Quality of new Israeli spy satellite photos said 'excellent'

[Behind the Aegis]

Photographs sent over the weekend from a new Israeli spy satellite, placed in orbit to monitor Iranian nuclear developments and other key defense developments, were of "excellent" quality, according to the control room of the company which launched the Eros B satellite.

Eros B, launched on Tuesday from a Siberian missile base atop a Russian rocket, transmitted its first pictures to Earth on Friday.

ImageSat, citing the high quality of the photos, labelled the project a success. "We see people walking in streets , not to mention cars traveling," said ImageSat CEO Shimon Eckhaus.

Objects 70 centimeters apart can be distinguished in the satellite pictures. Any closer, and they appear as unified objects. This indicates a marked improvement in satellite technology; the satellite launched by the company some five years ago could only distinguish between objects at least one and

more...

[PCIntern]

1. In the book 'Fail-Safe'

published in the early 60's, the congressman was shown a large screen with the resolution of the picture from a satellite such that the viewers could see the nature of a picture of a woman which a Russian soldier was holding in his hand. At the time, here was absolutely no denial of this capability from any source including the military and the photographic experts at the time. One can only imagine how a digitally enhanced photo would look now...probably can check the calligraphy on a wedding invitation from 250 miles.

[Ian David]

2. "Eros" sounds like a satellite for a porn channel. n/t

[Tesha]

3. KH11 and KH12, our front-line optical spy satellites...

KH11 ("Keyhole) and KH12, our front-line optical spy satellites, are claimed to have
a resolution down to 4 to 6 inches (~15 cm) on a good day.

Tesha

[William Seger]

5. Yup, and that's getting close to the theoretical limit

A telescope looking down from a satellite is subject to the same limits as a telescope looking up from the earth: 1) a telescope's theoretical resolving power is limited to the ratio of the wavelength of the light divided by the diameter of the optics; and 2) the many miles of atmosphere that you have to look through make it impossible to get to that limit (although you can get close with some type of "adaptive optics" that can compensate somewhat for shifting atmospheric disturbances). KH11 and KH12 are about the size of the Hubble Space Telescope, so the the mirrors are probably about 2.5 meters. With no atmospheric disturbances to deal with, the theoretical maximum resolution would be about 3.7 cm (in visible light). KH11 and KH12 probably have some type of adaptive optics, and they certainly can use digital integration of multiple images to infer a little extra detail, but the resolutions you see in movies just aren't physically possible.

[daleo]

4. If the satellite travels at 18,000 miles per hour

And Iran is maybe on the order of 1000 miles or so, tracking things at a 70 cm resolution would be pretty difficult, and you wouldn't have a very wide field of view. Thus, this information seems to have mostly a propaganda purpose, as far as I can tell. Besides, why broadcast these capabilities to the world and to potential enemies?

Or perhaps it is a warning of some other strategic capability? There must be more to all this.

[One Honest Guy]

9. Because when Israel announces...

...they got a photo of Iranians wheelbarrowing their A-Bomb, everyone would believe it without seeing it. At least that's the idea. Notice it's the Israelis who are boasting about it. There is your answer right there.

[daleo]

13. It could be that the U.S. is helping with satellite intelligence

Advertising these Israeli capabilities to the world now would set up a plausible deniability later, should Israel use U.S. satellite intelligence for an air strike on Iran.

[Tesha]

10. As two of us pointed out above, announcing a 70cm capability is NBD.

As two of us pointed out above, announcing a 70cm capability is
"no big deal"; *EVERYBODY* has that sort of capability including
commercial services from which you can buy images.

I'd expect the real capabilities are:

1. Much better, and

2. Highly classified.

With regard to tracking the surface, even though you're moving
along at about 7800 meters/second, in space, what's to perturb
you? If the satellite has a slight rotational motion to compensate
out the linear motion, why wouldn't the pointing be accurate,
especially if there are large gyroscopes on the bird to give
it a lot of angular momentum?

Tesha

[daleo]

12. You could be right about the tracking

There are slight anomalies in the gravitational potential of the earth, which might complicate tracking. I would think it would be a pretty tricky job anyway, especially if the target was moving (e.g. a truck with a missile or some other such vehicle). But I don't doubt such capabilities exist.

I think the bigger issue is field of view. If the satellite was focusing on a target that small, it wouldn't have much width of vision, so it would miss pretty well everything else. Also, I imagine that it would only have a few minutes during each 90 minute orbit when Iran would actually be in view.

I believe the U.S. spy satellite system makes up for these limitations by having a large array of satellites in space.

[Tesha]

14. Here's lots of info about the Keyholes and some actual photos

Here's lots of info about the Keyholes and some actual photos:

http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/imint/kh-11.htm
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/imint/kh-12.htm

We don't have too many of the top-of-the-line models
on station at any given time.



Tesha

[daleo]

15. Very interesting information

These things are big - they must cost a pretty penny too. Thanks for the links.

[leesa]

6. Can they see Israeli nukes yet? It would be nice to make it "official"

[HuffleClaw]

7. and i'm sure they'll 'find' some 'proof' of evil sinister iranian activity

soon enough too.

[hogwyld]

8. Just maybe

They're trying to get some incriminating pics of Ahmadinijad eating some pork rinds....:sarcasm:

[coffeenap]

11. Launched on a Russian rocket?? Why and how did this happen?

Isn't the * admin setting up the PR against Russia?