Why Satellite Imagery Matters

Photo Generated by AI using ChatGPT

At night, on one of those cloudless days, when you look at the sky, one of the lights slowly moving across may not be a star or an airplane, but a satellite. It is also very likely that you've also used one today without realizing it. Every time you switch Google Maps to satellite view or explore a place on Google Earth, you're looking at images captured from space. What is interesting is that without realizing it, the same technology helping us find a restaurant or plan a vacation is also transforming the way wars are fought and understood. 

Every day, hundreds of satellites orbit above our heads, quietly taking pictures of almost every corner of the planet. Most of us rarely think about them but these images have become one of the most valuable resources in modern geopolitics. For the military they reveal troops, damaged military bases, missile launch sites. For others they show destroyed infrastructure and even help determine whether governments are accurately describing what is happening on the battlefield.

That is why a decision made by the European Union deserves attention in this article. After a request from the United States, the EU agreed to delay by 24 hours the public release of satellite imagery captured by the Copernicus Sentinel satellites over the Strait of Hormuz. Copernicus is the European Union's Earth observation initiative that provides free satellite imagery which is used by researchers, journalists and analysts around the world. The delay is intended to prevent real-time imagery from compromising ongoing military operations following the renewed conflict with Iran.

At first glance, twenty-four hours doesn’t sound consequential because after all, the images are still released eventually. But to understand why this matters, it is worth looking at how satellite imagery has changed the way wars are fought and how they are reported.

For militaries, satellite imagery is one of the most valuable intelligence tools available. It allows commanders to monitor enemy infrastructure, identify logistical routes, detect troop concentrations and assess the damage caused by air strikes without putting soldiers at risk. The information gathered then helps shape operations and evaluate whether military objectives have been achieved. In modern warfare, having accurate and timely information is as valuable as having superior weapons.

However, for decades this capability belonged almost exclusively to governments. Intelligence agencies held a near monopoly over satellite imagery. That has changed dramatically over the last two decades. The rise of commercial satellite companies and public Earth observation programs has made imagery available beyond government circles. Today, journalists, universities, humanitarian organizations, think tanks, financial institutions and open-source intelligence communities all use satellite imagery to independently analyze conflicts as they unfold.

This has transformed satellite imagery into something much bigger than a military tool, it has become an independent way of fact checking.

Organizations such as Bellingcat, together with major international newspapers, now combine satellite imagery with videos and witness testimony to reconstruct events that would otherwise be extremely difficult to verify, and so rather than relying only on official government statements, they can determine whether military targets were actually destroyed, whether civilian infrastructure was struck and much more. As a result, this has made modern conflicts considerably more transparent than at any other point in history.

We can see the impact in several recent conflicts. During the war in Iran, for example, The New York Times used commercial satellite imagery to independently assess damage caused by U.S. and Iranian strikes, identify attacks on civilian infrastructure, track damage to American military bases and establish U.S. responsibility for the bombing of an elementary school in Minab that killed at least 150 civilians.

In Ukraine, journalists relied on satellite imagery and radar data to identify Russian military buildups months before the full-scale invasion began. Later, those same tools helped map destroyed towns, monitor military logistics and challenge Russian claims that civilians in Bucha had only been killed after Russian forces withdrew. The satellite imagery was able to provide an independent timeline of events that contradicted the official narrative spread by Moscow.

In Gaza, investigators combined satellite imagery with witness testimony, videos and medical records to reconstruct attacks on hospitals, schools and humanitarian aid distribution sites. They documented the destruction of hundreds of civilian buildings and used those findings as evidence in investigations into alleged violations of international humanitarian law.

THE CHALLENGE 

Modern military operations unfold incredibly quickly. Missile launchers relocate within hours, naval task groups travel hundreds of kilometers in a single day and temporary military positions can disappear almost as quickly as they appear. From a military standpoint, preventing adversaries from accessing real-time imagery is essential in avoiding ongoing operations being compromised.

The challenge is that the same restriction affects everyone else. Journalists, researchers and independent analysts who also lose access to timely information and become more reliant on official government statements while waiting for evidence to become publicly available. Transparency not eliminated, but postponed.

Why It Matters

Governments naturally seek to protect sensitive operations, but they also have an interest in shaping how those operations are perceived. Independent satellite imagery has become one of the few tools capable of verifying those narratives using objective evidence. That's why The European Union's decision therefore reflects how satellites and access to imagery is a strategic asset in itself.