GEOINT
Location and visual verification
GEOINT compares visible location and time clues with maps, satellite imagery, and public geographic sources. The goal is to narrow candidates and write confidence clearly.
First steps
- List fixed clues in the image.
- Write candidate areas and reasons for excluding others.
- Compare maps, satellite views, street-level imagery, or terrain tools.
- Report the result with confidence and limits.
Limits
- Do not expose private homes or vulnerable people.
- Do not use the work for live tracking or harassment.
- Do not make a final location claim from one similarity.
What this field covers
A quick scope view.
Terrain comparison
Landmark review
Satellite checks
Shadow and season checks
Candidate-area narrowing
Related source collections
Good places to start in this field.
Video verification
Bellingcat Geolocation How-To Guides
Bellingcat how-to archive with geolocation and verification guides for public material.
Open sourceImage and reverse-image search
Bing Visual Search
Microsoft visual search tool for images, products, landmarks, and similar visuals.
Open sourceSatellite imagery
Copernicus Browser
European Copernicus Data Space browser for Sentinel imagery and products.
Open sourceImage and reverse-image search
ExifTool
Command-line utility for reading, writing, and comparing image and media metadata.
Open sourceVideo verification
FFmpeg
Open-source multimedia toolkit for extracting frames, metadata, and clips from media files.
Open sourceImage and reverse-image search
FotoForensics
Educational image analysis site with error level analysis and metadata tools.
Open source