NRO INNOVATIONS AND INNOVATORS

CLIMATE CHANGE

The original mission of the National Reconnaissance Office was 

to obtain satellite reconnaissance photos, as needed by US 

Government leadership, to evaluate and monitor the potential 

threats of Soviet missile activity. Over the course of its 60-

year existence, the NRO’s mission has evolved significantly. 

In the decades since its creation, the work accomplished by 

the NRO has influenced developments, not only within the 

classified world of the intelligence community, but also in 

the unclassified arenas of space exploration, agriculture, 

meteorology, communications, medicine, technology, and 

climate change. For example, NRO capabilities assisted with 

the assessment of damage from the 2004 tsunami in Southeast 

Asia and of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and has helped save 

lives by supporting the responders that fight wildfires in the 

American West. Today, multiple civilian agencies use NRO 

overhead systems to, among other things, assess and predict 

climate change, study crop production, map habitats of 

endangered species, respond to natural disasters, and track 

geological and glacial change.

DECLASSIFICATION OF NRO IMAGERY

Early NRO imagery collection, obtained by the space-based 

reconnaissance systems of the 1960s and early 1970s, was 

driven mostly by the need to confirm purported developments 

in Soviet strategic missile capabilities. At the time, the 

photos were also used to produce maps and charts for the 

Department of Defense and other US Government classified 

mapping programs. 

In the early 1990s, a Classification Review Task Force, led by the 

Central Imagery Office, examined imagery security policy and 

the utility of satellite photo reconnaissance imagery for public 

purposes. The task force evaluated the associated national 

security risks, in the post-Cold War era, of releasing the 1960s 

reconnaissance photos to the rest of the US Government and 

the public. It was concluded that the value of the images, to 

the study and analysis of climate change, was more significant 

than the continued protection of mostly obsolete technology 

and the identification of early targets of reconnaissance 

missions. The task force then made recommendations to the 

White House to declassify the imagery.

In February 1995, President Clinton signed Executive Order 

12951, “Release of Imagery Acquired by Space-Based National 

Intelligence Reconnaissance Systems,” which directed the 

declassification of imagery obtained by the Corona, Argon, and 

Lanyard photoreconnaissance missions. The order resulted in 

the declassification of more than 800,000 images collected by 

these satellites between 1960 and 1972.

IMPACT

Prior to the declassification of the reconnaissance images, 

environmentalists were limited by the imagery provided by 

the Landsat system, which became operational in 1972, but 

had poorer image quality than the earlier NRO programs. The 

release of the previously classified archive of reconnaissance 

photos, covering the previous twelve years (1960-1972), 

provided an additional basis for the systematic and 

comprehensive coverage of the earth’s surface to scientists and 

environmental researchers. The images acquired by the NRO’s 

earliest reconnaissance satellites (Corona, Argon, and Lanyard), 

allowed environmentalists to establish a 1960s baseline, not 

available by any other means, to assess environmental changes 

and provided significant contributions to the analysis and 

understanding of global environmental processes. Subsequent 

declassification of the NRO’s Gambit and Hexagon programs 

and associated imagery further enlarges the imagery data 

available for climate change analysis. 

CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE

BPO/CSNR, 14675 Lee Road, Chantilly, VA 20151-1715 = 703-227-9368 = csnr@nro.mil

 Tsunami Damage in Southeast Asia