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Google Earth catches flying airplaneHere is a weird one from Google imagery: This is a satellite pho

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by qbee42, Nov 5, 2011.

  1. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    Here is a weird one from Google imagery: This is a satellite photo of Jackson Park in Chicago. I was looking at the grounds around the Museum of Science and Industry when I noticed the airplane. I thought "I don't remember a plane there, they must have added it." I soon realized that this was a working aircraft, caught in flight by the satellite's camera. Note the offset colors. Color satellite photos like this are really multiple single-color photos shot in quick succession. The fast moving plane caused the offset.

    [​IMG]

    Tom
     

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  2. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Re: Google Earth catches flying airplaneHere is a weird one from Google imagery: This is a satellite

    Neato. And thanks for giving enough info that I could find it myself on Google Maps.

    But I'm going to declare it to be an aerial photo, not a satellite photo. The ground resolution is too good for a civilian satellite product, and the apparent aircraft dimensions -- about 350 foot length and 300 foot wingspan -- are larger than even a four-engine Airbus 380, let alone a twin engine Boeing 777. Therefore it must be aerial, with apparent sizes distorted by perspective.
     
  3. xs650

    xs650 Senior Member

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    Re: Google Earth catches flying airplaneHere is a weird one from Google imagery: This is a satellite

    You beat me to it. Still a neat picture with the color separations.

    A paper on multi spectral photography
    http://apmru.usda.gov/aerial/Publications/2010%20Pubs/Huang%20Multispectral%20imaging%20systems%202010.pdf
    I haven't digested it yet, I found it when I was looking for a reference to confirm multi spectral photography from aircraft instead of just satellites.
     
  4. KK6PD

    KK6PD _ . _ . / _ _ . _

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    Re: Google Earth catches flying airplaneHere is a weird one from Google imagery: This is a satellite

    My wife and I were watching a episode of Burn Notice, in the scenes background, a "Google Photo Car" rolled through the shot, I had to back the DVR up and freeze it, my wife had never seen one, till now!
     
  5. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    Re: Google Earth catches flying airplaneHere is a weird one from Google imagery: This is a satellite

    Good point. From the altitude of the typical civilian earth reconnaissance satellite, it wouldn't make any appreciable difference as to how high the plane was flying. Seven miles out of four hundred is a pretty small angle.

    The current crop of satellites providing imagery for Google are able to resolve details down to about a half meter.

    As an aside, I see I managed to paste the text of my post into the title. That may qualify as the longest Priuschat title to date.

    Tom
     
  6. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    Re: Google Earth catches flying airplaneHere is a weird one from Google imagery: This is a satellite

    Cool.
     
  7. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Re: Google Earth catches flying airplaneHere is a weird one from Google imagery: This is a satellite

    For now.... :)

    Cool pic!
     
  8. DavidA

    DavidA Prius owner since July 2009

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    Re: Google Earth catches flying airplaneHere is a weird one from Google imagery: This is a satellite

    I prefer to think that the photo of the plane was captured at the moment of an inter dimensional shift.
     
  9. davesrose

    davesrose Active Member

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    Re: Google Earth catches flying airplaneHere is a weird one from Google imagery: This is a satellite

    I'm surprised that there aren't more random shots of flying aircraft considering how many flights there are. I just found a link that says 3300 airplane instances have been on Google maps (that's pretty low if that's considering all updates that occur). Here's some other interesting phenomenons involving moving aircraft and other happenings (too bad some of the photos have been removed):

    Top 17 Most Bizarre Sights on Google Earth | Geek About