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| Afghanistan |
| Google Earth and the hunt for Osama |
| 2007-03-14 |
| by Wretchard at The Belmont Club Why does Google Earth's resolution suddenly improve in certain areas of the Pakistani-Afghan border? Wired thinks it knows the answer. Google Earth gets its data from the same providers of cartographic information as the US DOD and those sectors happen to be precisely where the US governÂment has been hunting for bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, according to the magazine. On the other hand, as many of Wretchard's commenters note, the resolution on Google Earth is a little hit-or-miss. (My house is in one of the hi-res areas; two blocks south, it goes all blurry.) On the other other hand, it does kinda make you go "Hmmmmmmmm." |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #9 OP, what I have needed to know for some time is Just who's car is that parked in my driveway? |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2007-03-14 22:18 |
| #8 BTW, my credentials: I was an Air Force photo interpreter from 1965 through 1990. I've worked at every level from tactical reconnaissance to the "really super-dooper behind-the-special-door" stuff in Germany, Nebraska, and Washington, DC. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2007-03-14 20:47 |
| #7 Google Earth resolution is based upon the imagery they get, and varies greatly, even in the US. Some spots (Germany, for instance) is pretty good - I can recognize most of the major attractions I visited. It' still not interpretive quality. Google Earth has a resolution of from 2 to 10 feet, depending on the source. Some reconnaissance imagery can get resolutions in the same number of INCHES. It's ok for mapping photography, but not for intelligence. Also, for intelligence purposes, you need repeated coverage, so you can detect changes. Google is pretty static. It's still nice to play games with... |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2007-03-14 19:19 |
| #6 Mike what in the hell are you gonna do with that Marlin man? You gotta do something about the rust, and get the 2-tone turquoise and funky ivory thing back. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-03-14 18:14 |
| #5 I imagine the best you can do with the resolution you get from Google Earth is identify areas you want to look at more closely. You'd need higher resolution, more pictures, and maybe even traffic analysis (J-STAR) to really figure it out. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2007-03-14 17:59 |
| #4 |
| Posted by: doc 2007-03-14 16:58 |
| #3 Icerigger, I was able to get in on Backup1 http://www.rantburg.com:81/ and Backup2 http://www.rantburg.com:8080/ during the outage.. It's helpful to keep those links on hand. Thanks, Fred. |
| Posted by: GK 2007-03-14 16:34 |
| #2 I just reset the firewall. I've been busy with something else all day. |
| Posted by: Fred 2007-03-14 16:07 |
| #1 Is it just me or has the Rantburg been down most of the day? |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2007-03-14 16:06 |