V52 Lab

The rise of AI makes it easier than ever to generate fakes. Since the Cold War, images from space have served as a method of verification for the media, governments and the public. Now, technology has threatened this once seemingly irrefutable source of truth. We have collected some of the latest deepfakes from space for you here. We are also working with partners on an AI tool that will enable us to expose such deepfakes for you. We are looking for beta users for this. Just write to us if you would like to be involved.

Peace at last, the hostages freed. At last, the guns are silent. Now it's time to rebuild Gaza. Rubble piles high, the water is contaminated, unexploded ordnance lies everywhere: but how badly damaged is Gaza really, and can the region even be rebuilt? We counted the number of damaged buildings: for Tagesthemen, BR, and NZZ.

Global warming and overfertilization are creating a vicious circle. Blue-green algae are appearing more and more frequently in the Baltic Sea. This is shown by our satellite analysis of images from the last 10 years, which we carried out for NDR.

Satellite images show the world. Where no one else looks. In an increasingly fragmented and conflict-ridden world, high-resolution satellite data is often the last resort for finding the truth. However, more and more colleagues have recently reported that their access to this data is being blocked or denied—by satellite operators and governments who decide behind the scenes what can and cannot be made public. Does Europe need an independent research satellite? We want to discuss this question in a round table after the summer break.

US stealth bombers make their way into Iranian airspace and bomb three nuclear facilities with bunker busters. How extensive is the destruction? Opinions differ.

The heavy rainfall during the night of July 14 to 15, 2021, led to flooding on a scale that had previously been considered impossible. To prevent such destruction, it was said that the river needed more space and that people would have to move back from the banks. However, our satellite images for the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper cast doubt on whether this has been achieved.