As countries grow increasingly reliant on space systems for economic stability and military security, the urgency for robust space defence capabilities has never been greater argues Martin Rowse of Airbus Defence and Space in the UK.
ukdefencejournal.org.uk/?p=56197
Here we go.
As part of his sweeping series of executive actions passed on day one in office, Trump revoked Biden's 2023 executive order on artificial intelligence.
This means that some key safety and transparency requirements for AI development are suspended, effective immediately.
While radar analysis can expose “dark vessels”, know its limits: False positives from waves and islands are common. Ships under 30m are hard to detect. Coastal areas create noise. Best results come from combining radar data with OSINT methods.
#OSINT #InvestigativeJournalism #SAR #ShipTracking
Tech explainer: Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites beam radar waves to Earth. Unlike optical satellites, they don’t need daylight or clear skies to spot things.
ESA's SNAP software comes with a powerful Ocean Object Detection feature for analyzing satellite radar images. This tool allows journalists to spot vessels even when they've turned off their AIS transponders. The interface is designed for non-programmers.
step.esa.int/main/download/snap-download/
Following this week’s NATO meeting on submarine cable protection:
Investigative newsrooms face a crucial challenge – how to track potential saboteurs when ships “go dark”? Satellite radar analysis is becoming a game-changer for this work – even without data science expertise.
🎧 @nytimes.com Daily deep-dive: “Big Tech’s Trump Bet” exposes Silicon Valley’s identity crisis and outdated self-image. Neither party is innocent: Democrats helped shape today’s problematic tech landscape while Big Tech cozies up to Trump. www.nytimes.com/audio/app/20...
The NYT investigation used Truthbrush, a powerful tool developed by the Stanford Internet Observatory. From my experience in social media research and data analysis, I can recommend Apify’s scrapers as an effective solution for this type of investigation.
apify.com
Before the elections, the NYT team analyzed 5,641 Trump posts on Truth Social – a platform that presents itself as a “free speech haven”. The reporters identified recurring themes and revealed a universe where Trump’s opponents became conspiracy plotters by default.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Meta’s decision to end US fact-checking was this week’s game-changer in social media. It instantly reminded me of a brilliant NYT investigation that helps to understand what’s at stake and how to investigate social media platforms.
It proved a crucial point: While data visualization helps grasp complex patterns, it’s the blend of satellite insights and on-ground reporting that tells the complete story.
3. Data needs human stories. In 2024 Bloomberg used satellite imagery to locate tents around Rafah to track displacement patterns.
www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
2. In journalism, results must be manually verified.
When the New York Times used AI to analyze satellite imagery revealing around 2,000 potential bomb craters in Gaza, every single impact site required careful human verification.
www.nytimes.com/2023/12/21/w...
The goal was to automatically analyze what the documents were about – without having to read each one, and to set up email alerts for specific matches. The payoff was worth every hour, even though untangling messy data turned what seemed straightforward into a time-intensive challenge.
1. Before building complex machine learning models, question whether manual analysis might be faster. In summer 2024, I worked on automating a database that regularly receives new documents.
In the latest episode, data scientist Krishna Karra from Bloomberg explains how he uses machine learning and satellite imagery for stories.
3 key takeaways :
One of my favorite podcasts – warning: it gets very nerdy – is „Minds Behind Maps“, where mapping experts have in-depth discussions about data, coding issues. And of course maps.
🎧 lnkd.in/es7XEmRq
Intrigued by Gaub’s insights on Russian military data in Syria, I discovered an article from the BBC that leveraged OSINT techniques to identify more than 500 Russian military personnel and Wagner members who died during Syrian operations between 2015 and 2024.
In Anne Will’s podcast, @florencegaub.bsky.social shared her analysis of assassination figures in Syria from two years ago, noting an uptick in terrorist attacks on Russian and Syrian officers. I highly recommend listening to her conclusions.
@trbrtc.bsky.social and Riley Mellen of The New York Times crafted a compelling analysis of the Tartus port using satellite imagery and marine tracking data. Their work exemplifies how precise insights can be gleaned from quality visuals and data without the need for extensive scrollytelling.
The Washington Post’s swift release of a visual timeline chronicling the fall of Assad’s regime, utilizing videos, photos, and maps. The chronological arrangement of videos provided a much clearer sense of how events unfolded.
A week ago, Assad fled from Syria to Russia. Since then, I’ve been particularly intrigued by stories that leverage data and OSINT to illustrate the unfolding situation on the ground. Here’s my personal list of must-read (and hear) analyses:
NEW: A year-long BBC Eye investigation has uncovered that tomato paste produced using forced labour in Xinjiang, western China, is likely being sold in major UK and German supermarkets. Watch the documentary here:
youtu.be/dtv_1eafJn4?...
Some new additions to my 'nerdy journalist' starterpack. A list full off international datajournalists. Welcome to @leonyin.org @brausechristina.bsky.social @jorisveerb.bsky.social @brechtcastel.bsky.social @marcelpauly.bsky.social @annadowell.bsky.social and @techjoe.bsky.social go.bsky.app/KKnngCM
To alle the SAR and marine data folks: I am currently familiarising myself with automatic ship detection with SAR. On open water, SNAP seems to be a good first method. What else can you recommend? In general and for more complicated coastal areas. I work with Python.
#SAR #marinedata #shipdetection
Thank you!
Love it. I am a data reporting pro but try to improve my data viz skills a bit as well. Do you have a tutorial on how to do such a visualisation?
One of the best investigations using remote sensing data I’ve seen this month: Bloomberg’s story about Iran-China oil trades in the South China Sea. While official records show zero Iranian oil imports to China since mid-2022, satellite evidence tells a completely different story.
Während die Jungs Fußball guckten, hab ich eben eine Liste von tollen weiblichen Reporterinnen in Deutschland gebastelt. Viele tolle Ladies sind noch nicht bei Bluesky, das hier ist ein Anfang. Schlagt mir gern mehr female reporters vor: go.bsky.app/6fG68ds
Uncovering Timur Kulibayev’s
European property empire
#CaspianCabals
www.icij.org/investigatio...