For Immediate Release
Contact:Anna Marie Kinerney, Marketing/Meetings Manager
301-493-0290 ext.106; akinerney@asprs.org

Advent of Commercial High-Resolution Satellites Poses Challenging Questions –
New ASPRS/RAND Book Analyzes the Issues

ASPRS: The Imaging and Geospatial Information Society and RAND announce the availability of their jointly published book Commercial Observation Satellites: At the Leading Edge of Global Transparency, John C. Baker, Kevin M. O’Connell, and Ray A. Williamson, editors. Available April 2001, list price $90.00, Commercial Observation Satellites brings together an international group of experts to analyze the diverse issues presented by the new, higher resolution commercial and civilian observation satellites.

With more than two dozen chapters and numerous satellite images, the book’s authors examine emerging policy issues, provide a survey of the U.S. and many non-U.S. satellite remote sensing programs, and offer case studies on international security applications of satellite imagery.  The authors discuss remote sensing programs and policies from the following countries: Russia, France, Japan, Israel/Middle East, India, and Canada.  Written to reach nonspecialists, as well as policymakers and commercial practitioners, the 644-page book is divided into four parts:

• Policymaking Context
• National Remote Sensing Programs and Policies
• Remote Sensing Applications to International  Problems
• Emerging International Policy Issues

Commercial Observation Satellites illustrates how higher resolution images from satellites can enhance global transparency, encourage economic development, and contribute to international security.  However, as the book points out, this technology does not come without risks, and not all users may have benign intentions.  The book editors observe that, “The primary challenge is to find ways of hedging against the potential risks that unprecedented global access to overhead imagery poses without diminishing the many positive contributions that commercial observation satellites can offer for civil, commercial, and international uses.”

ASPRS Executive Director James Plasker said, “ASPRS agreed to co-publish this book with RAND because of its clear relevance to professionals in the field of remote sensing and the outstanding credentials of its editors and authors.”  John C. Baker is a technology policy analyst at RAND specializing in commercial observation satellite issues.  Kevin M. O’Connell is a senior international policy analyst and manager of Intelligence Community Programs at RAND.  Ray A. Williamson, a longstanding member of ASPRS, is a research professor of Space Policy and International Affairs at the George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute, which is part of the Elliott School of International Affairs.

Books may be purchased from ASPRS on line at http://www.asprs.org. Click on Publications, then on The ASPRS On-line Store, or email orders to: asprspubs@brightkey.net.

RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decision making through research and analysis.  RAND©is a registered trademark.

Founded in 1934, ASPRS is an international professional organization of 7,000 geospatial data professionals. ASPRS is devoted to advancing knowledge and improving understanding of the mapping sciences to promote responsible application of photogrammetry, remote sensing, geographic information systems and supporting technologies.

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(20 March 2001)