Did Donald Give Away A National Security Secret?

[toobfreak]

It's no secret our spy satellites can resolve objects as small as 10 cm from space.

10cm, that's 4 inches. We can resolve smaller than that. We were at that level 10-15 years ago.

I used to work for a company that made the lenses.

I'm familiar with the best optics there are, the highest grade optical glass with minimal striae, and with a final figure approaching 0.999 strehl. I've even owned some of those optics from the same optical houses as JPL uses and another from (LZOS) which makes optics for Russian aerospace.

This is more than just a matter of mere optics but of computerized post-processing.

 

[JGalt]

Heads up mods: this post is based on something Trump said in France today at the G7 conference talking about the Iran deal and other stuff before leaving. I do not have a linked article nor video clip of it.

Let me preface all of this by saying that as a polymath, I have several areas of interest including electronics, optics, music and religion to name a few. I've spent quite a number of years studying optics and image processing science. That said:

Trump today was going on about the Fordrow nuclear site and the buried uranium there. He was commenting that it will be hard to dig it out but ITMT, while we get around to it, that our Space Force (which Trump created) will be watching from orbit.

This is where Trump may have made a faux pas in inadvertently exposing a national secret:

In optics, there are relationships between aperture and resolution. There is both linear and angular resolution. General, the more resolution you want, the more aperture you need. But there are also modern computerized image processing techniques to artificially enhance resolution. For instance, we commonly deploy radio telescopes on opposite sides of the Earth both looking at the same object, then we synthesize an artificial aperture where the synthetic aperture is equal to their distance in separation effectively making a radio telescope with a synthetic aperture as big as the Earth.

While talking to the press, Trump let it slip that if anyone goes in there from Iran fooling around trying to dig out that uranium themselves, that we will see it. More than that, Trump went on to explain HOW WELL we can see them. He probably should not be talking about that. A very tightly regarded secret is HOW SMALL of a detail we can resolve on the ground from orbit. 10-15 years ago, I was certain that we could probably resolve a pack of cigarettes and identify individuals.

You see, the technology is out there now perhaps using some variant of enhanced adaptive speckling interferometry to resolve much smaller. Trump basically said that if we want to, we could read the name tags on their uniforms. Dear Donald: I don't know if you were just speaking off the cuff figuratively, or literally, but best not give our enemies any idea of our true capability, even in jest.

If we can indeed resolve that fine a detail from orbit (I have been able to identify a brand of cigarettes from a mile away and see detail in the scabs of rust on the head of a bolt on a street sign from a mile away (where the air is most turbulent from heat, etc.) with my own gear, and my father did aerial reconnaissance from aircraft during WWII, if you just gave away a tightly guarded secret, I can just imagine the people back in Washington pulling their hair out.

If President Trump let something slip, you can bet it was intentional. He knows the enemy's "rules" and likewise, he knows they work just as well against them as they do against us.

From "Rules for Radicals", a 1971 book by the Marxist "community activist" and writer Saul Alinsky, about how to successfully run a movement for change:

#1. "Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have."

#3. "Whenever possible go outside of the experience of the enemy."

#9. "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself."

Rules for Radicals - Wikipedia

I have been studying this man ever since he and Melania came down the escalator of the Trump Tower in New York City on June 16, 2015, to announce his first campaign for President of this country. He's been playing these same 13 rules against every enemy this country has, both foreign and domestic. There is absolutely no defense against them, and Trump understands that probably more so than the author who wrote them.

 

[toobfreak]

I don't give a shit and neither do you. You are just pissed because you said something anyone with an education and exposed to technology should know. You just said something incredibly stupid. We all do it occasionally, but don't double-down when called on it.

I know it exists. I also know some top-secret information that would curl your short hairs! But I'll never tell anyone that.

Everyone but you apparently know our capabilities.

Hey Jackass, I only saw your post by taking you off Iggy temporarily to see if you were stupid enough to try an intelligent reply, but as usual, you are nothing but bloviating bullshit in an attempt to deflect from your not knowing a thing. You have no idea what our true limit of resolution seen from space really is. That is tightly guarded. The fact that you claim to know means you either work for the CIA or are FULL OF IT as usual.

You know no top secret info. Go back to your hole in the ground and return to sucking your thumb. You forget you already admitted to me years ago you were nothing more than radar repairman in the Navy, which is all just basic electronics.

 

[toobfreak]

This a well-known fact from decades back!
Take a chill pill!

Idiot, are you really suggesting we had the ability to read name tags off people DECADES AGO? And in all that time have gotten no better?

Never mind what a lying, bloviating pompous ass you are in every post, the technology to process images to that level of resolution simply DID NOT EXIST DECADES AGO.

And since I'm breast of the developing technology, YOU ARE BUSTED lying yet again.

 

[toobfreak]

If President Trump let something slip, you can bet it was intentional.

An interesting suggestion.

I have been studying this man ever since he and Melania came down the escalator of the Trump Tower in New York City on June 16, 2015, to announce his first campaign for President of this country.

I hadn't realized that. When he came down that escalator, it was just 2 days after his birthday! Never realized that. He was only 69 then!

He has spent his life from age 69 to 80 now, and probably 83 by the time he's finished in public service.

I heard somewhere that it was actually Melania who talked him into running for POTUS after the whole thing with Mitt fell through.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Hey Jackass, I only saw your post by taking you off Iggy temporarily to see if you were stupid enough to try an intelligent reply, but as usual, you are nothing but bloviating bullshit in an attempt to deflect from your not knowing a thing. You have no idea what our true limit of resolution seen from space really is. That is tightly guarded. The fact that you claim to know means you either work for the CIA or are FULL OF IT as usual.

You know no top secret info. Go back to your hole in the ground and return to sucking your thumb. You forget you already admitted to me years ago you were nothing more than radar repairman in the Navy, which is all just basic electronics.

I was radar repairman when I was 18 dumbass!

I was a Surface Warfare Officer in the United States Navy. I was in charge of air search and missile fire control radars and the Harpoon missiles. I was also in charge of the nuclear weapons (which we may or may not have carried) both the SAM and rocket-thrown depth charges. I later transferred to engineering where I attended department head school and attended Tactical Action Officer school where I could receive weapons release authority. I had TS-SCI clearance. I was the boat group commander for my amphib group.

Anything else you want to learn about me?

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Idiot, are you really suggesting we had the ability to read name tags off people DECADES AGO? And in all that time have gotten no better?

Never mind what a lying, bloviating pompous ass you are in every post, the technology to process images to that level of resolution simply DID NOT EXIST DECADES AGO.

And since I'm breast of the developing technology, YOU ARE BUSTED lying yet again.

We had that ability in the 1980s when I served. Maybe you weren't exposed to it, but I have seen the photos.

Besides, you like vacuum tubes, which no one can really explain how they work unless you believe in hole flow.

Put me back on ignore coward! That won't stop me from exposing your stupid statements.

 

[1srelluc]

Trucks and people moving around, yes. Being able to read the name tags on their vest is quite a different matter.

No known spy tech in orbit exists to "read a newspaper from orbit".

If Trump can get the Iranians to believe we can then kudos to him.

 

[Clipper]

Heads up mods: this post is based on something Trump said in France today at the G7 conference talking about the Iran deal and other stuff before leaving. I do not have a linked article nor video clip of it.

Let me preface all of this by saying that as a polymath, I have several areas of interest including electronics, optics, music and religion to name a few. I've spent quite a number of years studying optics and image processing science. That said:

Trump today was going on about the Fordrow nuclear site and the buried uranium there. He was commenting that it will be hard to dig it out but ITMT, while we get around to it, that our Space Force (which Trump created) will be watching from orbit.

This is where Trump may have made a faux pas in inadvertently exposing a national secret:

In optics, there are relationships between aperture and resolution. There is both linear and angular resolution. General, the more resolution you want, the more aperture you need. But there are also modern computerized image processing techniques to artificially enhance resolution. For instance, we commonly deploy radio telescopes on opposite sides of the Earth both looking at the same object, then we synthesize an artificial aperture where the synthetic aperture is equal to their distance in separation effectively making a radio telescope with a synthetic aperture as big as the Earth.

While talking to the press, Trump let it slip that if anyone goes in there from Iran fooling around trying to dig out that uranium themselves, that we will see it. More than that, Trump went on to explain HOW WELL we can see them. He probably should not be talking about that. A very tightly regarded secret is HOW SMALL of a detail we can resolve on the ground from orbit. 10-15 years ago, I was certain that we could probably resolve a pack of cigarettes and identify individuals.

You see, the technology is out there now perhaps using some variant of enhanced adaptive speckling interferometry to resolve much smaller. Trump basically said that if we want to, we could read the name tags on their uniforms. Dear Donald: I don't know if you were just speaking off the cuff figuratively, or literally, but best not give our enemies any idea of our true capability, even in jest.

If we can indeed resolve that fine a detail from orbit (I have been able to identify a brand of cigarettes from a mile away and see detail in the scabs of rust on the head of a bolt on a street sign from a mile away (where the air is most turbulent from heat, etc.) with my own gear, and my father did aerial reconnaissance from aircraft during WWII, if you just gave away a tightly guarded secret, I can just imagine the people back in Washington pulling their hair out.

That was the usual Trump running his mouth about a subject he basically knows nothing about. He thinks he's the smartest guy in the room but in reality he's a first class moron. A legend in his own mind.

If he had any knowledge about that subject he wouldn't have mentioned it in the first place, because our enemies for sure are watching & listening.

"Lookie what we can do!" We have a man- boy with the nuke codes.

 

[sparky]

It's no secret our spy satellites can resolve objects as small as 10 cm from space. I used to work for a company that made the lenses.

so did I G5.......

computer based digital enhancement .....or optronics is old news

that said, i've no idea how far it's advanced these days

~S~

 

[g5000]

so did I G5.......

computer based digital enhancement .....or optronics is old news

that said, i've no idea how far it's advanced these days

~S~

The point is, it is no national secret that we can watch Iran's nuclear sites from space.

Trump gave away no secrets. And you know how I feel about Trump.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Heads up mods: this post is based on something Trump said in France today at the G7 conference talking about the Iran deal and other stuff before leaving. I do not have a linked article nor video clip of it.

Let me preface all of this by saying that as a polymath, I have several areas of interest including electronics, optics, music and religion to name a few. I've spent quite a number of years studying optics and image processing science. That said:

Trump today was going on about the Fordrow nuclear site and the buried uranium there. He was commenting that it will be hard to dig it out but ITMT, while we get around to it, that our Space Force (which Trump created) will be watching from orbit.

This is where Trump may have made a faux pas in inadvertently exposing a national secret:

In optics, there are relationships between aperture and resolution. There is both linear and angular resolution. General, the more resolution you want, the more aperture you need. But there are also modern computerized image processing techniques to artificially enhance resolution. For instance, we commonly deploy radio telescopes on opposite sides of the Earth both looking at the same object, then we synthesize an artificial aperture where the synthetic aperture is equal to their distance in separation effectively making a radio telescope with a synthetic aperture as big as the Earth.

While talking to the press, Trump let it slip that if anyone goes in there from Iran fooling around trying to dig out that uranium themselves, that we will see it. More than that, Trump went on to explain HOW WELL we can see them. He probably should not be talking about that. A very tightly regarded secret is HOW SMALL of a detail we can resolve on the ground from orbit. 10-15 years ago, I was certain that we could probably resolve a pack of cigarettes and identify individuals.

You see, the technology is out there now perhaps using some variant of enhanced adaptive speckling interferometry to resolve much smaller. Trump basically said that if we want to, we could read the name tags on their uniforms. Dear Donald: I don't know if you were just speaking off the cuff figuratively, or literally, but best not give our enemies any idea of our true capability, even in jest.

If we can indeed resolve that fine a detail from orbit (I have been able to identify a brand of cigarettes from a mile away and see detail in the scabs of rust on the head of a bolt on a street sign from a mile away (where the air is most turbulent from heat, etc.) with my own gear, and my father did aerial reconnaissance from aircraft during WWII, if you just gave away a tightly guarded secret, I can just imagine the people back in Washington pulling their hair out.

Again?

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

The point is, it is no national secret that we can watch Iran's nuclear sites from space.

The resolution of the imaging is the secret.

 

[Dragonlady]

I think the President has a better idea of what is a state secret than some freak on the Internet.
Just an observation

Hardly. Trump has, on numerous occasions, given Top Secret information to the Russian Ambassador, among others.

Reporters talk about him showing them Top Secret documents when they interviewed him at Mar-a-lago. Trump either doesn't know or doesn't care how he handles classified documents, and he's too stupid to be bothered learning.

 

[alang1216]

Like I said, I could not be certain if he was merely rambling off his cuff or accidentally spilling real data. But better not even hint at the possibilities, as, real or not, it was in the conceivable range--- its not like he suggested we could see threads in his jacket.

But my point here is if Trump was committing a slip of the tongue, then interested parties like the Chinese will recognize real capability from mere bloviation.

The NIIRS of a system is the least interesting thing about it. Things like look angles, datalinks, wavelengths, speed of positioning, etc. are the real secrets.

There is an old story about the Russians publicly displaying a new tank but not releasing any specific info on the caliber of the gun. The CIA worked feverishly to get spy satellite images of the gun that they could measure but failed every time. A CIA agent was talking to a French agent and told him the story. The French agent gave the exact caliber to the surprised CIA agent. The stunned agent asked how the French knew and what technology they used. The Frenchman said that he had had lunch with the Russian Military Attaché and had asked him.

 

[sparky]

The point is, it is no national secret that we can watch Iran's nuclear sites from space.

well it's a tad hard to simply keep secret G5......



~S~

 

[g5000]

well it's a tad hard to simply keep secret G5......

Except for UFOs UAPs.

Tens of thousands of US government employees have kept their existence secret for decades!

And the fake moon landing.

And the existence of those Iranian nukes which have been only two weeks away from completion for the past 25 years...

 

[sparky]

Except for UFOs UAPs.

Tens of thousands of US government employees have kept their existence secret for decades!

And the fake moon landing.

And the existence of those Iranian nukes which have been only two weeks away from completion for the past 25 years...

i'm sure it wouldn't be hard to add to that list G5

~S~

 

[Gabe Lackmann]

some variant of enhanced adaptive speckling interferometry to resolve much smaller.

 

[toobfreak]

No known spy tech in orbit exists to "read a newspaper from orbit".

Trump didn't say that. He said that they could even probably (don't recall his EXACT words) read the name off someone's uniform.

Last I checked, such lettering was around an inch tall with varying width lettering. That's a far cry from reading a newspaper, but a good step up from resolving objects the size of a football or a baseball, which I've felt for many years they could already do.