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Intelligence

What is Intelligence?

HUMINT

Human intelligence (HUMINT) are gathered from a person in the location in question. Sources can include the following:

Advisors or foreign internal defense (FID) personnel working with host nation (HN) forces or populations
Diplomatic reporting by accredited diplomats (e.g. military attachés)
Espionage clandestine reporting, access agents, couriers, cutouts
Military attachés
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
Prisoners of war (POWs) or detainees
Refugees
Routine patrolling (military police, patrols, etc.)
Special reconnaissance
Traveler debriefing (e.g. CIA Domestic Contact Service)

GEOINT

Geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) are gathered from satellite and aerial photography, or mapping/terrain data.

Imagery intelligence (IMINT) – gathered from satellite and aerial photography – Read our IMINT introduction here: https://guerillamap.com/imint-a-very-basic-introduction/

OSINT

Open-source intelligence (OSINT) are gathered from open sources. OSINT can be further segmented by the source type: Internet/General, Scientific/Technical, and various HUMINT specialties, e.g. trade shows, association meetings, and interviews.

CYBINT/ DNINT
Cyber or digital network intelligence (CYBINT or DNINT) are gathered from cyberspace

OSINT is defined in the United States of America by Public Law 109-163 as cited by both the U.S. Director of National Intelligence and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), as intelligence “produced from publicly available information that is collected, exploited, and disseminated in a timely manner to an appropriate audience for the purpose of addressing a specific intelligence requirement.” As defined by NATO, OSINT is intelligence “derived from publicly available information, as well as other unclassified information that has limited public distribution or access.”

According to political scientist Jeffrey T. Richelson, “open source acquisition involves procuring verbal, written, or electronically transmitted material that can be obtained legally. In addition to documents and videos available via the Internet or provided by a human source, others are obtained after U.S. or allied forces have taken control of a facility or site formerly operated by a foreign government or terrorist group.”

Former Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis Mark M. Lowenthal defines OSINT as “any and all information that can be derived from overt collection: all types of media, government reports and other documents, scientific research and reports, commercial vendors of information, the Internet, and so on. The main qualifiers to open-source information are that it does not require any type of clandestine collection techniques to obtain it and that it must be obtained through means that entirely meet the copyright and commercial requirements of the vendors where applicable.”

SIGINT

Signals intelligence (SIGINT) are gathered from interception of signals.

Communications intelligence (COMINT)
COMINT is a sub-category of signals intelligence that engages in dealing with messages or voice information derived from the interception of foreign communications. COMINT is commonly referred to as SIGINT, which can cause confusion when talking about the broader intelligence disciplines. The US Joint Chiefs of Staff defines it as “Technical information and intelligence derived from foreign communications by other than the intended recipients”.
COMINT, which is defined to be communications among people, will reveal some or all of the following:
– Who is transmitting?
– Where they are located, and, if the transmitter is moving, the report may give a plot of the signal against location?
– If known, the organizational function of the transmitter
– The time and duration of transmission, and the schedule if it is a periodic transmission
– The frequencies and other technical characteristics of their transmission
– If the transmission is encrypted or not, and if it can be decrypted. If it is possible to intercept either an originally transmitted cleartext or obtain it through cryptanalysis, the language of the communication and a translation (when needed).
– The addresses, if the signal is not a general broadcast and if addresses are retrievable from the message. These stations may also be COMINT (e.g., a confirmation of the message or a response message), ELINT (e.g., a navigation beacon being activated) or both. Rather than, or in addition to, an address or other identifier, there may be information on the location and signal characteristics of the responder.

Voice interception
A basic COMINT technique is to listen for voice communications, usually over radio but possibly “leaking” from telephones or from wiretaps. If the voice communications are encrypted, traffic analysis may still give information.

In the Second World War, for security the United States used Native American volunteer communicators known as code talkers, who used languages such as Navajo, Comanche and Choctaw, which would be understood by few people, even in the U.S. Even within these uncommon languages, the code talkers used specialized codes, so a “butterfly” might be a specific Japanese aircraft. British forces made limited use of Welsh speakers for the same reason.

While modern electronic encryption does away with the need for armies to use obscure languages, it is likely that some groups might use rare dialects that few outside their ethnic group would understand.

Text interception
Morse code interception was once very important, but Morse code telegraphy is now obsolete in the western world, although possibly used by special operations forces. Such forces, however, now have portable cryptographic equipment.

Specialists scan radio frequencies for character sequences (e.g., electronic mail) and fax.

Signaling channel interception
A given digital communications link can carry thousands or millions of voice communications, especially in developed countries. Without addressing the legality of such actions, the problem of identifying which channel contains which conversation becomes much simpler when the first thing intercepted is the signaling channel that carries information to set up telephone calls. In civilian and many military use, this channel will carry messages in Signaling System 7 protocols.

Retrospective analysis of telephone calls can be made from Call detail record (CDR) used for billing the calls.

Monitoring friendly communications
More a part of communications security than true intelligence collection, SIGINT units still may have the responsibility of monitoring one’s own communications or other electronic emissions, to avoid providing intelligence to the enemy. For example, a security monitor may hear an individual transmitting inappropriate information over an unencrypted radio network, or simply one that is not authorized for the type of information being given. If immediately calling attention to the violation would not create an even greater security risk, the monitor will call out one of the BEADWINDOW codes used by Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other nations working under their procedures. Standard BEADWINDOW codes (e.g., “BEADWINDOW 2”) include:
– Position: (e.g., disclosing, in an insecure or inappropriate way), “Friendly or enemy position, movement or intended movement, position, course, speed, altitude or destination or any air, sea or ground element, unit or force.”
– Capabilities: “Friendly or enemy capabilities or limitations. Force compositions or significant casualties to special equipment, weapons systems, sensors, units or personnel. Percentages of fuel or ammunition remaining.”
– Operations: “Friendly or enemy operation – intentions progress, or results. Operational or logistic intentions; mission participants flying programmes; mission situation reports; results of friendly or enemy operations; assault objectives.”
– Electronic warfare (EW): “Friendly or enemy electronic warfare (EW) or emanations control (EMCON) intentions, progress, or results. Intention to employ electronic countermeasures (ECM); results of friendly or enemy ECM; ECM objectives; results of friendly or enemy electronic counter-countermeasures (ECCM); results of electronic support measures/tactical SIGINT (ESM); present or intended EMCON policy; equipment affected by EMCON policy.”
– Friendly or enemy key personnel: “Movement or identity of friendly or enemy officers, visitors, commanders; movement of key maintenance personnel indicating equipment limitations.”
– Communications security (COMSEC): “Friendly or enemy COMSEC breaches. Linkage of codes or codewords with plain language; compromise of changing frequencies or linkage with line number/circuit designators; linkage of changing call signs with previous call signs or units; compromise of encrypted/classified call signs; incorrect authentication procedure.”
– Wrong circuit: “Inappropriate transmission. Information requested, transmitted or about to be transmitted which should not be passed on the subject circuit because it either requires greater security protection or it is not appropriate to the purpose for which the circuit is provided.”
– Other codes as appropriate for the situation may be defined by the commander.

In WWII, for example, the Japanese Navy, by poor practice, identified a key person’s movement over a low-security cryptosystem. This made possible Operation Vengeance, the interception and death of the Combined Fleet commander, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.

Electronic intelligence (ELINT) – gathered from electronic signals that do not contain speech or text (which are considered COMINT)
see: OSINT Reports, ELINT https://guerillamap.com/elint/

Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of signals, whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication (electronic intelligence—abbreviated to ELINT). Signals intelligence is a subset of intelligence collection management. As classified and sensitive information is usually encrypted, signals intelligence in turn involves the use of cryptanalysis to decipher the messages. Traffic analysis—the study of who is signaling whom and in what quantity—is also used to integrate information again

TECHINT

Technical intelligence (TECHINT) are gathered from analysis of weapons and equipment used by the armed forces of foreign nations, or environmental conditions.

Medical intelligence (MEDINT) – gathered from analysis of medical records and/or actual physiological examinations to determine health and/or particular ailments and allergic conditions for consideration

FININT

Financial intelligence (FININT) are gathered from analysis of monetary transactions

Metadata

"Conflicts" Layers

“Conflicts” shows the recent military, political and socioeconomical conflicts worldwide Each of these conflicts has the potential for a further escalation and possibly have global consequences. Some of these conflicts may seem far in the past, but they are still relevant up to this date and can rekindle anytime.

Layers:

Nexus Insight
https://nexusinsight.org is a global intelligence firm, kindly sharing their collective expertise, including unique localized knowledge and perspective.
News
Geopolitical news, most of them are derived from social media “blogger” channels, when clicking the link in the popup you directly get to the data source.
News History
Same as “News” but it shows the older archived data.
Conflicts
Click the icons to see more information on the timeline and the involved parties. There is also a link to a more detailed description of the conflict, mostly to the corresponding Wikipedia article.
Several areas are marked, for example claims in the South China Sea (note especially China’s famous 9 dash line in red and the satellite Imagery there at the bases and have a look at China’s built up in the area).
The Himalayas are contested as well. Many territories in the Himalayas are claimed by different nations – such as China, India and Pakistan. One of the most prominent examples is the Kashmir region claimed by both, Pakistan and India. Several of these regions are very important origins of fresh water sources.
Other areas in war territories are marked in terms of “areas under control of”, such as territories controlled by Russia in Ukraine.
Fires / NASA FIRMS
https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/
The Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) distributes Near Real-Time (NRT) active fire data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua and Terra satellites, and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) aboard S-NPP, NOAA 20 and NOAA 21 (formally known as JPSS-1 and JPSS-2). Globally these data are available within 3 hours of satellite observation.
Air & Naval Base Activities
There are several Russian and Chinese air or naval bases marked with a blue circle, there you have an activity estimation. The activity is measured using SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) Satellite Images. Aircrafts typically show a strong signal reflection in these Radar images and therefore a higher backscatter signal is considered a higher abundancy of Aircrafts, meaning more activity. You also have a Google Satellite image with the superimposed activity detection in blue, always from the last month. So everywhere we have these blue markings in the image, we have a strong Radar backscatter.
Russian Losses last 7 days
It shows the visually confirmed and georeferenced losses of Russian equipment in the Ukraine war. Data is derived from http://ukr.warspotting.net
Nuclear Test Sites. Sites of nuclear weapon tests.
Minefields
OSM areas considered as minefields.
Uyghur Detention Centers
Chinese Uyghur Detention Centers were mapped by the UN. Note that most of the points do not represent the exact location of the centres, but rather a regional approximation.
Terrorist Attacks since 2000
Heatmap of all terrorist attacks happened since the year 2000. Source: Global Terrorism Database™ (GTD)

"Migration" Layers

Large migration can lead to conflicts, but they are also an indicator in which nation the people tendentially want to live – and where not! So migration is caused by conflict and can again lead to more conflict.

Percentage of Immigrants. Number immigrants compared to native population; a darker blue indicates a higher immigrant population ratio. Source: The world bank.
Number of Immigrants in absolute numbers since approximatel the 1970s. Source: The world bank.
Number of Emigrants in absolute numbers since approximatel the 1970s. Source: The world bank.
Migration Routes. The most important migration routes currently.
Strong Borders. Borders that are really hard to cross.

"Military" Layers

“Military” shows Global military installations, such as Airports, bases or nuclear missile sites. Most of the data derived from Open Streep Map, but quite a lot was mapped manually – either by us or by IOSI (iosi.global).

Military Aircrafts
Real time military aircraft data from ADS-B-exchange.com. Positions get refreshed every 5 minutes.
Military Units
It shows the approximate operational region of Russian and Ukrainian military units. The data was derived from militaryland.net. Note that these are really just approximate locations.
Mil Ops vessels, last position
Last AIS signal position of vessels considered to be on military operation. Note: this layer has a very long loading time and you have to fully zoom in to display the vessel names. Source: https://atlas.redmic.es. Furthermore, the last known position of selected aircraft carriers. The positions are mapped from Vessel Tracking (AIS) and from public news sites. You can see the corresponding news source when clicking the location.
Nuclear Missile Range
Nuclear ballistic missile ranges of China (14’000 km), North Korea (15’000 km), India (5000 km), and Pakistan (2800 km). These ranges are estimations and do only consider land-based rocket launches from the currently mapped positions (not included are marine/submarine launches, mobile land launches and aircraft launches).
Nuclear Weapons Sites
Merged launch sites of China, North Korea, India and Pakistan. Zoom into the satellite imagery to have a look at the silo’s locations. When you click the icons of Chinese silos you can open links to IMINT images. Note that India and Pakistan do not have giant missile silos like China, but several mobile land launchers – here are the positions where such launchers were spotted in the past, or where assumed nuclear weapons storage sites are.
Military Facilities
Facilities considered to have a military componend, for example satellite ground stations, early warning radars or factories building military components.
Naval Bases
Some of the most important military naval bases worldwide.
Military Airports
OSM areas considered as military airports.
Military Bases
OSM areas considered as military.

"Alliances" Layers

Some of the most important military – and some non-military – alliances worldwide. Source: Wikipedia.org

"Military Comparison" Layers

The Military Comparison map shows the firepower of the 45 strongest nations. All data derived from: globalfirepower.com. The firepower index not only compares military units, but also the county’s geography, financial situation etc.

Layers:

Firepower Index since 2023
Data derived from: globalfirepower.com. The firepower index not only compares military units, but also the county’s geography, financial situation etc.
Total Military Personnel
The total military personnel consist of active official personnel, reserve personnel and paramilitary (such as mercenaries).

Fighter Aircrafts
Fighter Aircrafts
Fighter Aircrafts
Tanks
ACFT Carriers
Destroyers
Frigates
Corvettes
Submarines
Spending as percentage of GDP (Gross Domestic Production)
Spending as percentage of Government spending

"Infrastructure" Layers

Population Density
Data from NASA, where a darker red indicates a higher population density. Source: https://gitc.earthdata.nasa.gov
Artificial lights
The “black marble” dataset from NASA, showing artificial light pollution. Source: https://maps.eatlas.org.au
Artificial lights, most recent
Most recent VIIRS SNPP Nighttime Acquisition. Source: gitc.earthdata.nasa.gov
Submarine Data Cables
This is a schematic map and does not represent the real positions of the cables but more the connections between cities.
Roads and Railways
Major highways, railways and primary roads worldwide. Source: https://datacore.unepgrid.ch
International Airports
OSM areas considered as International Aerodromes.
Naval Ports
Some of the biggest Ports worldwide (selection).
Mines
The biggest (in terms of mining quantity) mines of selected minerals and ores worldwide. A bigger symbol represents a higher mining quantity. Click the icons to get more information.
Sources: globaldata.com and mining-technology.com
Special Infrastructure
Space Ports
OSM areas considered as spaceports/aerodromes.
Semiconductor Factories
Some of the biggest semiconductor factories worldwide (selection).

"Powerplants" Layers

PowerPlants
Nuclear Power Plants (from OSM), Water Dams (Some of the biggest water dams worldwide (according to the construction volume – and also the biggest energy producers), (selection)), Wind, Solar, Coal, Oil and Gas Power Plants worldwide. Source: World Resource Institude (https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/datasets/catalog/WRI_GPPD_power_plants)

"Oil & Gas" Layers

Oil and Gas Wells
Active Oil and Gas fields mapped in a heatmap. Note it does not represent oil and gas production, but only absolute number of wells. Several areas are not included, like Saudi Arabia.
Refineries
OSM areas considered Oil Refinery
Pipelines
Selection (according to pipeline length) of OSM oil or gas pipelines

"Environment" Layers

The most devastating natural disasters of the current year. Click the icons to receive more information and a link to news sites describing the disaster. There are additional layers linked to natural disasters, such as recent weather data.

“Weather”:

Geo Sat HRV
Most recent geostationary satellite images from Eumetsat/SEVIRI in the higher spatial resolution HRV. Only available for Europe.
Geo Sat IR
Most recent geostationary satellite images from Eumetsat/SEVIRI, GOES and HIMAWARI, shown with a colorized infrared band, to highlight cloud coverage and type. These satellites typically take aqcuisitions every 15 minutes. Source: http://wms.fmi.fi/
Geo Sat VIS
Most recent geostationary satellite images from Eumetsat/SEVIRI, GOES and HIMAWARI, shown in visible light bands on daytime areas and with a colorized infrared band, to highlight cloud coverage and type. These satellites typically take aqcuisitions every 15 minutes. Source: http://wms.fmi.fi/

“Disasters”:

Floods
Storms
Tsunamis
Volcanic Eruptions
Fires
Active Fire Pixels: NASA FIRMS product from geostationary images to detect thermal anomalies. It shows active fires of the last 24 hours – https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/
Earthquakes
Recent Earthquakes source: http://earthquakes.ga.gov.au

“Hazard”:

Earthquake Hazard, Source: https://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu
Drought Hazard, Source: https://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu
Flood Hazard, Source: https://datacore.unepgrid.ch
Cyclone Hazard, Source: https://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu
Volcano Hazard, Source: https://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu

"Auxiliary" Layers

Maxar Images
https://www.maxar.com/ Maxar space systems is a space technology and manufacturing company. They provide several datasets of satellite image mosaics, which you can select with the time slider on top of the map.
Latest Landsat-8 Acquisition
Source: NASA Landsat
Latest Sentinel-2 Acquisition
Source: ESA Copernicus
Latest S1 Acquisition
Source: ESA Copernicus
Latest S3 Acquisition
Source: ESA Copernicus
Hillshade
Source: https://gis.ngdc.noaa.gov/
Administrative Borders
Source: https://view.eumetsat.int/geoserver/

User Map

Use OSINT by yourself and map whatever you feel is related to military, conflict or geopolitics.

Satellite Tracking

There are plots of several nations for when and where specific IMINT (Imagery Intelligence) satellites are passing. Note that the time is always in UTC (universal time). The passings are modelled using the TLE (telemetry data) for these satellites. The TLE data is used from N2YO.com and Celestrack.org. A passing is defined by a minimum of 45° elevation above horizon from the target location to the satellite – this is usually the maximum pointing capability of such satellites. Note that the modelled target location is always at 1 m a.m.s.l – so no terrain data is used in modelling the passes.

Use this STANAG table to get an idea, what GSD is needed to detect your targets:

So for example: A Vehicle can be detected with a GSD of 1.5 m – but at this GSD, we have no idea what kind of vehicle it is. With a GSD of 0.5 m we can probably say if it is a tank, a pickup truck or a civil car. If we want to know if it is a Tesla or a Toyota, we would need a GSD of 0.15 m – for tanks probably a GSD of 0.3 m would be enough. Please read more in IMINT and image analysis in our introduction article here: https://guerillamap.com/imint-a-very-basic-introduction/

GSD Calculator

Intelligence

Intelligence

Metadata

Metadata

Satellite Tracking