| Summary: | Keyhole (KH) satellite systems- KH-9 acquired photographs of the Earth's surface with a telescopic camera system and transported the exposed film through the use of recovery capsules. The capsules or buckets were de-orbited and retrieved by aircraft while the capsules parachuted to earth. The exposed film was developed and the images were analyzed for a range military applications. The Keyhole (KH) satellite system KH-9 (Hexagon) operated between 1971 and 1984. The imagery generated are of historical interest and expected to support current scientific research on climate change and related fields of inquiry. Almost all of the imagery from this camera was declassified in 2012 as a continuation of Executive Order 12951, the same order that declassified CORONA. A subset of this declassified data was transferred to the U.S. Geological Survey's Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. Please check the coverage map in EarthExplorer to verify the extent of coverage for the subset of images available from EROS. The Available images are primarily over the United States, Antarctica, and the Arctic Circle. The KH-9 program was designed to support mapping requirement and exact positioning of geographical points for the military. The KH-9 panoramic cameras captured high resolution (2-4 feet) images and the terrain camera captured high resolution (2-4 feet) images and the terrain camera captured moderate resolution (20-30 feet) images. High resolution images were acquired on 6.5 inch wide variable length film. The moderate resolution terrain camera acquired images that were printed to 9 inch wide variable length film. The digital products are produced from a duplicate positive film source. The use of browse imagery provides an opportunity to determine if the area of interest is covered and to check for cloud cover. The original film sources are maintained by the (http://www.archives.gov) National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
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