NationMaster - Encyclopedia: IMINT

IMINT, short for IMagery INTelligence, is an intelligence gathering discipline which collects information via satellite and aerial photography. Intelligence Gathering Disciplines HUMINT - Human Intelligence - gathered from a person on the ground IMINT - Imagery Intelligence - gathered from satellite and aerial photography MASINT - Measurement and Signature Intelligence ACOUSTINT - Acoustic Intelligence - gathered from acoustical sources CBINT - Chemical and Biological Intelligence - gathered from chemical and biological weapons and hazards DEWINT - Directed Energy... Aerial photography is the taking of photographs from above with a camera mounted on an aircraft, balloon, rocket, kite or similar vehicle. ...

Satellites

There have been hundreds - perhaps thousands - of reconnaissance satellites launched by dozens of nations since Sputnik. While the vast majority of such satellites and any information concerning them are strictly classified, some information (such as that concerning the US Corona program) has been declassified with the end of the Cold War. A spy satellite (officially referred to as a reconnaissance satellite or recon sat) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications. ... Sputnik 1 The Sputnik program was a series of unmanned space missions launched by the Soviet Union in the late 1950s to demonstrate the viability of artificial satellites. ... A typical classified document. ... The Corona Program, conducted by the U.S. Air Force, involved the launching of satellites from the 1950s through the 1970s. ... For the generic term for a high-tension rivalry between countries, see cold war (war). ...

The exact resolution and other details of spy satellites is classified, but some idea of the trade-offs available can be made using simple physics. The formula for the resolution of an optical system is given by the Rayleigh criterion: The word resolution has several meanings, depending on context. ... See also Rayleigh fading Rayleigh scattering Rayleigh number Rayleigh waves Rayleigh-Jeans law External links Nobel website bio of Rayleigh About John William Strutt MacTutor biography of Lord Rayleigh Categories: People stubs | 1842 births | 1919 deaths | Nobel Prize in Physics winners | Peers | British physicists | Discoverer of a chemical element ...

where θ is the angular resolution, λ is the wavelength of light, and D is the diameter of the lens or mirror. The wavelength is the distance between repeating units of a wave pattern. ...

A spy satellite would probably be placed in a low-earth orbit and we might take an altitude of 300 km as a reasonable guess. Such a satellite might have comparable optical performance to the Hubble telescope, which has a 2.4 metre mirror telescope. If it were to be used to take photographs using visible light then the wavelength will be in the range 400 to 70 nanometres. We might take 550 nm as a suitable guess. From the Rayleigh formula the resulting angular resolution would be 229 nrad, which at a height of 300 km corresponds to an object about 7 cm across. This is a best-case estimate assuming no clouds. An object in an orbit as low as 300 km would slowly de-orbit due to friction with the atmosphere and would eventually re-enter and burn up. Higher orbits could be used but the resulting resolution would be worse. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a telescope orbiting the Earth at the outer edges of the atmosphere. ...

The primary purpose of most spy satellites is to monitor visible ground activity. While resolution and clarity of images has improved greatly over the years, this role has remained essentially the same. Some other uses of satellite imaging have been to produce detailed 3D maps for use in operations and missile guidance systems, and to monitor normally invisible information such as the growth levels of a country's crops or the heat given off by certain facilities. The image resolution is a term that says something about how much image detail an image can hold. ...

To counter the threat posed by these 'eyes in the sky', several nations (the United States and the USSR/Russia at least) have developed systems for destroying enemy spy satellites (either with the use of another 'killer satellite', or with some sort of earth or air launched missile).

The spy satellite game has taken a strange new twist with the recent availability of high resolution, colour images from commercial satellite imaging companies - allowing any country (or any individual for that matter) to get in on the action.

See JARIC at RAF Brampton Brampton is the name of a number of places in the world: Brampton, Ontario, United Kingdom Brampton, Eden, Cumbria, United Kingdom Brampton, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom Brampton, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom Brampton, Norfolk, United Kingdom Brampton, Suffolk, United Kingdom Brampton, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid...

Aerial

Aerial intelligence goes back hundreds of years. Long in the past (the American Civil War for example) hot air balloons were used to observe enemy formations long in the distance. The use of fixed balloons survived into World War I, when it was accompanied by observation from airships (zeppelins) and the newly invented airplane. In WW2 a Joint Imagery Intelligence unit was set up in Danesfield House, Medmenham in Buckinghamshire, UK for British and US Intelligence Officers to exploite imagery gathered on the Germans. The American Civil War was fought in North America from 1861 until 1865 between the United States of America â€“ forces coming mostly from the 23 northern states of the Union â€“ and the newly-formed Confederate States of America, which consisted of 11 southern states that had declared their secession. ... World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machineguns, and poison gas. ... Akron in flight, 2 November 1931 An airship is a buoyant aircraft that can be steered and propelled through the air. ... LZ127 Graf Zeppelin, the most travelled airship in history A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship (or dirigible) pioneered by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century based on an earlier design by David Schwarz. ... Fixed-wing aircraft is a term used to refer to what are more commonly known as aeroplanes in Commonwealth English (excluding Canada) or airplanes in North American English. ... Manor House in the Chiltern Hills now used as a Hotel and Spa situated in Medmenham, Near Marlow, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom. ... Medmenham is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. ... Buckinghamshire (abbreviated Bucks) is a county in South East England. ... Intelligence Officers are staff that specialise in the gathering, fusion and analysis of information and intelligence sources in order to provide advise to the Government or organisation that they work for. ...

Low- and high-flying planes have been used all through the last century to gather intelligence about the enemy. At the start of the Cold War, foreseeing the need to observe the enemy in peacetime as well as war, the U.S. developed high-flying reconaissance planes. The first, the Lockheed U-2, is still in service; its successor, the newer, much faster SR-71 Blackbird, was retired in 1998. These planes have the advantage over satellites that they can usually produce more detailed photographs and can be placed over the target more quickly, more often, and more cheaply, but have the obvious disadvantage that they can be shot down. (However, there is no evidence an SR-71 was ever shot down.) The U-2 is a single-seat, single-engine, high-altitude Surveillance aircraft flown by the United States Air Force. ... An SR-71 in flight The Lockheed SR-71 Type A, unofficially known as the Blackbird, is a long-range, advanced, strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed YF-12A and A-12 aircraft by Lockheeds Skunk Works (also responsible for the U-2 and many other advanced aircraft). ...

A new generation of unmanned reconaissance planes has been developed for imagery and signals intelligence. Known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, these drones are a force multiplier by giving the battlefield commander an "eye in the sky" without risking a pilot. The US Army is significantly increasing the size of its current UAV force as part of the Future Combat System initiative. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle over Iraq. ... Aviators are people who fly aircraft either for pleasure or for a job. ... US Army Seal The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... Unmanned Aerial Vehicle over Iraq. ... Future Combat Systems (FCS) is the core building block of the US Armyâ€™s Future Force. ...