Our team has subscribed to Planet Labs, a private company whose satellites can capture 50cm resolution images from anywhere on Earth within days of a task request. Just a few years ago, satellite images of this quality were largely inaccessible to independent, nonprofit researchers who play a key role in Bellingcat’s work.

We intend to regularly collect suggestions on the direction of this task and then publish the resulting image for everyone to access and analyze. To kick off this exciting new resource, we’ll soon be launching a Twitter poll that pits our four favorite suggestions against each other; the winning suggestion will be loaded and the image published.

If you would like to suggest a location for satellite tasks, please be as specific as possible and include the following details:

• Direct coordinates of the place (right click on the spot on Google Maps to view and copy them).
• Either a screenshot of the desired location or a direct link to the location on a mapping service, such as Wikimapia or Google Maps.
• An explanation of why Bellingcat should take an image of this site – and why others might find it interesting and useful. Alternatively, a link to a media article can also be provided to demonstrate timeliness and relevance.

For example, a bid for the al-Jalaa building in Gaza City – destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in May 2021 – could be structured as follows:

We prefer that you send these suggestions as responses to our Twitter feed. However, you can also email them to satellite (at) bellingcat (point) com at any time.

This opportunity is extended in the spirit of our commitment to cover topics of public interest and to enrich the tools and resources available to open source researchers. Therefore, there are few restrictions on the locations that can be affected.

It is also not an unlimited resource and we must be rigorous about the number of tasks we undertake. It will (unfortunately) not be possible to respond to all requests or suggestions.

Nevertheless, we stress that we are happy to accept recommendations for the tasks of the all countries, including military bases and other places sensitive to the national security of a State.

Here are some potential ideas that have already been outsourced to Twitter:

We look forward to your suggestions and welcome any questions or comments about this new resource.