Defence and national security
The satellite record is the account nobody's press office wrote.
Aircraft move. Their shadows, shelters, and SAR returns do not lie.Airbase order-of-battle change detection
Sub-metre optical imagery and Sentinel-1 SAR coherence change let analysts track aircraft presence, shelter occupancy, and apron activity at foreign airbases without setting foot near them. Readiness states can be inferred from open and commercial sources alone.
Planet SkySatMaxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades Neo
Ships turn off their transponders. They cannot turn off physics.Naval vessel presence and port-activity monitoring
SAR backscatter and optical imagery reveal warship berth occupancy, submarine pen access, and underway movements even when AIS is silent. Cross-referencing transponder gaps against detected hull signatures is the core method.
Sentinel-1 SAR (IW mode)Capella Space X-band SARPlanet Dove (PlanetScope)
Concrete pours cannot be classified. Satellites read them anyway.Missile site and launch-facility construction monitoring
Excavation scars, silo-lid geometry, and road extensions into empty terrain are legible from commercial and open satellites long before a facility is declared. This page documents the published OSINT methodology used to identify missile garrison construction worldwide.
Maxar WorldView-3Maxar WorldView-2Planet SkySat
Craters are permanent. Cloud cover is not always cooperative.Post-strike battle damage assessment from optical imagery
Pre- and post-event optical imagery can quantify structural collapse, cratering, and fire scarring at military and dual-use sites. Resolution determines what you can actually measure: 0.31 m resolves a vehicle-sized crater; 10 m resolves a city block.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SkySat
Clouds block cameras. They cannot stop radar from noticing rubble.SAR coherence-loss damage detection in denied or clouded areas
When buildings collapse or ground is disturbed, the radar signal that bounced predictably from a surface stops bouncing the same way. Interferometric coherence loss between repeat SAR passes makes that change legible even under cloud, smoke, or access denial.
Sentinel-1 IW (C-band, ESA)ICEYE X-band SAR (commercial)Capella Space X-band SAR (commercial)
Soil remembers every vehicle that crossed it. Radar reads the receipt.Border-zone ground-disturbance and incursion monitoring
SAR backscatter change and high-resolution optical differencing can detect vehicle tracks, berm construction, trench digging, and vegetation clearance along contested borders, often within hours of the event. Each method has hard limits that analysts must account for.
Sentinel-1 SAR (IW mode)Planet Dove (PlanetScope)Airbus Pléiades Neo
Tents appear overnight. Pixel arithmetic catches them by morning.Military encampment growth and force-buildup detection
Optical time-series analysis can quantify tent lines, vehicle parks, and logistics depots as they grow, giving analysts days of warning before a force is ready to move. Revisit cadence is the binding constraint.
Planet Dove (PlanetScope)Planet SkySatMaxar WorldView-3
Cities go dark. The sensor keeps watching.Night-light blackout mapping in conflict zones
VIIRS Day/Night Band radiance time-series can document the collapse of electrical infrastructure during conflict with sub-monthly precision. Distinguishing deliberate blackout from grid damage from population flight requires careful method design.
VIIRS Day/Night Band (Suomi NPP)VIIRS Day/Night Band (NOAA-20)VIIRS Nightfire (Suomi NPP / NOAA-20)
Agreements are signed on paper. Violations happen in pixels.Ceasefire and arms-control treaty verification from open imagery
Commercial satellite imagery has become a primary tool for verifying ceasefire lines, weapon-exclusion zones, and arms-control obligations. This page covers the sensors, observables, resolution requirements, and legal standing of open imagery in treaty monitoring.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SkySat
A fabricated event leaves no shadow at the right angle.Disinformation rebuttal using dated satellite scenes
Timestamped satellite imagery, combined with shadow-angle geometry, crop phenology and building-footprint comparison, gives analysts a physics-grounded method for refuting false claims about where and when events occurred.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SkySat
You cannot hide a ventilation shaft from a satellite.Underground facility detection from surface signatures
Subsurface military construction leaves measurable marks above ground. Combining InSAR deformation mapping with high-resolution optical analysis of spoil heaps, shaft arrays and access infrastructure lets analysts infer underground activity before a facility becomes operational.
Sentinel-1 SAR (IW mode)Maxar WorldView-3Planet SkySat
Trucks cannot hide. Patterns of presence tell the whole story.Military logistics depot throughput estimation
Counting vehicles and railcars in time-series optical imagery reveals supply-chain tempo at depots, fuel farms, and railheads. The method gained public validation during open-source analysis of Russian logistics before the 2022 Ukraine invasion.
Planet Dove (PlanetScope)Planet SkySatMaxar WorldView-3
Engines cool slowly. Satellites pass often enough to notice.Thermal anomaly detection for military activity inference
Spaceborne thermal and shortwave infrared sensors detect heat signatures from aircraft engines, vehicle exhausts, and burning materiel. Open data from Landsat and ASTER provides the baseline; commercial SWIR adds resolution where it matters.
Landsat 8/9 TIRSASTER TIRMODIS/VIIRS Active Fire
People flee. Shelters appear overnight. Satellites record both.Conflict-driven displacement and refugee camp monitoring
Optical time-series and structure-counting methods track the emergence and growth of refugee and IDP camps, turning shelter density and roof-shadow geometry into population proxies. Honest about cloud cover, resolution limits, and the ethical weight of imaging civilian populations.
Sentinel-2 MSIPlanet DoveMaxar WorldView-3
Emitters broadcast their position. Physics collects the invoice.Electronic warfare emitter geolocation from space
Commercial RF-geolocation satellites use time- and frequency-difference-of-arrival to locate ground-based radars and jammers without intercepting content. Position and frequency, not signals intelligence.
HawkEye 360 RF geolocation constellationKleos Space RF geolocation constellationSpire Global GNSS radio-occultation and AIS/ADS-B
Fresh tarmac absorbs SWIR. Aged pavement does not.Airfield runway repair and reconstruction monitoring
Military runway repair, extension, and crater infill leave measurable spectral and radar signatures. Open Sentinel data flags the change; sub-metre commercial imagery confirms the extent.
Sentinel-2 MSI (SWIR bands B11 and B12)Sentinel-1 SAR IW modePlanet SkySat
Vessels vanish from AIS. Their wakes do not.Naval mine-laying pattern detection from SAR and optical
SAR and optical imagery can reveal mine-laying activity through vessel track geometry, speed profiles, and ship-type confirmation, even when transponders are off. The method identifies suspicious behaviour; it cannot confirm mine presence or density.
Sentinel-1 SAR IW (C-band, ESA)Capella Space X-band SARPlanet Dove optical
Materiel moves. Shadows stay long enough to count.Weapons storage site inventory-change detection
Sub-metre optical imagery and SAR coherence analysis can track munitions stocks, armoured vehicle parks, and weapons storage areas with enough fidelity to detect significant inventory changes between passes.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SkySat
Vehicles move into the forest. Physics does not forget them.Armoured vehicle dispersal and hide-site detection
Sub-metre optical imagery and X-band SAR backscatter anomalies can reveal armoured vehicle dispersal from garrison to hide positions, as demonstrated publicly during the 2022 Russian pre-invasion build-up. Each sensor method has hard limits that any honest analyst must state.
Planet SkySatMaxar WorldView-3Capella Space X-band SAR
Landing craft cannot hide their hulls from C-band radar.Amphibious assault staging and landing-craft concentration monitoring
Flat-bottomed landing craft and vehicle staging aprons produce distinctive radar and optical signatures that betray amphibious force preparation. This page explains the sensor physics, honest revisit limits, and analytic methods used to monitor coastal marshalling areas.
Maxar WorldView-2Planet Dove constellationICEYE SAR (X-band)
Tents, generators and access tracks cannot hide what they are.Field hospital and forward triage site detection from imagery
Very-high-resolution optical and thermal sensors can identify field medical facilities by their physical signatures: tent clusters, vehicle parks, generator heat and freshly cut access tracks. Detection is possible but unambiguous identification requires sensor combinations and honest tolerance for residual ambiguity.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SkySat
A pontoon takes hours to build. Satellites notice before the tanks cross.Pontoon and military bridging construction monitoring
Military pontoon bridges produce distinct physical signatures detectable by high-revisit optical and SAR sensors. This page explains the physics, the sensors, and the honest limits of remote detection.
Planet Dove (PlanetScope)Sentinel-1 SAR (C-band, ESA)ICEYE SAR (X-band)
Craters point backwards. The geometry is simple; the politics are not.Artillery firing-position and impact-crater density mapping
Sub-metre optical and SAR imagery can map shell-crater density, orientation, and gun-pit scrapes across contested terrain, supporting probabilistic back-azimuth estimation of firing positions and bombardment-intensity assessment.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SkySat
Submarines disappear underwater. Their support infrastructure cannot.Submarine base pier activity and sortie-rate inference
Optical and SAR imagery of submarine berths reveals vessel presence, pier-side equipment states and sortie patterns. Submerged boats are invisible to every open-source sensor; only surface and pier-side signatures are observable.
ICEYE X-band SARCapella Space X-band SARMaxar WorldView-2
Flatcars don't lie. Marshalling yards tell the story first.Rail network military freight and rolling-stock movement monitoring
Concentrations of military rolling stock at rail yards are visible days before a force moves. High-revisit optical and SAR imagery, cross-referenced against track-usage signatures, turns that signal into structured intelligence.
Planet Dove constellationMaxar WorldView-3Sentinel-1 SAR (C-band, ESA)
Batteries move. The earthworks they leave behind do not.Forward air-defence battery emplacement and redeployment tracking
Very-high-resolution optical and SAR imagery reveals the revetment geometry, antenna shadows and vehicle parks that characterise surface-to-air missile batteries. Sequential scene comparison tracks redeployment, though decoy emplacements of similar geometry create a persistent false-positive problem.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoICEYE SAR constellation
Soil moves. Radar notices before the diggers have left.Trench network and field-fortification construction mapping
SAR coherence loss and sub-metre optical shadow analysis can map trench-line excavation within days of breaking ground. The method has a hard floor: slit trenches narrower than roughly one metre defeat most commercial SAR at standard modes.
Sentinel-1 SAR (C-band, ESA)ICEYE Spotlight SAR (X-band)Planet SkySat (optical, multispectral and panchromatic)
Soil cannot hide what it has absorbed. Time can.Mass grave and conflict burial-site surface disturbance detection
Freshly disturbed soil has a distinct spectral and dielectric signature detectable from orbit. The window is narrow: vegetation regrowth begins masking evidence within weeks, making rapid multispectral and SAR revisit the difference between documentation and impunity.
Maxar WorldView-3Planet SuperDoveSentinel-2 MSI
Queues form in minutes. The satellite record is permanent.Road checkpoint and vehicle-queue monitoring in conflict zones
Sub-metre optical imagery from commercial constellations can detect newly established road checkpoints, measure vehicle-queue length and identify barrier structures within hours of tasking. Coarser sensors provide queue-context but cannot resolve checkpoint infrastructure from ordinary roadside activity.
Planet SkySatAirbus Pléiades NeoMaxar WorldView-2 / WorldView-3
Rooftops sink when tanks empty. Satellites notice.Military fuel depot tank-volume and stock-change estimation
Floating-roof depression geometry in very-high-resolution optical imagery, combined with SAR double-bounce signatures, lets analysts estimate liquid fuel stock levels at military storage facilities without setting foot inside the perimeter.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoCapella Space SAR (X-band)
Concrete and steel in the surf: the intertidal zone cannot hide.Coastal obstacle and beach-defence emplacement monitoring
Anti-landing obstacles, wire barriers and beach-defence structures leave detectable signatures in very-high-resolution optical imagery at low tide and in X-band SAR. This page explains the physics, the sensors, and the honest limits of what space-based monitoring can and cannot see.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoICEYE X-band SAR (spotlight mode)
The shelter is twelve metres long. That is enough.Drone base and UAV operating infrastructure detection
Tactical UAV operating bases occupy a fraction of the ground a manned airfield needs, but sub-metre optical and SAR imagery reveals the shelters, launch rails, antenna arrays and generator pads that betray them. Open-source analysis of Shahed-series sites has already proved the method works at scale.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SkySat
Reactors reject heat. Clouds cannot hide thermodynamics.Nuclear facility operational-status change detection from open imagery
Multispectral and thermal open imagery can reveal operational changes at nuclear facilities, from cooling-tower plume behaviour to vehicle surges, without access to classified data. Surface signatures are real; subsurface enrichment is not.
Maxar WorldView-3Landsat 8 and 9 TIRSSentinel-2 MSI
TELs move. Physics and geometry still betray them.Road-mobile ballistic missile launcher dispersal tracking
Transporter-erector-launchers are designed to disappear into terrain, but high-revisit optical and SAR imagery can bound their probable locations during dispersal. The method is probabilistic, not continuous, and fails completely under canopy or inside tunnels.
Planet SkySatMaxar WorldView-3ICEYE SAR constellation
Exercises leave marks. The question is whether they stay.Military training exercise tempo and scale monitoring
High-revisit optical and SAR imagery can quantify how often, how large, and where military forces train. Separating a rehearsal from a real deployment requires honest reading of observable indicators, not inference of intent.
Planet Dove constellationMaxar WorldView-2 / WorldView-3Sentinel-1 SAR (C-band)
Ships turn off their transponders. They cannot turn off their radar cross-section.Port blockade and commercial shipping denial monitoring
SAR vessel detection cross-referenced with AIS gaps reveals whether a declared naval blockade is holding. Berth occupancy, anchorage density and cargo-handling signatures complete the picture where transponders go dark.
Sentinel-1 SAR (C-band, ESA)ICEYE SAR (X-band, commercial)Maxar WorldView-2 (optical, 0.46 m pan)
A tank that never heats up is not a tank.Decoy and dummy equipment discrimination from real military assets
Inflatable decoys and wooden mock-ups fool the eye but not the thermometer. Multi-spectral and thermal cross-referencing exposes the difference between real metal and a convincing replica.
Maxar WorldView-3Sentinel-2 MSILandsat 8/9 TIRS
The grid goes dark. Satellites record exactly what changed.Physical consequence mapping of cyber attacks on infrastructure
When a cyber-physical attack on a power station or water plant is suspected and ground access is denied, optical and SAR change detection provides the evidentiary layer that intelligence reports alone cannot. Coherence loss, thermal change and night-light collapse each tell a different part of the story.
Sentinel-1 SAR (C-band, ESA)Maxar WorldView LegionPlanet SkySat
Fences appear overnight. Geometry does not lie.Prisoner of war and detention facility detection from imagery
Sub-metre commercial imagery can reveal newly built detention compounds through perimeter geometry, guard-tower shadows and barrack density. Timeline reconstruction from Planet and Maxar archives supports legal documentation and accountability investigations.
Planet SkySatMaxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades Neo
Ships turn off their transponders. They cannot turn off their radar cross-section.Ship-to-ship cargo transfer detection for sanctions evasion monitoring
Vessels conducting illicit ship-to-ship transfers routinely disable AIS. Combining SAR-detected vessel pairs with AIS gap analysis exposes the rendezvous that sanctions regimes depend on hiding.
Sentinel-1 SAR (C-band, ESA)VIIRS Day-Night Band (NOAA/NASA, Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20)Planet SuperDove (PlanetScope)
Earth moves before aircraft do. Geometry tells you which way.Aircraft dispersal revetment and hardened shelter construction monitoring
New revetments and hardened shelters signal a shift from peacetime to wartime basing posture months before aircraft arrive. Shadow geometry, SAR backscatter change and construction-sequence analysis make that shift legible from open and commercial imagery.
Maxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades NeoPlanet SkySat
No concrete, no radar signature. The ground still remembers.Special operations forward operating base and austere airstrip detection
Austere forward bases leave faint but readable marks: unpaved strips, radial vehicle tracks, sparse shelters. Multi-temporal optical analysis turns those surface scars into intelligence.
Planet SuperDoveMaxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades Neo
Reactors run hot. Effluent ponds change colour. Neither fact is secret.Chemical weapons precursor production facility activity monitoring
Open-source satellite imagery can reveal chemical weapons precursor activity through tank-farm changes, effluent discolouration, thermal signatures and vehicle traffic. This page documents the published OSINT methods, sensor capabilities and honest detection limits.
Sentinel-2 MSILandsat 8/9 OLI-TIRSMaxar WorldView-3
A red cross on a roof is not a shield. Imagery makes it a record.Protected site compliance monitoring for military hospitals and cultural heritage
Satellite change detection tracks whether facilities protected under international humanitarian law show evidence of military use or deliberate targeting, producing dated visual evidence admissible in accountability processes.
Maxar WorldView LegionPlanet SkySatAirbus Pléiades Neo
Rockets announce themselves days before ignition. The sequence is readable.Space launch facility launch-readiness and vehicle rollout monitoring
Pre-launch ground operations at orbital and sub-orbital complexes follow a documented sequence visible in commercial satellite imagery. Transporter-erector movement, propellant tanker presence and flame-trench flooding provide days of warning before ignition.
Planet SuperDoveMaxar WorldView-3Airbus Pléiades Neo
Burning a harvest leaves a signature no army can erase.Deliberate agricultural and food-system destruction mapping in conflict
Satellite time-series can distinguish deliberate crop destruction from drought or seasonal die-back by combining NDVI anomaly timing, SWIR char signatures and SAR-detected structure collapse, building on published UNOSAT and FAO assessments of Yemen, Syria and Ukraine.
Sentinel-2 MSISentinel-1 SAR C-bandLandsat 8/9 OLI