Analysts at various NGOs, universities, and think tanks (as well as arm-chair hobbyists) are playing a leading role in obtaining new information of relevance to global security from a variety of open-source geospatial tools. These tools include Google Earth as well as other satellite imagery from technology companies that come via the internet Cloud. Pabian describes some of the discoveries made by researchers around the globe, discoveries that have only recently become possible as a result of advances in cutting-edge modeling technology and image data that commercial companies have made easily available to the public at nominal or no cost.

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