or her own home and neighborhood.As Google’s software and extensiveimagery database demonstrate, broadbasedtransparency, just a concept in the1960s and 1970s when only the UnitedStates and the Soviet Union operatedhigh resolution (but secret) satellites,is now a firm reality. This new globaltransparency, the ability to look in onneighboring countries and distant lands,is rapidly changing our perception of theworld by opening a view of regions onceoff-limits to inquiring eyes.According to some governments,that ability is just the problem. Officials incountries as politically diverse as SouthKorea, India, Australia, and the Netherlandshave complained to the media and to theU.S. government that Google Earth harmstheir national security by opening to publicscrutiny their secure national facilities, suchas air and missile bases. These countriesworry that someone, sometime, will use thatinformation to harm their security interests(see Figure 1).In many ways, the complaints of thesegovernments are much too late; the catwas already out of the bag nearly twodecades ago when the French launchedthe first of a series of SPOT satellites intoorbit and formed the quasi-private firmSPOT Image to market 10-m resolutiondata. First Russia and then the UnitedStates and Israel followed a few yearslater with commitments to sell even higherresolution data. Today, most people in theworld with sufficient cash or credit canjust order up the image they want, eitherfrom an American or a French firm.The growth in availability of sharp overheadimagery will not stop with these fewcountries. More than a dozen countriesnow operate digital optical remote sensingsystems, a number that willlikely more than double withinSee related story,‘Security Risks ofPublic Access toGeospatial Data’from the Fall 2005issue (Vol. 20,No. 3) at www.imagingnotes.com.the next decade. Althoughmost of these systemsnow collect only moderateresolution imagery, the trendtoward a proliferation of highresolution systems capable ofdelivering imagery quickly andefficiently is clearly evident.Further, engineers havemade significant progressin developing high resolution syntheticaperture radar (SAR) systems capable ofimaging through dark of night and clouds.Soon Canada will be marketing 3-meterdata from RADARSAT-2, and Germany,Italy and other nations are pursuingsimilar technology.Thus, the reality is that imagerytransparency is growing, not diminishing,despite complaints from some countriesabout the ready availability of some information.The dual-use nature of satelliteremote sensing means that countries willalways have concerns about its use. Likeother powerful technologies, the marriageof remotely sensed data with geographicinformation systems and advancedcomputing capabilities contains threateningas well as constructive elements.In fact, although the United States hasled the advance to ever higher resolutionand faster data delivery, its willingnessto foster greater global transparency isa relatively recent occurrence and onlyhappened after the collapse of the SovietUnion. Before then, the United Stateswould not allow the operation of civilsystems with resolutions better than 10meters. But diminished perceived threatsand the trends of technology developmentallowed new thinking that beganto see advantages in allowing greatertransparency by promoting growth in anascent U.S. remote sensing industry.The U.S. military, which was accustomedto greater protection from overhead satellites,has had to adapt to the new realitiesof transparency.Certainly, the same countries thatcomplain about Google’s ease of usewould think differently about the use ofthe same type of imagery torespond to a natural disaster.For example, satellite datawere used extensively in theimmediate aftermath of theAsian tsunami of December2004 and Hurricanes Katrinaand Rita in 2005. In the lattercases, only a few days afterthe hurricanes passed over,users could call up imageson Google Earth to inspectthe damage the storms had caused andto direct rescue efforts. Later, similarimagery delivered directly to customersby the imagery companies was used toassist recovery efforts.During the Cold War, the Soviet Unionand the United States used their secretremote sensing systems to keep a watchfuleye on each other. Such systems werecritical in helping to maintain stabilityand to avoid nuclear holocaust. Today, s u m m e r 2 0 0 6 w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m