Hours after the Taliban invasion of the Afghan capital on August 15, the media began using real-time satellite imagery to report on the chaos at Kabul airport, and the traffic jams caused by masses of people wanting to flee the country.
And this was not the first time this summer that satellite images from private companies have played a key role in shaping the public's understanding of national security, as they have become "special eyes in the sky," according to an analysis by Foreign Policy magazine.
The Reuters news agency, which passed on pictures of Mixar Technologies, broadcast pictures of crowds from the entrance to the airport to the runway around 10:45 a.m. on Monday, August 16th.
Pictures of the crowds from the entrance to the airport to the runway (Photo credit: Mixar Technologies)
Satellite images also showed queues of cars on their way to the airport, causing traffic jams, and sending crowds on foot to the airport, hoping to evacuate after the Taliban fighters suddenly took over Kabul.
Queues of cars were on their way to Kabul Airport (Photo credit: Mixar Technologies)
In late June, researchers at the James Martin Center for Studies announced that they had discovered more than a hundred new ballistic missile silos on the continent in western China using images from a private satellite company.
Less than a month later, analysts at another think tank reported identifying a second Chinese missile field being built. The two revelations did not come from government sources or journalistic leaks but from images collected by satellites owned and operated by commercial companies.
It is not surprising that governments resent, often, when using satellite images to expose their deception or wrongdoing, the analysis shows.
Governments are similarly frightened when such images reveal their law-breaking or covert activities. Evidence of human rights violations or violations of international law can lead to condemnation or punishment by the international community.
For example, commercial satellite images of large detention facilities throughout China's western Xinjiang province have provided evidence of widespread detentions to Beijing among the ethnic Uighur minority.
Exposing sensitive military operations or other covert operations can force countries to recognize actions that they hide from the public eye.
As the number of private satellites increases, the amount of information available to non-governmental users will also increase, the sole government control over intelligence will decrease, and it will become increasingly difficult to hide its activities from the private eyes that are high in the sky.