Israel's most top secret security installations have been jeopardized by a new version of Google Earth, Israeli military experts say.
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.
The disappearance of renowned computer scientist Jim Gray has launched a high-tech search over the web using massive satellite imagery databases and distributed task processing by volunteers who are searching through these images to find his boat.
Terrorists attacking British bases in Basra are using aerial footage displayed by the Google Earth internet tool to pinpoint their attacks, say Army intelligence sources.
Since Bahrain's government blocked the Google Earth website earlier this year for its intrusion into private homes and royal palaces, Googling their island kingdom has become a national pastime for many Bahrainis.
The proliferation of commercial high-resolution satellite imagery has made it harder for aspiring nuclear states to conceal their nuclear testing preparations. In the case of North Korea, they have adapted by making no attempt to conceal their plans.
Insurgents could be using satellite images from a popular website to mount attacks on British and American bases in Iraq, according to defence experts.
Users of Google's new massive database of satellite imagery are finding some surprises in the images such as street parades in California and bombs in Iraq. This development points to the growing relevance and power of satellite imagery but it also shows the promise of posting massive databases online and letting thousands of users sift through to find what they are interested in.