Can Illicit Activity Lose Its Nighttime Advantage With Thermal Data?

InnovationCan Illicit Activity Lose Its Nighttime Advantage With Thermal Data?ByElizabeth Maxwell,Forbes Councils Member.for Forbes Technology CouncilCOUNCIL POSTExpertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based)Jun 03, 2026, 09:15am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.Elizabeth (Liz) Maxwell is Product Marketing Director at Hydrosat; trained AI analyst, evangelizing space tech for a more resilient future. getty​We are entering a "panopticon era" across both enterprises and governments using all sorts of data and technology, including Earth observation (EO)—persistent, increasingly real-time global data. Oftentimes, organizations end up with a deluge of data, mostly of ordinary patterns of life and standard activity. So, for governments trying to find bad actors and keep societies safer, as well as enterprises trying to identify critical risks, they should be asking themselves if they’re leveraging the right data.Crime And Risk Happen In The DarkIllicit activity has long benefited from darkness, remoteness and weak governance, but that advantage is eroding as satellite monitoring becomes more persistent, multi-sensor and behavior-focused, rather than purely image-based.It is not that EO satellites “see everything,” but that they increasingly detect deviations from baseline patterns across time, even in low-light conditions or remote environments, and governments are increasingly aware of how commercial EO can help meet this need. There are two key data sources that enable remote nighttime monitoring: nightlight emissions and thermal imaging.​Uses Of Nighttime Light Versus Thermal At Night ​Remote sensing of nightlight emissions is widely used to study urbanization, GDP, population, disaster impact, conflict and energy use. Nightlight is strongly linked to human activity, but it is not a comp...