MEDEA, Spy Satellites, and Global Fiducials

Abstract:

Before Margaret MacDonald and Linda Zall came up with the name MEDEA (which is not an acronym) we started out as the Environmental Task Force (ETF) following the early 1990s correspondence between then-Senator Al Gore and then-Director of Central Intelligence Robert Gates. In considering the value that the spy satellites could bring to the study of global change, we recognized their imaging systems would broadly interest all environmental science disciplines and that a long fine-resolution record would significantly contribute to knowledge about our planet. At the same time, however, we recognized that we could get only a minuscule portion of the satellites’ duty cycles, so we had the idea to identify critical landscapes, seascapes, and habitats to image regularly. We called them “fiducials,” which various dictionaries define as “a fixed basis of comparison” or a “standard of reference.” The term also has a legal meaning, “having the nature of a trust,” which appropriately describes their role in documenting trends over multiple decades. Although the images themselves and even the use of some technologies were classified, we envisioned that scientists with the necessary security clearances could interpret the information and publish in the open literature, that some form of the imagery could be released publicly, and that in the longer future the original data would be declassified. MEDEA pursued its quest to acquire fiducials by collaborating with the U.S Navy, resulting in the declassification and release of GEOSAT altimetry and other physical oceanographic data sets. MEDEA's later efforts to acquire Arctic oceanographic data, working with Russian defense and intelligence agencies through the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission, resulted in the release of over a million observations. The Global Fiducials led to insightful work in multiple disciplines published in scientific journals and National Academy reports, early satellite data were released and are available on the USGS website, and dialogue between scientists and the spies enabled recognition of the role that environment plays in national security.