This story:
Got me thinking recently. Is there any kind of good estimate for how many spy satellites are up there? Who has them - the US and Russia are a given, I guess Japan maybe, after reading the above link. How about the big European nations? How many does the US have?
Can they shoot video, Clancy style? - what kind of lag would you theoretically get?
Am I being watched right now?
Here’s a good place to start reading.
As to video, I understand some of the newer US satellites have near-real time relay, where the images are encrypted and downlinked almost immediately. The time lag due to transmission would be just a second or two from orbit to a ground station and then at most halfway around the world to whoever’s receiving the data.
Now if the transmission rate was so slow that it took 5 minutes to transmit the whole picture, well then the receiver would start getting the pciture a couple seconds after the satellite started transmitting, bu it’d still take 5 minutes for the pic to “download.” And it may take the stellite’s computer a minute or two to encrypt the image; they don’t have real fast computers in space yet.
Yes, you are being watched right now. Or at least the top of your building is. But not at a resolution that can see you.
There are numerous satellites in geosync orbit that have a view of almost 1/2 the planet. They take more or less continuus pictures for weather purposes. But they don’t have the zoom to see anything smaller than a city. So you’re in the picture, but indetectably so.
There are also satellites which “stare” at the Earth constantly looking for the telltale flash of a nuke going off. Each of those also has roughly 1/2 the earth in view at a time, so they are looking at you, but again don’t have the zoom to see you or your car or your residence personally.
The Earth is a huge place. The surface area is very roughly 200 milion square miles total with about 65 million square miles of land.
A satellite that CAN zoom in to see just your car in your driveway will be looking at a spot on the ground maybe 100 feet in diameter. Imagine trying to paint the entire Earth with a 100’ wide paintbrush and you see the problem. It’s gonna take a lot of work to cover that much ground. Imagine painting a pro football stadium with a fingernail polish brush.
So to be able to see everything in detail all the time would requires billlions of satellites, each one focused on one small spot on the surface. Not practical.
There are several commercial imaging satellite companies that photograph whole countries at intermediate resolution every couple of years. So your house was probably distinctly visible in a shot made sometime in the last few months.
Go to www.terraserver.com to see some photos of the whole USA taken around 1994-1996. You can give the website your address and viola, candid camera!
i have two, but i’m thinking of trading the older one in for a segway.
Btw, there are several shoes and a pair of panties on your roof.