NATO STO

Open source information is increasingly considered as valuable source for gathering intelligence. In the satellite domain an example of open source intelligence is given by the ESA Copernicus program which produces vast amounts of free Sentinel data. The Sentinel 1A/B SAR sensor allows large areas to be monitored independent of the weather and during the polar night with repeat times of 6-12 days and with resolutions in the order of 10 meter resolution. These data can be used to detect multitemporal changes and patterns. In addition high-resolution SAR data (1-3 m) is commercially available (Radarsat 2, COSMO-SkyMed, TerraSAR-X). Based on the results from the NATO SET-220 task group and predecessors these high-resolution data can be used to further identify the by Sentinel detected changes. Also information from open sources on the internet containing unstructured text (e.g., social media, blogs, news sites), imagery (e.g., photo, video, satellite), or structured data (e.g., traffic information, geospatial information), can be fused with the satellite information to answer operational intelligence questions.