On Saturday, November 24, 2018, 10:51:29 AM PST, juan
   <juan.g71@gmail.com> wrote:

   On Sat, 24 Nov 2018 18:00:23 +0000 (UTC)
   jim bell <[1]jdb10987@yahoo.com> wrote:
   >> NovaSAR:. First all-UK SAR (synthetic aperture radar) satellite
   sends back images.
    >   amazing new tool for the complete enslavement of the human race,
   thanks to western fascist 'science'
   >   I guess that kind of news is rather important for cypherpunks
   because of the "know your enemy" principle.
   Before you spout your paranoia, you should be aware that SAR has been
   used since the 1960's, and was actually conceived in 1951.
   [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic-aperture_radar
   It is enormously useful, and became much more practical as computer
   technology advanced, especially in the 1980's. (it is necessary to turn
   thousands of individual radar-returns into a 2-D or 3-D image, a
   process that became far easier with the advent of high-speed computers
   in the 1970s.)
   We can try to imagine how SAR can be used for "the complete enslavement
   of the human race", but nevertheless I don't see very much, even when I
   turn my "paranoid-mode" dial up to "11".
   This particular satellite is said to have a resolution of 6 meters.
   It's hard for me to imagine how being able to detect voxels (3-D
   pixels)  of 6 meter on a side, from space, could enable "the complete
   enslavement of the human race".  It could detect the existence of
   houses and cars, but those items have been detectable from space since
   the 1970's using optical satellites.
   It can detect buried artillery emplacements, such as those of North
   Korea, but the average ordinary citizen doesn't have buried artillery
   emplacements.  [3]http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/9315/this-is-how
   -america-keeps-watch-over-north-korea-from-the-sky
   In the 1990's, space-shuttle-based SAR was used to identify the ancient
   city of Ubar, found primarily by noticing the lines on the map produced
   by hundreds of years of wagon-wheel compaction of the deserts, which
   could be identified and imaged under feet of sand.
   [4]https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA01721
   It can be used to detect bulging of a few inches height, over an area
   of tens or hundreds of square miles, such as was done over a place
   called Sisters, Oregon, starting in 2001.  Google 'Sisters Oregon SAR
   magma bulge' for some details.  One result
   [5]https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226843737_Continuing_inflat
   ion_at_Three_Sisters_volcanic_center_central_Oregon_Cascade_Range_USA_f
   rom_GPS_leveling_and_InSAR_observations×
   (BUTTON)
   The underwater analog of SAR is called "side-scan sonar", which was
   developed in the late 1970's and 1980's by (among others) Harold
   Edgerton, late professor-emeritus at MIT.  This can be used to
   accurately map seabeds, as was used in the recent successful search for
   that Argentine submarine that sank about a year ago.  (and in the
   as-yet unsuccessful search for that missing Maylaysia
   aircraft.  [6]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_37
   0
   (BUTTON)
   Very cheap sonar imagers are apparently available for boating
   use. [7]https://www.boatingmag.com/using-side-scan-sonar
   I don't claim (and it would be foolish to claim) that there are no
   "anti-freedom" applications for SAR.  But I cannot imagine many of
   those, compared to the others.
                        Jim Bell

References

   1. mailto:jdb10987@yahoo.com
   2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic-aperture_radar
   3. http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/9315/this-is-how-america-keeps-watch-over-north-korea-from-the-sky
   4. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA01721
   5. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226843737_Continuing_inflation_at_Three_Sisters_volcanic_center_central_Oregon_Cascade_Range_USA_from_GPS_leveling_and_InSAR_observations
   6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_370
   7. https://www.boatingmag.com/using-side-scan-sonar