MOUNTING DEMAND FOR INTERNATIONAL CONTROL OF EARTH RESOURCE SATELLITE DATA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00825R000300170001-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 8, 2005
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 1, 1974
• Content Type: REPORT

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No Foreign Dissem
Mounting Demand for International Control
of Earth Resource Satellite Data
Confidential
BGI RP 74-13
March 1974
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Central Intelligence Agency
Directorate of Intelligence
March 1974
MOUNTING DEMAND FOR INTERNATIONAL CONTROL OF
EARTH RESOURCE SATELLITE DATA
1. The growing international concern over the
sovereignty implications of earth resource surveys from
space has recently been brought into sharpened focus at
the United Nations and is creating pressure for inter-
national regulation of satellite remote sensing activities.
In a move that highlights this concern, Brazil has proposed
a treaty that would drastically restrict the rights of
space powers to collect and release remote sensing data.
The draft treaty has been circulated at the February-March
1974 meeting of the UN Working Group on Remote Sensing, a
body that was established in 1971 to address a broad range
of technical, economic, legal, and organizational aspects
of earth resource and environmental surveys from space.
Beginning with the first meeting of the Working Group in
May 1972, legal aspects of remote sensing have been a very
contentious issue, with many countries expressing the fear
that economic advantages might be gained by states under-
taking satellite surveys.
2. Brazil's proposals, much more restrictive than
those submitted by other countries, would regulate the
acquisition as well as the dissemination of remote sensing
data. Most countries that have previously expressed con-
cern over the legal issues have recognized to some degree
the technical and verification problems of turning off
satellite sensors at national borders. They are also well
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aware that the United States and the USSR have existing
worldwide remote sensing programs. The most radical parts
of the Brazilian proposal provide that a state shall refrain
from the remote sensing of the natural resources of another
state without the consent of the latter and, further, that
a state is entitled to take measures to protect its territory
and the maritime areas under its jurisdiction from remote
sensing activities it has not approved. Another clause, this
one with strong Law-of-the-Sea implications, gives all states
the right to participate in remote sensing programs over land
or maritime areas outside national jurisdiction.
3. Of the other countries that share Brazil 's concern
on this issue, only Mexico and Argentina appear to support
the proposal to regulate remote sensing at the acquistion
stage. Most of the other 20-odd Working Group countries
that have comented on the subject agree on the need for
legal principles to protect the rights of sensed countries
but believe they can be less restrictive. Sets of prin-
ciples have been proposed by Argentina, Canada, France,
Mexico, and the USSR. Those advanced by the USSR at the
second Working Group meeting in February 1973 have received
the most attention; they stress regulation of the dissemination
and use of earth resource data as a means to protect states'
sovereign rights to control their own natural resources. In
particular, they stipulate that the sensing state should pro-
vide the acquired data to the state being sensed and should
not pass it to a third state without permission of the state
being sensed.
4. In contrast, US policy in the present experimental
period calls for unrestricted dissemination of data from
its Earth Resource Technology Satellite (ERTS) and Skylab
programs. This policy has enabled about 40 countries to
participate directly in these programs and has allowed many
more to order data from the United States. The United
States has noted to the Working Group that its domestic
law provides the Government no basis on which to deny
remote sensing data to US citizens. Thus, any restrictive
international data dissemination arrangement would almost
certainly result in the irregular release of data through
US citizens to foreign countries.
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5. Sweden, moderating its earlier prominent stand in
favor of international controls, is now suggesting that a
solution to the general remote sensing problem might be
found more readily through a mechanism for data dissemination
rather than by a legal approach. Sweden points out that
"sensitive" data covering most of the earth's land mass
(from ERTS and US manned satellites) are already in the
public domain, and that this reality should be considered
in the legal debate. Future coverage will mainly provide
new information on renewable resources, a less sensitive
subject than mineral resources.
6. The proposed restrictions would affect the ERTS
program and the US and Soviet manned earth satellite pro-
grams. The USSR proposals are inconsistent with its own
practice of collecting remote sensing data about the natural
resources of foreign countries without releasing the data
to them. Brazil and France would also be affected later on
since both have begun preliminary planning for their own
earth resource satellites, to be launched perhaps as early
as 1978.
7. In a closely related development before the
convening of the Working Group proper, a special Task
Force considered possible organizational mechanisms to
facilitate international exchange of remote sensing data.
A paper submitted by the USSR initially seemed to support
the concept of free exchange of data through a UN data
center. During discussion in the Task Force, however,
it became clear that the USSR has in mind a small
referral service that would obtain data voluntarily from
contributors. In fact, the Soviet stress on voluntary
release of data to any international center is more in
keeping with the present USSR practice of withholding
data than with the legal ,principles that are being
proposed by the USSR in the Working Group.
8. As a practical matter, regulation of data
dissemination is further complicated by the ability of
some countries to acquire data directly from satellites.
Brazil and Canada already possess ERTS ground receiving
and processing stations and have agreements with the
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United States that provide for direct reception of ERTS data.
In Brazil's case, the United States is capable of limiting
that country's direct acquisition of data by limiting the
area over which the satellite operates in the direct trans-
mission mode.* However, if a country near Brazil were to
obtain a ground station it would be able to receive data
over Brazil without consent of either Brazil or the United
States.
9. Situations such as this are likely to become
increasingly numerous and complex. At least ten other
countries are in various stages of planning or negotiating
for their own ground stations (see map, following text).
Japan, in fact, has expressed an interest in acquiring two
ground stations, one of which would be placed on a ship for
the express purpose of acquiring imagery over surrounding
countries where Japan has resource interests.**
10. Although the most recent meeting of the Working
Group did not result in any recommendations, discussion of
the legal aspects of remote sensing will be renewed at a
higher level in the UN. The subject has been on the agenda
of the Legal Subcommittee of the Committee on Outer Space
for some years, hut it has not enjoyed a high priority and
will probably not be discussed at length at the next meeting
of the Legal Subcommittee in May 1974. At the May meeting,
however, the Legal Subcommittee can now be expected to
revise these priorities and is likely to place remote
sensing at the top of the agenda for 1975,
The US ERTS has two operating modes. In the direct
transmission mode images are telemetered from the satellite,
as they are collected, to any ground receiving station
within about Z,600 miles of the sub-satellite point. In
its second mode, used when the satellite is beyond receiving
range of ground stations, the satellite stores images on
tape for later transmittal to US ground stations.
" The placement of the Japanese mobile station on the
accompaning map represents one of the most likely of
several probable areas of deployment.
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PROJECT PROPOSAL
RESEARCH ACTIVITY NOTICE
ming
SUBJECT
Brazilian Proposal in UN to Regulate Remote Sensing
from Space
PROJECT NUMBER
PN 69.2708
SUBJECT CODE
REQUESTER
Self-initiated
REQUESTING OFFICE
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Brazil has presented to a UN Working
of draft principles that would regulate
of earth resource satellites in space.
proposals, along with more moderate
forward last year by the USSR, reflect
on the part of many countries about
activities across international borders.
of draft principles are opposed by the
We propose to briefly describe
in a paper designed for publication
Intelligence Daily.
Group a set
the activities
The Brazilian
proposals put
a deep concern
remote sensing
Both sets
US.
TARGET DATE
19 February 74
ANALYST/BRANCH
,
3
_
these developments
in OCI's National
REPORT NUMBER
CIA/BI G
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