Photographic evidence of explosions can be challenged on the basis of lighting, framing, or sourcing. Video of missile strikes can be traced back to prior footage. Satellite imagery holds a different position in the hierarchy of evidence: it has served as the tool that states and journalists use to verify what other evidence merely suggests. When the US government wanted to establish that Russian troops had massed on Ukraine's border, it released satellite images. When human rights organizations document attacks on civilian infrastructure, satellite images are the citation that closes…