An imaging satellite is a large, space based optical telescope/camera, not unlike the Hubble Space Telescope.
The Satellite Image below is from Google Earth, taken 2 Jun 2011, Lag: 40.742159 Lon: -73.988079 of 2 Madison Ave. NYC you can see people on the lawn and walking path, click to enlarge, there is not that level of detail to see a person's face.
However, you cannot zoom in closer than shown. And of the Google images taken at street level, Google uses advanced blurring algorithms to identify faces and blur just the faces (as well as license plates) in a photograph. For Privacy Reasons.
As for Government purposes, it would be safe to say Yes that a Government/Space Agency and Military have the capability. Especially if one was wanting to find a Terrorist Leader.
One high-resolution commercial earth observation satellite is QuickBird, owned by DigitalGlobe and launched in 2001. QuickBird uses Ball Aerospace's Global Imaging System 2000 (BGIS 2000) that collects the 4th highest resolution commercial imagery of Earth.
At 60 centimeter resolution and multispectral imagery at 2.4- and 2.8-meter resolutions, detail such as buildings and other infrastructure are easily visible. However, this resolution is insufficient for working with smaller objects such as a license plate on a car. The imagery can be imported into remote sensing image processing software, as well as into GIS packages for analysis. The imagery can also be used for mapping applications, such as Google Earth and Google Maps.
If you watch TV Shows such as CSI, NCIS, Person of Interest, etc...you will note some of the advanced technology used in apprehending a Suspect. And you may feel that some of this Technology is far fetched. That it is only in the minds of the shows creators & writers.
However, this could very well be, makes for exciting viewing & entertainment, lest remind viewers my age or older, that we may have mocked Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: An Interplanetary Battle with the Tiger Men of Mars or Flash Gordon, featured in films starring Buster Crabbe: Flash Gordon (1936), Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938), and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940) or mocked Space Ships or Space Travel....that became a reality.
On 4 Oct 1957, Space Travel began, and on 20 Jul 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin Jr, made the 1st manned soft landing on the Moon, and the first moonwalk, Apollo 11.
And today, we are headed for Mars.
I like Google Earth, and it raised another question, before I researched the above information...where I live there is 4-6 months of Winter temperatures and Snow...with a large backyard, 2 dogs, somethings become buried and for long periods of time beneath the snow, and some items may lay on top of the snow visible from Space, so I thought.
I can make out my trailers, shed, gazebo, etc..and I thought how disgusting it would be...if those at the ISS (International Space Station) could see my backyard, as the snow is melting and exposing doggy land-mines.
Of course, I still wonder if the technology is there for a fact...to actually see something that small on Earth's surface from afar.
And my other thought is all of the Space Junk and Satellite's in Orbit, that could hamper Space Travel, and or fall to Earth, the impact that could have on our everyday living.
The amount of trash in Earth orbit, from spent rocket stages, broken satellites and micrometeoroids, is growing. Scientists are working on methods to combat the threat of space junk and orbital debris collisions.
And lets take this to another level, Space Wars, as other Countries in their Quest for Space may turn the tides and attack our Satellites, disrupting TV programming, Communications, or worse if North Korea finally makes it to space. China has bigger fears beyond population growth and economy woes in the near future.
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