Grafschaft, Germany  - The German military commissioned its first spy-in-the-sky satellite system on Thursday, enabling it to peek through clouds or the darkness of night at any spot on the planet.

The synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) system uses five satellites that bounce radar pulses off the earth. Sophisticated computers convert the returning signals into a picture of the ground that can resolve features just 50 centimetres in width.

Germany is to share the data with France, which operates Helios II military satellites that photograph the ground in the daytime.