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Declass 2 (2002) = KH-7 and KH-9 Global Camera Photos: 1963 - 1980

Metadata Updated: October 30, 2025

'Keyhole (KH) satellite systems KH-7 and 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 of military applications. The KH-7 surveillance system was a high resolution imaging system that was operational from July 1963 to June 1967. Approximately 18,000 black-and-white images and 230 color images are available from the 38 missions flown during this program. Key features for this program were larger area of coverage and improved ground resolution. The cameras acquired imagery in continuous lengthwise sweeps of the terrain. KH-7 images are 9 inches wide, vary in length from 4 inches to 500 feet long, and have a resolution of 2 to 4 feet. The KH-9 mapping program was operational from March 1973 to October 1980 and was designed to support mapping requirements and exact positioning of geographical points for the military. This was accomplished by using image overlap for stereo coverage and by using a camera system with a reseau grid to correct image distortion. The KH-9 framing cameras produced 9 x 18 inch imagery at a resolution of 20-30 feet. Approximately 29,000 mapping images were acquired from 12 missions. The images have variable scales and quality. Cloud cover is common. The digital products are produced from a duplicate negative film source. More than 40 percent of the imagery contains significant cloud cover. The use of browse imagery gives the user the opportunity to review a reduced resolution image 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.nara.gov) National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). '

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 30, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 30, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-eros5e839ff7d71d4811
Data Last Modified 2023-07-19T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id c77c0395-4112-4e92-84b4-ec76ddb98fb6
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -180, -90, -180, -90
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 50dfd98dbc38dba36be5ead001dc652f688bc8e687f2b57122b692b79f61e273
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -180, -90, -180, -90, -180, -90, -180, -90, -180, -90}

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