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Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

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Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#221
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's awesome.. I thought Army bases are masked on maps.

There's really no point. A few high sensitivity assets are lower resolution, but any state actor that wants very high resolution shots of military facilities already has it and on a quicker update cadence than google maps allows.

In the initial years of Google Earth and similar services, a number of military and intelligence facilities were blurred.

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they actually use satellites for their "satellite" view? I always assumed that it was done by aircraft.

Flying a plane around the planet sounds a lot more expensive financially and thermodynamically than just beaming down images from an object constantly falling into the views you want to see.

It's also the case that often there are more legal regulations around aerial imagery compared to satellite imagery.

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you. I was wondering where that was. Now, can someone calculate the plane's altitude?

The shadow is about 2500 feet away. Judging from nearby houses the sun is probably about 15 degrees SouthEast of noon. 2500 ft * sin( 15 ) = 650 ft Someone should double-check my geometry though.

I think you need to divide by tan(15) instead, which would give 9330 ft.

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn't military bases be blurred out on Google Maps?

Military adversaries have plenty of sources of their own imagery, and the commercial imagery industry is large and international. It's just not a tractable problem to try to keep people from obtaining good aerial imagery of military installations, and it's become fairly rare for anyone to try. We know that various military organizations have taken active measures to prevent imaging of sensitive activity (e.g. returni…

I put forth the question because I know that in some places (i.e. Northern Ireland), police stations and army barracks are obfuscated on Google Maps to prevent terror groups from using it to easily gather information for mortar attacks.

I suppose the chances of that happening in a remote part of the United States is much smaller but that with the resources the U.S Department of Defence have, I would have thought that they would take every precaution.

Edit: It appears it's no longer done in Northern Ireland.

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they actually use satellites for their "satellite" view? I always assumed that it was done by aircraft.

Flying a plane around the planet sounds a lot more expensive financially and thermodynamically than just beaming down images from an object constantly falling into the views you want to see.

Or you could just strap a camera to a few commercial airliners and have full coverage.

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Rather than taking a photograph, satellite sensors record electromagnetic radiation in the red, blue, green, and high-resolution panchromatic (black-and-white) bands (as well as several not visible to the human eye, as this Mapbox[2] post helpfully explains). When these bands are combined to produce a visible image, fast-moving objects – like planes in flight – don’t quite match up, producing the rainbow effect. [2]…

> Rather than taking a photograph, satellite sensors record electromagnetic radiation in the red, blue, green, and high-resolution panchromatic (black-and-white) bands (as well as several not visible to the human eye, as this Mapbox[2] post helpfully explains). When these bands are combined to produce a visible image That's the same as taking a (normal, digital) photograph (sans additional non-rgb layers), just expla…

The difference is typical digital cameras have a bayer filter in front of the sensor to allow taking a single color picture vs. here it sounds like multiple captures with individual filters (e.g. 1 blue, 1 red, 1 green, 1 monochrome) that are later combined into a color picture.

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#227
post #90

Bit of an aside but I like that the B-2 Spirit has different "Spirit of..." for each aircraft. There are Spirit of New York, Spirit of Ohio, etc. [1] Also if you're ever in Ohio and you're an aviation or engineering geek, or have kids, or are looking for something to do the USAF Museum is pretty cool! [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_B-2_Spirit [2] https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/

I visited the USAF Museum earlier this year. It's breathtaking just how large the B-2 Spirit is. You can know the plane's dimensions going in and it'll still blow you away standing next to one.

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#228
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The shadow is about 2500 feet away. Judging from nearby houses the sun is probably about 15 degrees SouthEast of noon. 2500 ft * sin( 15 ) = 650 ft Someone should double-check my geometry though.

I think you need to divide by tan(15) instead, which would give 9330 ft.

Wouldn't that be the 3D distance between the shadow and the plane?

https://i.imgur.com/HWA1iZu.png

Edit: nope you're totally right. Brain fart. It's toa, not soa.

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, nice comment. I remember being part of the staff of NATO's only MIG squadron during military service. People considered a MIG within NATO a sensation, while I was simply bored. I saw them every day in droves. ;)

Poland still operates MIG-29s, as well as extremely outdated Su-22. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Air_Force#Current_inven...

The Romanian MiG-21s [0], Polish MiG-21s (when in service, before retirement) and MiG-29s along with the Bulgarian MiG-29s were upgraded to NATO standards. The primary upgrades were the radios and IFF transponder. I'm not sure if they all included

It is widely rumored that certain spare parts for NATO MiG-29s are actually made in US, from sources initially supporting the Adversary training missions of the 57th Wing Nellis AFB and US Navy Adversary training missions, including TOPGUN department. This is primarily for the MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-2...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/57th_Wing

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Aviation_Warfighting_Dev...

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