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Spy Satellites: Difference between revisions
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''I can read your mind''|'''[[The Alan Parsons Project]]''', "Eye in the Sky"}}
Much loved things of the [[Spy Drama]] and one that they most frequently mess up on, the omnipresent "eye-in-the-sky" is always shown to be a whole lot more useful than it truly is.
Satellite views are usually shown to be immune to clouds, 100 percent reliable, always available, and seem to be right over the target just when they are needed. The biggest error, however, is showing a live fixed video feed from orbit.
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Satellites also often display an absurd level of detail. The resolution of an optical system is primarily based on its aperture (i.e. diameter). For that reason, spy satellites have pretty big teleskopes in the meter-plus-range, meaning their images have pixel resolution in the 1-cm-range on the ground (details are, of course, classified). This would be enough only for a pretty low image quality. The issue here is inherent in the physics of light, and not going to be averted by cool classified technology (existent or not).
Data processing also consumes a certain amount of time. Nobody should be, on the fly, searching footage of a city for a specific license plate, for example.
If the live satellite feed looks just like recycled footage from earlier in the episode, then it's a [[Magical Security Cam]].
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* ''[[NCIS]]'' in "Eye Spy".
* ''[[Jericho]]'''s track record with satellites is... schizophrenic. On the one hand, you get reasonable-looking still photos from satellites. On the other, you get Hawkins' satellite feeds... which appear to be filmed right at ground level.
* ''[[Fringe]]'' is guilty of this one to a large degree. Not only did they pull up spy sat footage of an area, but it was from hours ago when there would have been no reason for a spy sat to even be looking there. The writers apparently want the viewer to believe that the entire surface of the Earth is not only under constant surveillance but also being archived.
** Oh...yes...of course...that only happens [[Big Brother Is Watching|on that TV show...]] yes...that's all we suspect.
** It's a show about a secret government group that researches weirdness that violates the laws of physics. Absolute surveillance is hardly impossible.
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Parodied in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'': Riff hooks a military GPS signal to track his own position so he could navigate to [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Muffin The Vampire Baker's]] hometown, where he thinks [[Our Vampires Are Different|Sam]] is (un-)living. [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=990528 All it shows is a (front-on) picture of him with the legend "You Are Here".]
** Later averted in the storyline [http://sluggy.com/daily.php?date=070205 Aylee], where a plan takes advantage of the gaps in satellite coverage.
* Parodied (deconstructed?) by ''Partially Clips'', which points out that to get good footage of Iraq, a spy satellite would need to be in low polar orbit. Anything in low polar orbit must pass over every point on earth sooner or later. And when it's passing over New Jersey, there's no legitimate military work to be done so the soldiers and technicians running it probably watch skinnydippers.
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* ''[[Kim Possible]]'' screws this one up every time they show satellite footage, although it is sometimes hard to tell if this show is really making a mistake, or just telling a subtle joke. It is, after all, primarily a comedy.
* One episode of ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' had the government using spy satellites to find the trillion-dollar bill Mr. Burns had stolen. All they could determine was that it wasn't on his roof.
** In "Brother's Little Helper" Bart is convinced that a satellite is spying on him. At the end of the episode he uses a tank to shoot it down. Mark McGwire admits that the [[Baseball|MLB]] is spying on everyone, pretty much all the time. When Bart asks why, McGwire says that he could tell the terrifying truth or he could hit some dingers instead for the people. The crowd wants to watch him play, and he takes the massive printout and tries to hide it under his hat.
* In ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', [[The Question]] claims that topically applied flourite doesn't prevent tooth decay, but instead makes teeth detectable by [[The Conspiracy|Their]] spy satellite.
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[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]
[[Category:Spy Satellites]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
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