Recent Developments Promoting Open-Source Geospatial Synergy: Emerging Trends and Their Impact for Nuclear Nonproliferation Analysis

Abstract: 

This presentation will focus on the utility of open sources, in harmony with openly available commercial satellite imagery, for non-proliferation monitoring and verification applications. Commercial satellite imagery provides a remote and non-intrusive means to potentially derive unique insights on nuclear facilities, equipment, and activities anywhere on Earth and in some cases, may provide the first, if not only, clues of illicit activities. This presentation will review, through the use of some instructive exemplars, most notably with regard to North Korean nuclear testing, the ways in which openly available geospatial tools have helped in that role. The significant improvements in the commercial satellite capabilities over the past decade, together with some implications that they hold for future non-proliferation applications, will also be discussed.