Spy Satellite Expert Explains How to Analyze Satellite Imagery | WIRED

- Made in collaboration with the International Spy Museum -
Keith Masback, former Director of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Integration for the US Army, explains how to understand satellite imagery, and provides a few tips and tricks for what people like him are generally looking for. Keith talks about how to tell man-made and natural environments apart from each other and breaks down what typical military routines from other countries looks like.
Satellite imagery also courtesy of Planet Labs Inc. You can check out their website here: planet.com/
Salt Lake City, Utah
40.7608° N, 111.8910° W
Rio Olympic Village:
51.4869° N, 46.2118° E
Riyadh Province, Saudi Arabia
22.7554° N, 46.2092° E
North Platte, Nebraska:
41.1403° N, 100.7601° W
Nile River Delta
30.91° N, 31.20° E
Karakul Lake, Tajikistan
39.0416° N, 73.3473° E
Naypyidaw, Myanmar
19.7633° N, 96.0785° E
Chiribiquete National Park, Colombia:
0.7460° N, 72.7386° W
Rondônia, Brazil:
11.5057° S, 63.5806° W
Site of Amazon deforestation:
9.325917° S, 65.897778° W
Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
53.1355° N, 57.6604° W
Fort Bragg:
35.1415° N, 79.0080° W
Shayrat Air Base
34.5012° N, 36.8981° E
Crimean Peninsula:
45.3453° N, 34.4997° E
Camp 25, North Korea, 2005
41.833503° N, 129.726206° E
Camp 22, North Korea, 2002
42.545675° N, 129.914436° E
Black Rock Desert, Nevada:
40.9107° N, 119.0560° W
Oyu Tolgoi mine:
43.0253° N, 106.8665° E
Bay of Bengal:
13.5317° N, 87.5396° E
New Delhi:
28.6139° N, 77.2090° E
Faafu Atoll:
3.2309° N, 72.9461° E
Iceberg A-74:
26.25° W, 75.12° S
London:
51.5074° N, 0.1278° W
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Spy Satellite Expert Explains How to Analyze Satellite Imagery | WIRED

[@Ijuxwannawatch]

This deserved more than 5 minutes.

[@wessthemess117]

They had to cut him off before he got into the China camps

[@internetresearchagency2238]

Enough of CIA propaganda

[@Azubrael]

@@internetresearchagency2238 lol, you don't even know what propaganda is

[@Astronomynatureandmusic]

I guess there are schools on this topic, so you could learn not 5 minutes, but 5 years.

[@alphaduck2926]

It deserves at least 1 hour

[@posthocprior]

Totally fascinating. This could have been a lot longer.

[@MichaelCobbs]

I wanted him to analyze people on the ground with the spy satellite imagery.

[@cavemanvi]

“Look for what you don’t see”

[@dave_n8pu]

I agree, I wish it was a lot longer too.

[@Jesse77c]

That's what she said...

[@trungp.b3448]

Oh, I personally think that it was absolutely longer but was probably cut short by some, let's say, interested parties.

[@0xc0ffea]

Why is this only 5 minutes? Lets have a series, lets have hour long deep dives, really pick a subject apart.

[@SnafuWT]

FBI finna watch you now lol

[@petestrckl6538]

man this guy would be good at geoguessr

[@m_zxh_di]

He is like being playing geoguesser for 30 Years

[@apollonmegara8220]

@@m_zxh_di yeah with only coordinate s

[@seanA416]

I'd love to see him play geo guesser

[@wyskass861]

yes, but he's used to top down viewing, not street view.

[@Roaxial]

I don't understand what you mean, this is nothing like geoguessr

[@g.bragion704]

As a Master and Ph.D. candidate in remote sensing, it is so good to see someone talking about this topic in such a non-academic way, but I still wish he had more time to explain further. This isn't even the surface of the topic.

[@culturecanvas777]

Which university? And what Bachelor's major to get to that specialization?

[@g.bragion704]

@@culturecanvas777 I have a bachelor in environmental engineering, but I've found architects, lawyers, forest; civil; chemistry -engineers, ITs, oceanographers, biologists, physicists and geographers working with remote sensing. Trully a complex field. Currently I'm halfway through my Ph.D. at the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), in Brazil.

[@culturecanvas777]

@@g.bragion704 Wow. Good luck and thank you for your research!

[@Jah4400]

@@culturecanvas777 I studied a bachelor of science with a geography major specializing in GIS and remote sensing. It is an amazing field, they didnt even mention how we use the spectrum of visible and non visible light to attain information, e.g. depending on reflection and absorption of certain bands of light you can tell all sorts of info, like the amount of suspended solids in a river or the difference between burnt matter and dark soils.

[@moose2577]

Doesn't "remote sensing" make it sound like you're claiming to be a psychic? Lol

[@Nigel_Sharp]

Needed this to be like 20 mins longer....

[@ohgodamiuncreative414]

In school one teacher showed us a picture of modern day Berlin at night. You could still see where the border has been because they used different lanterns in the different countries and the lanterns haven't been changed back yet.

[@dihydrogenmonoxide7600]

I heard German's say there is also a poverty divide between the former east and west, with the parts in the former east being in a worse situation.

[@666rsrs]

@@dihydrogenmonoxide7600 you can look at pretty much every statistical map and see how deep the divide between east and west germany still is: maps showing the distribution of poverty, religious confession, average farm size, public child care, electoral success for radical parties etc, you'll always see the old borders on these maps

[@Bialy_1]

@@666rsrs "electoral success for radical parties etc" you pointing all that facts that showing how left is harmfull for the country just to end with left wing propaganda that is calling any right wing party "radical"... East Germany got the taste of the left side of political spectrum so many people there are not ready to blindly believe in left wing propaganda as they are fully aware that its mostly complete BS.

[@666rsrs]

@@Bialy_1 when i talk about radical parties i mean the far right AND the far left, i specifically meant that the voter turnout for far left parties is also much higher in east germany than in the rest of germany, you genius

[@killman369547]

@@dihydrogenmonoxide7600 That's definitely true. Under communism East Germany stagnated badly while West Germany kept growing strong. Even 32 years later the Eastern part of Germany hasn't fully caught up to where the Western sector is.

[@KrazzyKelsie]

Whoever put those cards at the end ruined the last 30 seconds of the video just saying. Was some great photos.

[@RudeGuyGames]

Props to KZbin for being so braindead that they would replace annotations with this end card trash.

[@weberman173]

@@RudeGuyGames this video was released long after the end card was introduced, this is entirely on the creator of the video

[@RudeGuyGames]

@@weberman173 It isn't just on the creator. You literally can't even disable the end cards. At least with annotations, you could hide them. This is just dumb design.

[@IroAppe]

That's why every creator who knows what they are doing have a specific seperate endcard section at the end, that does not interfere with the actual content of the video.

[@reqontra]

Removal tips: ourcodeworld.com/articles/read/1522/how-to-remove-or-disable-youtube-end-cards

[@connorwood108]

back in the days it was just a bunch of guys looking through hundreds of thousands of photos with a magnifying glass.

[@culturecanvas777]

They have special expertise though, 😊 very interesting analyses.

[@builderdex]

And now they zoom with a mouse wheel LOL

[@sweepingtime]

Still is I reckon. Satellites can observe big movements on large terrain, but when you need to know what the dictator has for tea today you might need a more personal lens.

[@sundhaug92]

Yup, when they didn't watch 3D-images

[@Xiph1980]

It's still a bunch of guys looking through hundreds of thousands of photos, but now with [CTRL] + mouse wheel

[@katiekawaii]

Please make videos with this guy going into detail on some more examples. He's great to watch.

[@c-5921]

"We could...we can..." Okay, now give examples! What a tease of a video. This seems more like a trailer for a 2-hour documentary.

[@patbyron2255]

Lol

[@csav1551]

exactly!He was talking about the russians but they didn't show multiple photos demonstrating how they do the same thing.

[@lewisgiles2619]

As of writing this, that North Korean camp is mentioned as being a "night club." Well there lol.

[@adrianwapcaplet2773]

It's accurate. They club the inmates at night.

[@thanosmom9118]

@@adrianwapcaplet2773 oh 0_0

[@IcedForce]

Very interesting stuff, hope to see more of Mr. Masback.

[@marc0523]

I feel like this guy knew so much he wasn't willing to tell us, he has seen a lot in his life.

[@vovin8132]

The thing about GIS (Geographic Information Systems) is that the only people who really understand it are GIS people. It's more than just maps and imagery, but explaining in detail to the layman can feel pointless when they don't understand the greater processes and theory; for instance, most of those images are in different bands with false colour added to them, because there are different colour palettes that accentuate different features... It's just easier to tell people that we make maps.

[@Chuimhni]

@anonymous user He's the former director for an Army Intelligence branch....he will absolutely know secrets that will have dire consequences if leaked.

[@jameswiggle]

@Alex Tyson he is 100 percent male. lol

[@NickFriends]

In my last year in school, we learned how to analyze satellite images in Geography class and it was a very interesting topic, too bad that this video was so short, I'm sure you could've talked about different types of satellite images as well since there are so many

[@Cartho8236]

Man, that Newfoundland before and after, was shocking.

[@jeroen3657]

Happens every year

[@Smokie181]

Cool teaser...when does the full episode come out?

[@bowmin1]

Yay, now I'm on yet another watch list! Thanks internet!

[@ethanmarsingill]

@@bowmin1 huh? wtf are you on about

[@Belioyt]

@@bowmin1 don't flutter yourself, no one's interested in what you are doing on the internet

[@bowmin1]

@@Belioyt While no one might be interested in what I am doing on the internet, I'm interested in how you couldn't understand I was joking.

[@ValkyrieTiara]

@@Belioyt You can't even spell "flatter" right yet you still woke up today and chose violence over a joke 🤡😂

[@wyskass861]

@@ValkyrieTiara Violence over the internet, huh? So what word are we supposed to use for actual violence, when the woke people have hijacked that one?

[@CubensisEnjoyer]

The International Spy Museum has a podcast called SpyCast, one of the more recent episodes was about spy satellites as well. I'd highly recommend listening.

[@prashanthpradhan]

Episode should have been longer, really fascinating. Maybe bring him again for part 2 if possible.

[@fastsheep3964]

Absolutely fascinating. Please make a longer version. 🙏

[@blacktimhoward4322]

This video was 30 minutes long before the CIA trimmed it back 😂

[@txvuniverse]

R you joking I can’t tell 😰

[@sg1aprophis]

this could definitly be the truth, we will never know.

[@blacktimhoward4322]

@@txvuniverse I tried to answer your question but they redacted that too 😕

[@culturecanvas777]

@@blacktimhoward4322 🤣🤣🤣

[@culturecanvas777]

@@blacktimhoward4322 Thanks for the info. Wow, so ███ actually ██████████ just █████ said ████. I can't believe that ██████ is ██████████. Just no way that's true.

[@BobSmith1980.]

Keith Masback looks like he could be a John Goodman impersonator

[@jbinmd]

Or Fred Flintstone (notably played by John Goodman in the live-action movie)

[@BobPagani]

I was thinking more along the lines of Jeff Garland.

[@keeganrobinson3680]

I need more of this guy

[@aardque]

It was a shock to see the time lapses *start* in 1984, because I can still remember when "1984" was a portent.

[@TonySteinbach]

Please do a second, more in depth video! This was fascinating.

[@denispol79]

I remember I used to "cruise" google maps just for fun in mid-2000's. And one day I saw a weird building in the middle of nowhere on the bank of Euphrates river in Syria. It was heavily fenced and had lots of car tracks at the perimeter... The next week I woke up to the news that Israel bombed a Syrian nuclear plant and it was that exact building )))

[@moos5221]

Surprising, I thought Israel only bombs schools and hospitals.

[@soymiguelrivero]

Please make a longer version of this

[@note5068]

This channel has been giving us possible social engineering hacks

[@lolerskates876]

3:50 please have him talk about the satalite non visible light tools to examine underground bomb testing based on ground deformation

[@cthrekgoru]

Seeing trees disappearing is depressing…

[@titsmcgeeyolanda3755]

.

[@MrEazyE357]

Yeah, that hurt.

[@wisanggeniVisang]

But without tree America can win Vietnam war 😁 . . . . Just kidding, in my island there's also project to cut and slash jungle then use it as palm oil plantation. Kinda depressing

[@gonzaa5809]

No, u

[@okaydetar821]

Why? We built civilization in their place, and motherfuckers out here STILL upset that a piece of long wood aint standing no more.

[@ChopLabalagun]

very interesting ,it would be cool to see a longer training on this.

[@playpower7632]

Great job, please do part 2

[@Piexus_]

Thank you Mr. Masback. And I love you Wired everyday more. Hope to see more about Satellites in the future.

[@daves1856]

Dude was killing it!!! Amazing narrator. Give this guy a show!!!

[@pudniskool]

please do more of this guy

[@clementinesuwargo8737]

honestly it's beautiful. thanks for sharing the images and how to look at them better

[@SGFTI]

There's a lot of cool tools they use in the ELINT field that would make for a good follow-up video if the programs themselves aren't classified.

[@jamesb2291]

Former ELINTer checking in

[@adstaton8461]

Would you care to COMINT on your ELINT experience? Lol

[@jamesb2291]

@@adstaton8461 No COMINT

[@chingyeungwong1507]

You will be more amazed once filter is applied to those TIFF.

[@vadimmartynyuk]

Where can I watch the full video ?

[@PoemedByTony]

Even the presenters last name says he should be Back, so bring Keith Masback back!!!! This was really good. You've given others way more time!

[@BuddyLee23]

His speaking/instructing fees have to be top dollar, and it takes hours of filming just to get a usable 5-mins. It’s possible that he doesn’t have the time/interest to dedicate even more time to a video that he presumably is doing this all for free. I bet he has (or will have) a book out soon too with lots more info. Gotta look where the $ is!

[@FarmerTed]

I could talk to this guy for hours! Great video!

[@CdA_Native]

Yes, we need a lot more time, along with a deeper dive into this subject. Keith has a few more videos on KZbin. Find him in the Search field.

[@c187rocks]

Wasn't expecting to see my camp setup in this video.

[@redactedrider7606]

We need more of this.

[@dietblackasmr3649]

This needs to be longer!

[@Eastbirds_Lee]

This was a big flex showing off how easy it is for them to spot any kind of military expansion or development ;)

[@farizfariz9072]

Feels good to see 🅱️eter Griffin finally makes a change for his life

[@danielhorton757]

This was very cool. hope you do more vids with him.

[@thetrison]

Good information. Thanks.

[@kazishohag483]

how can i use that's?

[@JR-gp2zk]

Does Anyone know what type of watch he is wearing?

[@Deep_Dish]

Best wired ever, this topic needs a documentary

[@JRiles1520]

Awesome career path! As a geospatial analyst myself, we're always looking for others interested in remote sensing!

[@El_Peto]

Eh just send some jstars stuff over when we need it map person

[@VikTheGreat360]

This is brilliant

[@aland7236]

One of the things I watched unfold over time was at the Groom Lake facility in Nevada. Over the span of a couple of years I watched a pile of dirt grow next to a black spot on the western side of the main facility. It would appear that there is an underground extension at that site now. Also, Mr. FBI guy, your coffee is getting low, you should grab a refill. I'll still be here.

[@thisislulu3espana665]

Schizophrenic moment

[@GodkingSlayer]

Thank you very much, I liked it 🙏🏽💜

[@leroyMXII]

amazing!

[@nucks4life11]

Hey good vid. Whats your take on the uap/ufo phenomenon?

[@pathfinderjan]

Only 5 minutes? It’s so gooood! 😻

[@NeutronDance]

Incredibly fascinating but perhaps could be longer.

[@NickJacksonZA]

Please add coordinates to the description.

[@dzfz2100]

Wired - you definitely need this guy on again for at least half an hour

[@HQHQHQHQHQHQHQHQHQHQHQHQHQHQHQ]

This liar? No, thanks.

[@bartmanxoxo]

Thamks

[@timcoffin7650]

Nice job Keith

[@jr_kulik]

Quite interesting.

[@Alex-cw3rz]

Brilliant Video

[@PhuocNguyen-js6hy]

Great video video

[@redzetsu755]

awesome🔥

[@sorenweisshartmann]

Cool video. Thanks

[@Godzillaaaaa11]

Thanks wired now I'll go apply these!

[@Carfeu]

Fascinating

[@yellowbananago]

The guy in the thumbnail looks like Peter Griffin

[@russell2952]

That felt like a sneak preview for a show they never made.

[@xcsheehan]

Well communicated

[@schweinhund7966]

Surprisingly good video! Earned a subscription!

[@parkerbond9400]

I think higher isn't necessarily better. The main benefit is that you can photograph a larger area with fewer cameras and being higher up makes it less likely to be shot down.

[@mitsos306ify]

Awesome!!!

[@Amitdas-gk2it]

Thank You 😊

[@bastianrivero]

This was very interesting

[@chrisrowl]

Shape, pattern, tone, texture, and color--an imagery analyst's best friends.

[@carpemkarzi]

Very interesting

[@ona907]

So interesting!

[@theholypope]

thank you

[@nekomasteryoutube3232]

While I'm not a intelligence agent one of the things I love about Satellite imagine of the earth is seeing where things USED to be. As a train fan you can kinda see where old rail lines used to be, theres almost always a taltale sign of where they where in cities where nighbourhoods get kinda wavy and backyards dont always butt upagainst each other. you can also see lines in forested areas where former rail lines used to be because you can see a difference in the tree's and sometimes theres still a bit of a line through the trees where the rail used to be.

[@sonictheedgehog5360]

This needs to be an hour long

[@JesterLind]

The very first graphical overlay of coordinates @0:42 referencing the WIRED HQ offices features a style error. Condé Nast brand guidelines want the word WIRED in all caps.

[@samsquareddd]

pls give this man a 30 minute segment

[@HoldFastFilms]

And then you have marketing companies use the same technique to watch for shopping patterns at malls and stores, to determine busy times etc. Nothing better to do I guess ...

[@Belioyt]

Investment companies and hedge funds use this to figure out which stocks to dump and which ones to invest in. The TV series Billions showed this.

[@chiefgully9353]

They use cell activity (googlemaps and apple) to get their data. It's cheaper than sat feed

[@bpmgaming3351]

Remember guys if they're showing this to us it means they've found a better way of doing it.

[@RealNameNeverUsed]

I heard that they actually have the resolution down to inches. But the public can only access the downgraded resolution.

[@chiefgully9353]

Current tech is a few meters (a car length) this is enough to watch specific people and get details of objects about the size of a generator.

[@patelacademy3519]

Very interesting is this

[@311076]

So cool!

[@somnambulist83]

this would be a good video if the images stayed onscreen long enough for us to at least read the text describing the location being pictured

[@zephyrus6003]

Really informative. But could have been longer

[@okhera1]

VERY NICE!

[@snowwhite6251]

What about the underground bunkers for the special kinds???

[@commentcomment9700]

Very Important Video

[@afistfullofmustard3006]

MORE PLEASE

[@federaliomally391]

Thanks

[@snoopyyy_23]

More pls thanks