One of the first wide-area infrared sweeps of the Tora Bora tunnel complex produced this infrared image taken by a Global Hawk UAV flying at 60,000 ft. It shows a U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship (top left) flying at around 15,000 ft. and the impact of two of its weapons (bottom left and right). The pinpoints of light between and above the two impacts are heat from campfires of Taliban lookouts (left) and associated cave entrances (right). Enlarging the image shows people standing around the fires. They finally stopped building campfires, but the sensors still picked up the heat from individuals.
Electro-optical camera in the high-altitude UAV's surveillance package picked out three vehicles of an SA-6 anti-aircraft missile battery (launch tubes on left) 12 mi. northeast of Baghdad. The missiles can use either radar or cameras for targeting.
A Global Hawk's all-weather synthetic aperture radar (SAR) captured this message in Arabic that was bulldozed in the Earth. Roughly, it means "have mercy" and an arrow points to a nearby Iraqi military camp near Buhayrat Atn Tharthar reservoir, where the soldiers had decided they were ready to surrender to advancing U.S. forces. "They knew we were watching," said an industry official.