US Spy Satellites at Diffraction Limit for Resolution Since 1971

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The image tweeted by Trump was at about 10-centimeter resolution. It was likely a picture taken by the US224 satellite. This was one of the upgraded keyhole satellites that have the same mirror as the Hubble Telescope (2.4 meters). It was widely known for many years that the Keyhole spy satellites were using the same mirror as the Hubble Space Telescope.

The Wikipedia entry on the KH-11 satellites has a resolution of 6-centimeters listed. The sources listed were public documents from 1966 for the theory on the resolution and a 1989 book by astronomer Clifford Stoll.

A perfect 2.4-meter mirror observing in the visual (i.e. at a wavelength of 500 nm) has a diffraction-limited resolution of around 0.05 arcsec, which from an orbital altitude of 250 km corresponds to a ground sample distance of 0.06 m (6 cm, 2.4 inches). Operational resolution should be worse due to effects of the atmospheric turbulence. Astronomer Clifford Stoll estimates that such a telescope could resolve up to “a couple inches. Not quite good enough to recognize a face”

Ted Molczan at a satobs.org discussion list had speculated on the resolution of current US spy satellites.

There were closes passes of satellite. They could have taken images with 5-7 centimeter resolution.

There was a 3U cubesat images of the Iran rocket pad explosion taken by Planet Labs. This had 3 meter resolution.

Maxar provided better resolution in the 0.5 to 1.5 meter resolution range. DigitalGlobe is an American commercial vendor of space imagery and geospatial content, and operator of civilian remote sensing spacecraft. On 5 October 2017, Maxar Technologies completed its acquisition of DigitalGlobe.

WorldView-2, launched October 2009, is the first high-resolution 8-band multispectral commercial satellite. Operating at an altitude of 770 kilometers, WorldView-2 provides 46 cm panchromatic resolution and 1.85 meter multispectral resolution.

The U.S. government regulates the resolution of imagery sold by commercial imaging satellite owners. DigitalGlobe claims panchromatic 31 cm resolution from 617 km altitude, for its Worldview 3 and 4 satellites, launched in 2014 and 2016, respectively. Commercial satellites have now achieved approximately the resolution of the Hexagon satellite, that KH-11 replaced by raising its apogee to 1000 km.

NROL-71 launched recently. It is believed to be a new generation of spy satellite.

The Gambit-3 (aka KH-8, launched in 1971) provided the NRO with images at the limit of resolution imposed by atmospheric turbulence. Allen Thomson indicated that scientific papers published in the mid-1960s by David Fried and, independently, by John C. Evvard, revealed that atmospheric turbulence limits the imaging resolution achievable from Earth orbit to about 5 cm to 10 cm. Larger mirror would not have improved the resolution of Gambit-3, at its minimum altitude of 130 km. A larger mirror would only have been required if this distance were to be increased.

The 2.4-meter, and the resolution limit imposed by atmospheric turbulence, it is reasonable to assume that the lowest altitude would be about the same as the present, 250 km.

A big 9.6-meter mirror could get maximum resolution from an orbit about four-time higher (1000 km).

SOURCES- Cees Bassa, Planet Labs, Maxar, Dae Schmerler, Donald Trump, Scott Manley Youtube
Written by Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com

12 thoughts on “US Spy Satellites at Diffraction Limit for Resolution Since 1971”

  1. I am still trying to figure out why this is so? Blurring would appx be the same since light travels through the atmosphere . We get about 10-20 times worse resolution for a telescope then these satellites. Any ideas?

  3. Trump probably does not have access to the most highly classified information. We might have the capability to look at an angle using gimbals giving a 3D look. And using multiple payloads in multiple spectrums all registered the same with image processing both on board and on the ground is a game changer.

  4. Want to improve the resolution? Get larger diameter optics, or combine the synchronized feed from two or more observation station. The optics of a constellation of low orbit satellites could be combined to give an effective lens approximating the diameter of a group of the satellites orbits.

  8. That spy sats are diffraction limited isn’t exactly news.

    Moreover, if you watch a given target over a period of time, sure, atmospheric turbulence is on average going to lose you resolution. Overlooked is that it is, for short periods during that time, going to gain you resolution, by acting as secondary optics closer to the target.

    Think of this as similar to waiting for lensing events in astronomy.

  9. Exactly. Combining adaptive optics with composit images should increase the resolution dramatically. The military would have to be idiots not to do it…

  10. It seems perfectly obvious that the flexible adaptive optics technology found in the newest ground telescopes to penetrate the atmosphere can be used by space-based telescopes to bring resolution of ground images much higher than we see today publicly. Resolution might allow facial recognition. Maybe they already exist.

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