PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Malaysian Airlines MH370 contact lost
View Single Post
Old 20th Mar 2014, 01:28
  #6295 (permalink)  
lakedude
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: the lake!
Posts: 25
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
The wording here is crucial, it implies that all pings were received and from that, a 'join the dots' plot can be derived
A "join the dots" plot is not possible from one satellite. There would be several full circles, one for each ping, no dots. Parts of each circle could be eliminated but an exact plot would be impossible from the ping data from only one satellite.

This is the unfortuate truth of the matter. If a second satellite was involved two connect the dots plots could be made, one to the north the other to the south in a mirror image.

If a third satellite was in line with the first two it wouldn't help anything but if it was off the line to the north or south it would pinpoint the exact location.

Last edited by lakedude; 20th Mar 2014 at 02:08.
lakedude is offline