Space-based Staring Infrared Sensors
The US, in 1970, launched the first of a series of space-based staring array sensors that detected and located infrared heat signatures, typically from rocket motors but also from other intense heat sources. Such signatures, which are associated with measurement of energy and location, are not pictures in the IMINT sense. Currently called the Satellite Early Warning System (SEWS), the program is the descendant of several generations of Defense Support Program (DSP) spacecraft. The USSR/Russian US-KMO spacecraft has been described, by US sources, as having similar capabilities to DSP.
Originally intended to detect the intense heat of an ICBM launch, this system proved useful at a theater level in 1990-1991. It detected the launch of Iraqi Scud missiles in time to give early warning to potential targets.
Read more about this topic: Electro-optical MASINT
Famous quotes containing the word staring:
“The mad girl with the staring eyes and long white fingers
Hooked in the stones of the wall,”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)