Commercial Observation Satellites: At the Leading Edge of Global Transparency

Wide access to satellite imagery and related products has expanded rapidly since the end of the Cold War. Leading the way into this new era of global transparency is a new generation of high-resolution commercial and civilian imaging satellites that will offer almost anyone timely overhead images of locations that are geographically remote, politically inaccessible, or simply difficult to comprehend without an overhead perspective. But whether these systems are commercially viable remains to be seen in the long run. The probable effects on world affairs are highly uncertain and depend deeply on other economic, technological, and political trends. Still, on balance, greater transparency is likely to provide significant benefits. And the policy community will need to improve its ability to deal with new technologies. But regardless of how one views the political and economic effects, the phenomenon of global transparency is still developing, both from the standpoint of data from high-resolution earth-observation satellites and from the other information technologies that support these data and make them particularly useful in monitoring and better understanding global developments.