After strikes on Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, runway 29R was clearly blocked with as many airport vehicles as they could get. Imagery from March 7
Clear satellite imagery from Planet of Iran's Mehrabad Airport in Tehran from March 7 after heavy bombings.
Imagery shows planes destroyed on the tarmac at the airport, as well as some in bays and one destroyed in plane graveyeard north of the runway.
OSINT Field Notes #6. It's out.
This field note unpacks an incredible amount. Iran, Sudan, a disinformation campaign, satellites at night and the facial recognition of a cat that gave away a money launderer.
All here 👇
tinyurl.com/osintfieldno...
I geolocated Taliban special forces drills in an empty desert using sand dunes.
The investigation went from airbase to drop-off point to strike location.
Here's how I did it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t9g...
This investigation from OCCRP uncovered how a person running two UK-registered crypto exchanges was actually a fake front linked to laundering for Iran's regime.
One of the links in the investigation relied on facial matching a cat. Brilliant.
www.occrp.org/en/investiga...
Geolocation proof for video above. Location: 33.85895, 35.51398
Further footage can be seen here
High levels of destruction seen in Beirut today after a wave of Israeli strikes targeted the south of the city.
This footage was filmed here: 33.8587, 35.51405
Via a friend in the know: gpsjam.org A free site with data from airline pilots showing where GPS jamming (a good sign of other types of electronic warfare as well) is occurring in semi-real time.
Not the sunrise, but the Russian LNG tanker which was hit by suspected USVs (maritime surface drones) earlier this morning. Reporting only slowly coming out. Photos taken from another merchant vessel.
Crew reported rescued by Maltese forces
Thanks! They're mapped to today or yesterday. Whichever is available.
For those that want a bit more technical detail, here's the GitHub repo github.com/bendobrown/D...
I'm keen to hear feedback, how you used it, what you found it useful for and any interesting finds.
I built this to learn better ways to track conflict from space, but there's many more fields, I'm sure.
Find the tool here + more documentation.
benjaminstrick.com/when-the-lig...
It should be noted, please don't draw assumptions from the data.
Just because there's a big heap of red/orange or green/blue, it doesn't tell you what happened or why, just that something did change.
There's a world of applications that can be harnessed through utilising night lights data like this. Another is monitoring the light activity of random military outposts in the south china sea. Or the industrialisation of areas near Jakarta.
I've built in a few case studies into the app. One example is Khartoum. Looking at the comparison to 5 yrs ago, there is significant change in light emissions. No surprises there.
I've built a widget where you can also check the monthly radiance, helpful for event dates.
You can select the window of time you want to look at, which always compares to either today or yesterday.
You can choose to compare that with 1 month, 1yr, 5yrs, 10yrs ago.
What do the colours mean?
Basically:
Warm = decrease
Cold = increase
It uses the global VIIRS night-light data. The type you find in NASA worldview.
That data is basically satellite imagery capturing night lights every night. Where you'd usually look at multiple images, this does the comparison for you.
I built a free tool that shows how night-time lights have changed anywhere on Earth.
Here's how it works and why it's useful for monitoring conflict, disasters, development and growth. 👇
Thank you 🙏
Prefer step-by-step walkthroughs?
@bendobrown.bsky.social’s YouTube channel breaks down open source research skills one by one:
www.youtube.com/@Bendobrown
Want to investigate something using open sources but not sure where to start? 🧵
We’ve gathered some of our go-to resources for learning, practicing, and collaborating on open source research - whether you’re brand new or sharpening your skills...
Plus: Lloyd's List on the first known case of newbuild IMO fraud, the site tracking Russia's shadow fleet, and migratory whale highways.
This month's case file studies @truth.bsky.social's Ubiquiti investigation methods: trade data + TG monitoring + corporate data + procurement + networks.
hntrbrk.com/ubiquiti/
The toolkit section has been expanded to 12 geospatial platforms based on community recommendations: everything from Copernicus Browser to SkyfiApp, SoarAtlas, NASA Worldview and more.
The Technical Teardown walks through stacking satellite sources for defensible timelines.
Google Earth Pro for rough dates, Copernicus for change signals, Esri Wayback for clean before/after.
OSINT Field Notes #5 is out: satellites, sanctions-evasion, and stacking evidence.
This month: newbuild identity theft in the shadow fleet, satellite methodologies stacked and how Ubiquiti networking gear ended up powering Russia's drone war.
🧵
