Figure 1. B camera that was equipped at U-2 reconnaissance plane, from United States Central Intelligence Agency: 1959, United States Central Intelligence Agency. “U2 Flight Manual,” Copy No.7, March 1, 1959. Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005729692. Page 4-35.
During the early Cold War, CIA embarked on a series of aerial reconnaissance missions to acquire military and economic intelligence information from Middle East, East Asia, and the former Soviet Union. Dedicated highly aerodynamic aircraft were designed and equipped with high-resolution cameras (Fig.1) for the purpose of aerial reconnaissance. These U-2 spy planes became the major means to record the targeted spatial features in question. Today, the high quality aerial photography with 0.5 meter/pixel resolution and the unique temporal setting of the U-2 mission from the 1950s to the 1960s, offers an unique value for a great variety of archaeological inquiries, including the reassessment of lost archaeological sites, ancient cities, ports, agricultural and irrigation landscapes, and defensive landscapes.
For a long time, the majority of the U-2 images which have been stored at the National Archives Record Administration (NARA), had been classified and therefore inaccessible for public use until their declassification in the late 1990s. In order to acquire and digitize the U-2 images, it is necessary to visit the NARA facilities to reproduce the aerial images at their cartographic reading room at College Park, Maryland. Although the images are now open for public access, acquiring the imagery is still at least an economical burden. In consequence, this project initiative to digitize the U-2 archive will be of enormous benefit for the wider archaeological community, which is interested in the historical images.
While for now focusing on those missions covering Iran, this project aims to explore the potential archaeological value of the aerial reconnaissance imagery of the Middle Eastern region, by way of distortion-less digitization, ortho-rectification, geospatial projection and online publication. In collaboration of the Online Publication Service of the University of Chicago (OPS), the project prepares the publication of these data and the related pertinent research. The project moreover welcomes other institutions which might be interested to collaborate in the process.
Figure 2. Resolution comparison of historical images, (a) U2 1480 mission, frame 36, 1958/10/07 (b) CORONA satellite image, KH-4A mission, 1968/02/05, DS1045-2182DA073. (c) HEXAGON satellite image, KH-9 mission, D3C1219-200801F011, 1984/09/18.