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Feint and jab

Madhuri Krishnan in Bangalore and D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

Identifying a spy satellite Communications satellites travel at a height of 36,000 km or so, at the same speed as the earth. Spy satellites spin just about 1,000 km above the earth. Communications satellites usually take an equatorial orbit, keeping at one place over the earth, while spy satellites traverse a polar orbit. Spy satellites are placed at a low inclination low earth orbit, say 34 or 35 degrees of inclination, and their images are sharper.

It was an old, old trick -- feint with the left, jab with the right. Or variations thereof. Distraction, it's called, in common parlance.

Indian scientists and defence personnel knew the US would essentially rely on aerial surveillance to gather information.

Indian satellites already provide information on the two US satellites, the LaCrosse and the KH-11, which cover the region.

''It's done very easily,'' says Bharat Khushlani at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore who has done his masters in satellites and their orbits. ''All you need to do is keep track of the spy satellite, in this case the Lacrosse and the KH-11 which were aimed at this region, and calibrate their orbital movements.''

Some information can be garnered even from sites visited by people who follow satellite orbits. And sites with information on satellites with more innocent missions, like the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Machine put up by the US to calibrate the effects of El Nino among other things, will also inform you about the exact time is footprint will fall over a particular area.

Satellites also rarely alter their courses, since that eats into precious fuel reserves. Energy is also consumed by the cameras, because of which they aren't kept on 24 hours.

These cameras also have a high resolution, sufficient to detect troop movements and movement of vehicles, according to a scientist at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre who worked on India's first satellite, Aryabhatta.

Indian satellites has two types of cameras in satellites -- the LISS III camera with a resolution of 188 mts per pixel and the PAN camera with a resolution of just 5.8 mts per pixel. But US spy satellite cameras are known to have resolutions of up to one metre per pixel.

These facts in mind, the scientists knew what to look for, what to avoid.

The tests were timed for a Monday afternoon, about 12 hours behind the time in US facilities, to ensure the analysts on India would not be on the job when the tests were conducted.

So for a month before the test, Chandipur in Orissa, on the east coast of India, was made a hectic scene of activity. Heavy equipment was unloaded there, inviting attention even from the Chinese facility at Coco Islands. US intelligence felt the apparatus ressembled that of the Agni intermediate range ballistic missile though it was actually meant for the smaller Trishul.

While US intelligence analysts concentrated on the east coast, clicking for sharper and repeated pictures, preparations for the nuclear test at Pokhran were completed. And when the analysts walked back into their offices, pictures from ground zero taken by the KH-11 satellite were splayed all over.

US National Security Advisor Sandy Berger told reporters later that ''India's nuclear weapons programme is the most secretive of all Third World programmes. We know more about the North Korean programme than we do about the Indian programme.''

India had the advantage, say officials in both Washington and New Delhi, because India's satellite imaging capability gives it a better understanding of what can and what can't be seen from space. And because its nuclear programme is separate from its military programme, there are fewer chances of leaks.

Also, unlike many other countries, the Indian programme is independent of foreign aid. And the US gains much information by gathering information on the sale of equipment related to weapons development.

The Indian counter-intelligence programme too has apparently worked quite well. A official summed up the US view: ''They are very, very good.''

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