Artificial intelligence has begun filling the gap left by disappearing satellite imagery of the Middle East war. The Tehran Times, an Iranian newspaper, recently published what it claimed was a satellite photograph showing a shattered radome - a dome shielding radar equipment - at an American base in Bahrain. The image was entirely AI-generated, as "Hvylya" reports, citing The Economist.

The fake emerged in a near-perfect environment for disinformation. Planet Labs, the world's largest commercial imaging operator, has imposed a two-week blackout on high-resolution imagery of the Middle East. With legitimate photographs delayed or blocked, there is no readily available visual baseline against which to check fabricated images. Propaganda outlets can publish whatever they want with little fear of instant debunking.

American satellite companies are not the only source of Earth observation data, but alternatives remain limited. Chinese firms such as Jilin-1 and Siwei are increasingly active in the commercial imaging market. Airbus, backed by the French and German governments, operates its own satellites and has published images of American bases in the Gulf as recently as March 9. However, researchers say the real bottleneck is frequency of coverage, not image quality.

Sam Lair of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies summed up the problem: the issue right now is "cadence and revisit rate rather than quality." Without a constant stream of satellites passing over the same locations, even available non-American sources cannot provide the continuous monitoring that researchers need to verify or debunk claims in real time.

The risk extends beyond Iranian propaganda. As the war continues, the absence of reliable commercial imagery makes it harder for journalists, human rights organizations and independent analysts to hold any party to the conflict accountable - whether for strikes on civilian infrastructure, exaggerated damage claims or concealed losses.

Also read: Israeli Software BriefCam Found in Russian Surveillance Systems Following Khamenei Assassination.