PPRuNe Forums - What's this on Google Earth?

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emeritus

17th Sep 2015 11:50

What's this on Google Earth?

Punch in the following co ordinates and see what comes up.

28 21 53.46 S 153 10 14.47 E

Spotted it whilst perusing GE to the west of Tyalgum in northeast NSW.

Emeritus:confused:

drpixie

17th Sep 2015 12:44

You mean https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-28....!3m1!1e3?hl=en, looks like an aircraft in flight while the satellite was taking a picy.

I imagine the white "shadow" underneath is an in-focus version of the bright spot you often get down-sun when you look for your own shadow.

I've always wondered what the mechanism is, for that bright spot:

It is certainly an area where you can't see the shadows of trees/grass/etc, the shadows are hidden by the object, so that area looks brighter.
Is the sun focused by less dense air around the aircraft? (Would less dense air even do that?)
Is it some kind of grate/diffusion effect?
And/or something completely different?

Duff Man

17th Sep 2015 13:09

From GE forum

Quote:

... result of a double exposure.

The satellite that takes many of Google Earth Satellite based (high resolution) images is QuickBird it employs linear array CCDs. One set takes panchromatic images (grey scale) and the second set takes multi spectral images (MSI). The MSI imager is mounted in different physical location on the satellite so its images are acquired later in time.

These images are time re-aligned on the ground on the assumption that there are no moving objects in the field of view. As a consequence any moving object will have a colored image that appears ahead of the moving object and at lower resolutions. These images are double exposures.

AerocatS2A

18th Sep 2015 08:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by drpixie (Post 9119661)

It is certainly an area where you can't see the shadows of trees/grass/etc, the shadows are hidden by the object, so that area looks brighter.
Is the sun focused by less dense air around the aircraft? (Would less dense air even do that?)
Is it some kind of grate/diffusion effect?
And/or something completely different?

The bright spot is caused by the first item in your list, an area where the shadows are hidden by the object casting the shadow. The second out of focus image of the aircraft is not related to the bright spot though.

mcoates

19th Sep 2015 10:06

Good catch, you should be looking for MH 370 !

Flying Binghi

20th Sep 2015 11:34

Heh, He might be looking at real estate.

I guess inbound for Brizzy and yet the photo makes it look like the jet is beating up the paddock..:)

.

no_one

21st Sep 2015 02:04

Quote:

I guess inbound for Brizzy and yet the photo makes it look like the jet is beating up the paddock..

I hope CASA dont start an investigation into unauthorized low flying based on this "evidence".

fujii

22nd Sep 2015 12:08

What about the same 737 in two places on the Alice Springs runway in Google maps?

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