U.S. EYES OVER RUSSIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400370031-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 16, 2004
• Sequence Number: 31
• Publication Date: June 16, 1979
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2005/01/12 : CIA-RDP88-01315R00040033003.1-7
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Article appeared
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THE WASHINGTON POST
16 June 1979
-r' S l LL>.,
Satellites-?' 'oc-tis on Soviet Secrets.
Second of three articles
By Robert G. Kaiser
?,V;; ht^aton Post Staff Writer
The U.S. government has.never re-;
leased photographs taken by its best
;;r: -'.:n-the-sky satellites, although some
o`ticials of the-Carter administration
hope to convince the Central. Intelli-
e.r. e Agency to do this during the coning debate- on the strategic arms;
limitation treaty- (SALT II).
By all accounts, those photographs
~a> iei.aa the- Treaty-il .
are remarkable--"really, beautiful, be-
yond all comparison;" in the words of .
Amrom Katz, a pioneer, in the field of
space photography...Katz, a former
government official, is not convinced t
that good pictures are enough to catch,
the Soviets if they try to cheat on
SALT II, but. he does not challenge'
the clarity or-utility of those photo-
graphs. {{
A classic. boast involves a golf ball
on a green-American satellite cam.-
eras could pick it up, the experts say.
The example may not be too signifi-.
cant, since the Soviet Union -does?not."!
have a golf course, and golf bails are
not strategic-weapons. But the meta-.
phor makes, am-accurate- point about:
the satellite cameras. abilities:. -~ .:- -??
The first article. hr this series dis:
cussed U.S. inethods-for monitoring
the testing of Soviet intercontinental,.-
rockets. - Testing, of course, . is
not the, only subject that interests-thy
United States. American 'intelligence
try,-
analysts.--thousands of -them--are
ing to learn. whatever they can.about
the production. of Soviett?rockets, sub-
marines, aircraft and other. weapons.
and about their deploymentF, storage
and use.
It is in these areas that photo,re
connaissance becomes crucial: Squad-
rons of satellites--Big ` Birds,- KHI1s
and others--orbit the- earth, `their
paths making tight cross-hatch pat'
-terns over the Soviet Union r ev
.flay-
The precision and clarity of photos
from space depend on the focal,length
'of; the camera and the grain or num-
ber.of lines per millimeter of the film
used- A recent, unpublished paper by
Bruce G. Blair and Gary D. Brewer
of -Yale estimates
eras--can distinguish iterdovA m on theF
ground if, one- of - itS dimensions ex-
.,eeds three or four- Inches.
' >'1 But a false-color picture of the same
is is probably the outside limit
for'cameras in space, given the distor- scene could make the paint appear
`tions created by the earth's atmos-' blue while the foliage looks bright red.
p here, though specialists say there is Cvmputer processing also allows for
still room for some further refine- 11 sophisticated image enhancement tech-
ments. niques, described in a new pamphlet
The United States relies on two' on verification to be published this
month by the Union of Concerned;
ba'sic-kinds of photo satellites, one
Scientists:
which- takes pictures of broad areas on
"Computers disassemble a picture
.earth--"search and find" satellites--
into millions of electronic Morse
.and a second which can take closeups
code pulses, then use mathematical
of,. say, a single. missile launcher,
formulas to manipulate the color,!
known as "close-look." According to
contrast and intensity of every tiny;
Blair and Brewer, some satellites can
Pot. Each image can be reassembled]
'do-both. sp
in various ways to emphasize special)
According to an analysis published
features and highlight specific objects!
six years ago, search-and-find satel-
that were buried in the original view
lites then included systems that al-
`-Electronic 'subtraction' of earlier
lowed for on-board development of~
pictures from later ones makes un-!
photographic film. Electron scanners
changed buildings or landscapes in;
can, then "read" the processed p.ictureI and transmit it to earth. This tech-1
a scene disappear - while new objects;
(like missile silos under construction)i
,nology may already have evolved to
stand out."
the point that the United States can
receive instantaneous pictures the In the foreseeable future the United
equivalent of television transmissions ( States expects to be able to deploy.
from satellites over the Soviet-Union. radar scanners in space, a potential
Close-look satellites swoop as low as breakthrough that . could compensate
80 miles over a target, photograph it; for the most basic shortcoming of all
and jettison the film, which can then existing kinds of photo reconnaissance
be' caught in mid air by aircraft or -their dependence on daylight and
swept off the surface of the sea by clear skies.
helicopter, The Apollo 17 moon mission carried
. Satellite orbits are intricately plan- side-looking, synthetic aperture radar,
ned, so that the same satellite crosses that could record remarkably good
the same spot over the Soviet Union ! Images of the moon-from a distance
at the same time every day. This mini-' of 60 miles. Larger radars that could:
_miles the chance that changing shad- be sent into space on the new spacet
ows might confuse photo analysts. Re- shuttle presumably could do much I
,.connaissance satellites apparently better.
transmit. electronic- images to~ relay With all the available tools Amer- I
satellites in space, which in turn send lean analysts study.-what they can
?the._images to 'earth stations as they see on Soviet territory. (Thousands of
pass over them. people are said to be engaged in this
But-the technology has gone far be- work.) They locate and monitor fac-
yond- simple photography.-U.S. satel- tories that produce armaments, watch-
-lrtes also carry "multispectral scan- ing not only. for finished products
nere' which read light emissions out- coming out of these plants, but also
side the visible range. calculating the amounts and kinds of
Images recorded by multispectral raw materials that go into them..
scanners, which extend into the Infra- The analysts scrutinize Soviet test
red range, can be _separated into eler sites, missile launching silos, subma-
tronic- messages and transmitted to[ rive construction and sea trials, rail
earth With the help of computers lines that transport military equip-
i
analysts can construct "false color" . went, airfields and the like. They-try
pictures of scenes on the ground, an to explain the function of every sus-
approach that does not rely, on the
oking installation they can
natural color of objects but rather pieious-10
helps identify what. they are made of.l 'id entify, measuring the manpower sta-
In an' example cited by Blair and! tinned at each or trying to define the!.
Brewer, an ordinary picture of a mis- visible activities around the installa-
e14 Y11 Wei b, F J~15Rdb*Who0370031=7
tree would probably not be noticeable I
?
CONTINUED
to the eve or in an ordinary photo. !