Only two years after Sputnik, weapons were created for attacking spacecraft. These were based on land. But now there is talk of weapons in space-instant-kill beams like lasers. President Reagan has offered a vision of new inventions that could stop nuclear missile attacks. But will they work? Can lasers make nuclear weapons obsolete? Or would they merely be used to wage Stars Wars? Originally published in 1984, this is mainly the story of the military use of space. It shows how the new technology could trigger nuclear world war. And it looks for a way out...

This book, first published in 1991, is the cumulative result of a long period of research by qualified experts in an attempt to analyse the legal and scientific problems of arriving at definitions in the task of preventing an arms race in outer space. Problems of definition confront the negotiator at the very outset of any discussion on preventing a space arms race - this book sets out to remove these problems by examining the possible definitions.

This book, first published in 1982, analyses the prospects of the Cold War superpowers arms race spilling into outer space. A SIPRI-organized symposium in 1981 discussed the consequences of the militarization of outer space, as well as further arms control and disarmament measures. This book presents the findings of 20 eminent scientists, lawyers and diplomats from 12 different countries.

This book, first published in 1991, is the cumulative result of a long period of research by qualified experts in an attempt to analyse the legal and scientific problems of arriving at definitions in the task of preventing an arms race in outer space. Problems of definition confront the negotiator at the very outset of any discussion on preventing a space arms race - this book sets out to remove these problems by examining the possible definitions.

Only two years after Sputnik, weapons were created for attacking spacecraft. These were based on land. But now there is talk of weapons in space-instant-kill beams like lasers. President Reagan has offered a vision of new inventions that could stop nuclear missile attacks. But will they work? Can lasers make nuclear weapons obsolete? Or would they merely be used to wage Stars Wars? Originally published in 1984, this is mainly the story of the military use of space. It shows how the new technology could trigger nuclear world war. And it looks for a way out...

This book, first published in 1982, analyses the prospects of the Cold War superpowers arms race spilling into outer space. A SIPRI-organized symposium in 1981 discussed the consequences of the militarization of outer space, as well as further arms control and disarmament measures. This book presents the findings of 20 eminent scientists, lawyers and diplomats from 12 different countries.

David Stevens Space-based information, which includes earth observation data, is increasingly becoming an integral part of our lives. We have been relying for decades on data obtained from meteorological satellites for updates on the weather and to monitor weather-related natural disasters such as hurricanes. We now count on our personal satellite-based navigation systems to guide us to the nearest Starbucks Coffee and use web-based applications such as Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth to study the area of places we will or would like to visit. At the same time, satellite-based technologies have experienced impressive growth in recent years with an increase in the number of available sensors, an increase in spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions, an increase in the availability of radar satellites such as Terrasar-X and ALOS, and the launching of specific constellations such as the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC), COSMO- SkyMed (COnstellation of small Satellites for the Mediterranean basin Observation) and RapidEye. Even more recent are the initiatives being set-up to ensure that space-based information is being accessed and used by decision makers, such as Sentinel Asia for the Asia and Pacific region and SERVIR for the Latin America and Caribbean region.

Remote Sensing from Space Supporting International Peace and Security provides the reader with an overview of the state-of-the-art EO related research in the most relevant topics of security research. Whilst focusing on remote sensing technologies the book follows an interdisciplinary approach. It comprises management aspects (Issues and priority of security research, crisis response), applied methodologies and process chains (Treaty monitoring, estimation of population densities and characteristics, border permeability models, damage assessment) and the latest developments in generic tools (feature recognition, change detection and visualization). Contributing authors are leading researchers from private companies, national research institutions and international organizations working together in a European research project GMOSS (Global Monitoring for Security and Stability). Additionally the book tackles the issues of data sharing, data standards and new approaches of training security relevant techniques.

This book is tailored for the scientific community dealing with the application of EO data as well as for project managers and decision makers working in the field of security and having an interest in technical solutions. Many figures and sample images ease reading and allow to quickly grasping the technical background of modern technologies applied in people s security research.

This will be the first book that deals with the use of commercial satellite imagery to monitor non-proliferation of nuclear weapons non-intrusively from space by an international organisation. The book deals with both the technical as well as policy issues related to the nuclear weapons non-proliferation issues. The authors discuss how an international organisation such as the International Atomic Energy Agency can use information derived from satellites to enhance its policing task.

We are living in an era not only dominated but often driven by new and emerging technologies. Today, there is indeed no aspect of human life that is untouched by technologies in some form or another. Space technology is a classic example of an emerging capability that has a multitude of applications in both civilian and military segments. In the area of global navigational systems, satellites perform multitudes of tasks while orbiting both near and far orbits round the Earth. While remote sensing satellites are used to map the Earth's surface, communication satellites enable the successful operation of extensive global communications of various types. As the new capabilities bring in new opportunities, they also bring in their wake new challenges, particularly when the applications involve both commercial opportunities and security concerns. The conference at King's College London, which was attended by a group of experts, not only in remote sensing and communications satellite technologies but also in legal and ethical matters related to these capabilities, has been timely. It is hoped that this volume will give an informed basis to continue the debate on the opportunities and challenges relating to the commercialisation of space.

With the considerable advances made in the quality of sensors on board commercial observation satellites, information gained from them not only became widely available, but very useful for the verification of a number of arms control treaties including the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (the NPT). Satellites have begun to play an important role in the safeguards procedures under the NPT. For example, from satellites, nuclear facilities and activities such as the construction and shapes of buildings (including underground activities), plant expansion, and changes in operational status can be monitored. For an effective use of satellite imagery, it is important to determine identifiable signatures related to nuclear facilities that could be used in the interpretation and verification of activities. The book presents studies on visual and computer-based interpretation of remote sensing data for international safeguards purposes.