Amnesty International and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) are collaborating on Eyes on Darfur (eyesondarfur.org), a Web site that shows before and after satellite images of areas the human rights organizations believe are, or could be at risk of, being under siege.

The imagery provided by Google Earth and other commercial satellites has transformed global security in fundamental ways, forcing even the most powerful nations to hide facilities and activities that are visible not only to rival nations, but even to their own citizens.

The sharpest commercial imaging satellite ever launched is now orbiting the Earth, sweeping over the North Pole and under the South Pole every 98 minutes, collecting high-resolution images of the scene below. From 423 miles up, the GeoEye-1 satellite can spot objects as small as 16 inches across.

The world's first and highest resolution commercial imagery satellite, the Google-sponsored GeoEye-1, has achieved first light, returning a 0.5 meter resolution satellite image of a small university in Pennslyvania. The imagery is the first .5 meter image to be released since the U.S. defense department allowed domestic firms to sell imagery below 1 meter resolution.

The Pentagon has approved plans to buy and launch two commercial-class imagery satellites for intelligence gathering. However, the decision still awaits approval as it conflicts with national security space policy that directs the government to buy as much commercial imagery as possible to help U.S. companies withstand competition from subsidized foreign satellite companies.

Widely available high-resolution commercial satellite imagery is making governments around the world awfully nervous.

The secret site where Iran is suspected of developing long-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching targets in Europe has been uncovered by new satellite photographs.

DigitalGlobe, provider of imagery for Google Earth, said a new high-resolution satellite will boost the accuracy of its satellite images and flesh out its archive. Together with the company's existing Quickbird satellite, it will offer half-meter resolution and will be able to collect over 600,000 square kilometers of imagery each day, up from the current collection of that amount each week.

A commercial satellite image appears to have captured China's new nuclear ballistic missile submarine. The new class, known as the Jin-class or Type 094, is expected to replace the unsuccessful Xia-class (Type 092) of a single boat built in the early 1980s.

The director of a little-known U.S. spy agency that analyzes imagery from the skies says that the increasing availability of commercial satellite photos may require the government to restrict distribution.