[throwawaywego]

I'm of the understanding that this was not a single image, but a composite image, taking by different satellites, planes, and/or drones.

The US could have build test facilities in their deserts, have a 3-D model available for proper reconstruction, and then learn to stitch and skew back all imagery into a single composite image. There may even be some "filling in" or "sharpening" of pixels or textures that could not be observed, but are guessed from their context.

In the framework of composite imagery, it would indeed be possible to zoom in, until you get to camera's capturing road traffic (maybe the license plate was not observed in the moment the main photo was taken, but was remembered from an observation by traffic camera 30 minutes ago and stitched back onto the object: composite imagery through time).

Finally, you could use multiple non-image sources for the composition. If three (ground) sensors capture the noise, heat, or vibrations from a train on a train track, you can now triangulate and draw the location of that train on space photos at a timestamp of your choosing.

[tempguy9999]

Why do you believe it's a composite image?

> the license plate was not observed in the moment the main photo was taken

I believe there's a limit on resolution of a space satellite. If you're suggesting the traffic cam reads the plate, how are you going to connect the coloured blob that is the car with an image taken by a traffic cam at a different time in a country that doesn't give you access to its traffic cams?

[throwawaywego]

> Why do you believe it's a composite image?

Because it is common to reconstruct a signal by taking multiple measurements, instead of a single sample. The field of compressed sensing broke ground on effective sampling. If (some) error is random noise, then you can remove this by majority vote. It is ineffective not to re-use that high-resolution secret drone fly-over footage, when composing satellite imagery at a later date. Inpainting, upscaling, de-oldifying, automatic coloring, 3D modeling, composition (see black hole photo process) etc. have become common usage in the ML community, and so I have reason to assume these techniques are also used to enhance and improve the resolution and unobserved guesstimates of satellite imagery.

> how are you going to connect the coloured blob that is the car with an image taken by a traffic cam at a different time in a country that doesn't give you access to its traffic cams?

Install road-side pointing camera's inside rented housing / contracted freedom fighter homes? Hack the traffic cams?

Didn't the NSA track mobiles in foreign countries by installing similar beacons / hacking sensors in bigger cities? That would theoretically allow them to view through the car roof and "see" who is in the backseat.

> The spy agency is said to be tracking the movements of “at least hundreds of millions of devices” in what amounts to a staggeringly powerful surveillance tool. It means the NSA can, through mobile phones, track individuals anywhere they travel – including into private homes – or retrace previously traveled journeys.

> The NSA provided some input into the report, with one senior collection manager, granted permission to speak to the newspaper, admitting the agency is “getting vast volumes” of location data from around the planet by tapping into cables that connect mobile networks globally.

> According to the Post, the NSA is applying sophisticated mathematical techniques to map cell phone owners’ relationships, overlapping their patterns of movement with thousands or millions of other users who cross their paths.

[tempguy9999]

Maybe mixed terminology, to me a composite pic is one where sections or entireties of several pics have been arranged to make a larger or more detailed one. What you desrcibe is different, but ISWYM.

> Install road-side pointing camera's inside rented housing / contracted freedom fighter homes? Hack the traffic cams?

perhaps, sounds a bit james bondish though :)

[throwawaywego]

The author of James Bond, Ian Flemming, worked as a commander for British Naval Intelligence, an officer for the 30 Assault Unit, whose task it was to gather intelligence behind enemy lines. His brother worked with "stay-behind" freedom fighter networks. :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ruthless

[tempguy9999]

I did not know that.

Fair swap, graham greene was also a spay[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Greene#Travel_and_espio...

[0] typo, but I rather like that one.