Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!mcsun!ukc!icdoc!syma!nickw
From: nickw@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Nick Watkins)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Spy satellite coverage of the Gulf
Message-ID: <4409@syma.sussex.ac.uk>
Date: 5 Feb 91 13:49:25 GMT
References: <14230@ganymede.inmos.co.uk>
Organization: University of Sussex
Lines: 52

From article <14230@ganymede.inmos.co.uk>, by conor@lion.inmos.co.uk (Conor O'Neill):
> I realise that the real details are almost certainly classified, but I would
> like to get some feel for the answers:
Yes they are, so ALL that follows is based on open sources, and may be wrong.

> 1) How many US/Allied spy satellites are likely to be targetted on the Gulf?
Only US has spy satellites in coalition unless you count France which
has SPOT. 4 KH11 & 1 Lacrosse are the usually quoted numbers, but these
identifications are more uncertain than they are sometimes made out to
be.

KH11 are photographic, Lacrosse is radar.


> 4) What sort of resolution?
> Can they count buildings? (Yes, it seems)
yes.

> Can they count vehicles?  (maybe?)
yes.

> Can they recognise different types of vehicles?
yes. c.f leaked pictures of planes, ships.

> Can they count men?
reports suggest that they can, at least approximately.

> Can they see an Iraqi soldier scratching his nose?
Probably not.

> 5) Are they affected by the dark, or by cloud cover, or is much of the
> sensing done in the Infra Red?
Radar isn't, apparently, I think IR will be affected by cloud cover
though. Maybe somebody who knows about weather satellites can help.

> 6) Can they really detect missile and airplane launches,
> or is this done by AWACS?
Only the geostationary (DSP) early warning satellites do this, q.v Aviation
Week a couple of weeks ago.

> 7) A point was made that if you knew when the satellite was due, you could
> simply hide under a bridge for 10 minutes. How true is this, and
> are the Iraqis likely to be able to determine enough orbital information
> to do this?
Depends on how good friends they remain with Russians, at a guess ?

> 8) Any other information which is available about spy satellites.
Go to library and do author search under D. Ball, J. Richelson & W. E. Burrows.
Enjoy.

Nick
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