REMOTE SENSING AND PHOTOGRAMMETRY IN TREATY VERIFICATION: PRESENT CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE

Treaty verification involves the acquisition and interpretation of data to establish a country's compliance to an agreement. Remote sensing and photogrammetry in verification is established in the intelligence community and is progressively entering the civilian sector as well. The Open Skies Treaty and the proliferation of commercial satellite imagery have created a niche for open, multilateral verification. These recent developments come at an opportune moment as the verification task has become more cumbersome and complex. This paper surveys the changes in the field of verification, aerial monitoring and satellite surveillance. It details existing and future verification tasks and presents the operational capabilities for fulfilling those tasks. The limiting factors are also presented.