b -
I have NO idea about what was reported or not reported to SAR. I never saw the image that was reported to have the raft. I only know that TomNod was recently acquired by DigitalGlobe. DG is a huge imagery provider of high quality imagery. They must believe in this company. I went to the Contact Us button and asked them about the type of imagery they are getting for Nina. A man named Luke Barrington responded. He is listed as "CTO" (sorry not CFO - I keep quite a load of acronyms in my
head in this business and senior management titles isn't one). He responded with the following:
==========================
Hi Mari,
I believe that most of the imagery is from WV-2... it's pan-sharpened using our default factory process (given the huge area). The color of the imagery varies depending on the environmental &
weather conditions at the time of capture.
I'm working on an FAQ page that I hope to launch later today.
:Luke
Luke Barrington, Ph.D.
On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 at 3:42 PM, Mari Minari <> wrote:
Thanks Luke. So it is using Quickbird or WV-2? I am very familiar with DG as I
work for the company that makes ENVI image processing
software who have many ties to DG. I also happen to be a sailor concerned about the Nina.
Have the images been preprocessed? Also, the community if frustrated because they cannot themselves see lat/lon on the images which would be very useful. A small description on the main page describing the imagery and resolution would help because looking at the sea with no real reference point gives the illusion of low resolution.
Thanks much,
Mari
=====================
Now, maybe he is lying (for what purpose?) or doesn't really know, or has it all wrong but I am currently believing they are providing what they say they provide.
b -
"You must have noticed they never say they do have imagery of this part of the ocean that corresponds to the resolution mentioned."
Maybe I missed it but I don't see ANYTHING on their website describing anything about the imagery other than a scale bar at the bottom for reference and a globe with some outlines of the area of interest. It is very difficult to tell what you are looking at. I, personally, have no idea if this is the correct area to look but I believe this is the area they are collecting imagery, as it becomes available. I can only assume DG is donating the imagery ($$) but perhaps the
family is
purchasing it and in that case you can pretty much pay any satellite imagery provider with a pointable
sensor to "look at" any position, even the ocean. You can only hope it is cloud free (and daytime) or you have to wait until the next orbital cycle.
The main problem is the website tools themselves are not sophisticated enough to provide reference information (lat/lon) on the image. I also think that they only have a few scenes within each of the rectangular areas of interest but they haven't bothered to document exactly what you are viewing. I am hoping he follows through with that FAQ.
Anyway, all I am saying is that I think that TomNod is trying to provide a legitimate
service with imagery provided by their parent company to try and show what can be done with CrowdSourcing and imagery. I think they are trying to use it for GOOD.
What happened after the reported raft? I would like to know as well...
Respectfully - Shakti