Google Earth - a clear and immediate danger?

Does Google Earth, Google's successful mapping service, pose a danger to the national security of Israel and other countries in the world?

Tal Inbar, "Galileo" magazine
Published: 26.11.07, 17:20

Recently, the Israeli public became aware, through huge headlines in the press, of the latest update of the Google Earth software, a software that allows any Internet surfer to view high quality satellite photos of any place and site on Earth. The Israeli press emphasized the ability of every person to view the "deepest secrets" of the State of Israel, including the nuclear reactor in Dimona, the air force bases, various infrastructure facilities, etc.

Is Google Earth a danger to the national security of Israel, and of other countries in the world? Or the mother, as they believe
Some, we live anyway in a reality where "everything is exposed" and visible, so there is no harm in this software? This time I will focus on the technological aspect of the Google Earth software, and I will dwell a little on the consequences it can have on various aspects of what is known as "national security".

Google Earth is software from the creator of the Google company (Google). The software makes it possible to look at satellite photographs of the Earth with the highest resolution (the resolution varies from place to place, and for the most part major cities in the world are photographed in higher definition than other sites). The software became accessible to the public in 2005. The software was originally developed by the company Keyhole (the name refers to the code name of the cameras in the intelligence satellites of the United States), which was purchased by Google.

Google Earth is a dynamic and interactive map that represents multidimensional geographic information, and allows searching for places on the globe, adding information and linking to different user communities. On top of that, any user can build XNUMXD models of houses and buildings, from their own house to skyscrapers, using another Google tool, the Google Sketch Up software. After designing various objects in this software, they can be planted in their exact location on the globe.

Where do the images come to Google Earth? The software uses a combination of satellite and aerial photographs. Google purchases the satellite photos from various suppliers of satellite photos on a commercial basis, who use dedicated photography satellites for this purpose. Prominent satellites in the commercial photography satellite category are Ikonos and Geo Eye satellites. Google Earth software incorporates aerial photographs, when available. For example, New York is mostly photographed in high-resolution aerial photographs, to the point of being able to identify people on the street.

The historical roots of commercial photography satellites

Remote sensing using satellites was until now no longer the exclusive domain of superpowers, primarily the United States. Starting in the XNUMXs, other countries acquired capabilities in the field of remote sensing satellites, and France was the first to set up a commercial service of a photography satellite in the visible light field - the "SPOT", and through the Spot-Image company made access to satellite photographs of the Earth the property of parties Many, who could only dream of such abilities before.

Although the original uses of the Spot satellite were for research, its ability to cover very large areas of the Earth and photograph them at a separation that was considered reasonable at the time (10 meters in the first Spot satellites) also appealed to various countries, which did not have their own intelligence satellites, and could afford the low expenditure in the order of Magnitude of image acquisition from the French satellite. Other countries even reached agreements with the French company and set up reception and image processing stations on their territory for the images taken by the satellite.

Simultaneously with the increase in the number of "players" in this market, the technical quality of the satellites is improving, and it currently reaches a resolution of one meter, and even lower than that (soon a commercial photography satellite with a resolution of 42 centimeters per pixel will be launched). The main activity of commercial photography satellites is in the field of visible light, but some satellites are able to provide photographs in additional wavelengths, such as infrared and ultraviolet. There are also satellites that produce synthetic radar imaging of ground targets (SAR), and their capabilities will improve significantly in the near future.

Various technological means are able to refine the images received from the satellites and significantly improve the quality and sharpness of the image, and even prepare different products, such as stereoscopic images and XNUMXD simulations of the area (which can be viewed on a computer screen, or even fed into a virtual reality system). Many commercial companies provide image quality improvement services from commercial satellites, and are able to provide the client with a variety of products - including mapping according to any required levy, comparison between photographs taken at time differences, measurements of ground objects, analysis of satellite photographs, and more.

The range of options available to a country in the future to make military uses of commercial satellites is almost unlimited - starting from the collection of general intelligence on various facilities, through the evaluation and analysis of specific buildings, and ending with the creation of XNUMXD computer models that can be used to guide guided weapons (such as cruise missiles) and train military forces and terrorist organizations carrying out various sabotage missions.

As an example, we can mention gathering intelligence on targets that beckon to terrorist organizations, and of which it is difficult to obtain ground photography - such as airports, nuclear reactors, chemical plants, military facilities and civilian infrastructure facilities - power plants, water treatment facilities, etc. Using commercial satellites, today it is possible to collect excellent quality intelligence on this type of facilities.

The Iconos satellite

The Ikonos remote sensing satellite is a landmark in the history of commercial remote sensing satellites, because it is the first commercial satellite that allowed ground photography with a resolution of one meter.

The satellite, which was launched in September 1999, is made by the Lockheed-Martin Corporation, was launched into space on an Athena-type launcher (also made by Lockheed-Martin), was operated by the American company Space Imaging (now by the Geo Eye Company) and provides black- White of the Earth with a resolution of one meter, and multispectral photography (red, blue, green and near infrared) - which allows the creation of color photographs - with a resolution of 4 meters.

Iconos orbits the Earth in a Polar Orbit, i.e. the orbit that passes over the Earth's poles. This orbit allows for optimal coverage of the Earth, since there is no need to change the satellite's orbit to photograph different places on the Earth: the satellite circles the Earth from north to south, completing a rotation every hour and a half. In the process, the Earth moves around its axis, and as if "presents itself" to the satellite.

Preventing hostile parties - states and terrorist organizations - from accessing commercial satellite data and the services provided by commercial companies is an extremely difficult, if not impossible, task. The multitude of countries that operate commercial satellites for remote sensing, the relatively low prices of the final products of the satellites, and the ease with which companies and organizations can be established to disguise the identity of the real customer of the products - all of these make restricting access a theoretical possibility only.

Censorship in Google Earth?

Not every country allows the free sale of aerial photos from its territory, and some countries will even pay a lot of money to prevent the sale of high-resolution satellite photos of their territory to countries hostile to them. Due to these reasons it is impossible to watch anywhere on the planet with a uniform resolution.

Google has censored many places on the planet, and many times the censorship is done conspicuously, for example by making a certain area of ​​the image saturated with large and prominent pixels, or creating a black rectangular area, instead of the normal image. Several countries that expressed their displeasure about the software were able to censor selected areas in them - for example, a space base in China, NATO facilities in Brussels and even the royal stables of the Queen of the Netherlands were censored.

Killing-Bingman defense of Israel

In 1997, a law named after the two senators who brought about its legislation, Kyl-Bingaman, was enacted in the United States. This law restricts American companies that have commercial photography satellites in space, and prevents them from marketing high-resolution satellite images of Israel to anyone, except after their quality has been reduced to the quality that can be obtained at the time from commercial photography satellites of other countries. For years, this meant that it was impossible to obtain satellite images of the State of Israel on the free market with a resolution better than two meters per pixel. However, with the improvement in the quality of commercial photography satellites of other countries, this protection is gradually eroding, unless Israel can reach agreements with these countries.

Preventing the use of commercial satellites by hostile parties

In addition to the legislation, which is a temporary and partial solution - as it is currently applicable only to American satellites - one can think of a series of measures to limit the access of various parties to commercial satellites.

* The establishment of an international control regime to limit the capabilities of commercial satellites and those who use them, such as a control regime to limit the sale of missile technologies (MTCR).
* Increasing the supervision of the companies that market the satellite products on their customers.
* Acquisition of the ability to disrupt the connection between the commercial satellites and their ground stations - an action that can be carried out by a variety of means and in combination with armed forces.
* Acquiring the ability to disrupt the sensors of the commercial satellites by passing them over various targets - for example glare using a laser.
* Acquiring the ability to intercept and damage satellites - by lasers, anti-satellite missiles or other weapons (a problematic measure, as it is contrary to international treaties dealing with freedom of movement in space).
* Acquiring the ability to hit and neutralize ground receiving stations - by aerial action, precision guided munitions (PGM) or special forces.
* It is understood that some of the options for preventing and disrupting the operation of commercial satellites are not possible in peacetime, and some are limited even during an armed conflict.

The problem of terrorist acquisition of high-quality satellite images is exacerbated by the incredible ease with which vast amounts of information can be obtained using Google Earth software. Although some of the photos are not updated (the age of the photos in the software varies, and is between a few months and 5 and even 7 years), in many cases they are sufficient for terrorist organizations seeking to attack various targets (infrastructure facilities, nuclear reactors, airports). The software allows access to information that was confidential until now.

What about privacy?

An interesting aspect of Google Earth is the issue of privacy: recently images from the Google Earth software of... the homes of the founders of Google itself were displayed on the Internet. Needless to say, their reactions were not particularly enthusiastic, in light of what they called "violation of their privacy". At the conference of space lawyers from around the world, which took place as part of the International Congress for Astronautics, held in September in India, many people dealt with the legal issues arising from the Google Earth software, among other things, the legal liability of Google or the company that provided it with the satellite images if a criminal offense is committed by using information from the software.

Participants in the conference commented that an amendment to the Outer Space Treaty (the treaty regulating human activity in space) is needed or at least the creation of a new international understanding, which will take into account the rapid technological developments in the field of commercial photography satellites, which were not imagined by the drafters of the Outer Space Treaty, which was signed in October 1967.

Published in "Galileo" magazine