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- Aug 26, 2020
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Came across this article just now. My first thought was wow, some cool images for us to utilise. Then I read on, and thought mmm...
'Satellite imagery from the Corona project, a Cold War spy program that acquired military intelligence about the Soviet Union for the US, is proving useful in ways its creators could have never imagined—including for archaeologist'.
'A trove of some 850,000 images were taken by Corona satellites between 1960 and 1972, after President Dwight Eisenhower approved it as part of the world’s first space imaging program. A spy satellite offered an unprecedented view of the enemy and its missile sites, warships, and military bases'.
There is always a big 'lol' in these stories...
'At the time of its creation, Corona also represented an impressive feat of engineering, requiring the development of film that could survive space radiation and high air pressure—not to mention be retrieved from a satellite orbited high above the atmosphere. After a dozen failed launches, the first successful Corona flight managed to make eight passes over the USSR. An Air Force plane retrieved the 20 pounds of film in midair as it floated down to Earth by parachute.
I would love to study this film and it's protection. Film is so sensitive to light a mere photon will destroy it, nevermind 'space radiation'
Let's face it, this was a high altitude plane taking photos, wasn't it?
'Today, those high-resolution images represent a snapshot of an earlier planet, making visible global ecosystem transformations that happened right under our noses, including from the effects climate change. Spanning nearly the entire globe, the photographs were declassified in the mid-1990s'
'Examples of recent land use changes detectable on CORONA imagery: A) Western Mexico City, where massive urban sprawl has destroyed archaeological remains; B) Indus River Valley, Pakistan, where intensified irrigation agriculture has obscured archaeological sites; C) Three Gorges Dam, China, where construction of the world’s largest dam project has submerged countless archaeological sites. CORONA imagery courtesy US Geological Survey; Modern satellite imagery ©ESRI and DigitalGlobe'
Now it starts to get interesting...
'Analyzing Corona imagery, Ur has spotted “communication networks of the Early Bronze Age, state-sponsored irrigation under the Assyrian and Sasanian empires, and pastoral nomadic landscapes in northwestern Iran and southeastern Turkey,” he writes on his website. These large-scale features, if still in existence today, would be all but invisible on the ground, without the aid of the full picture'.
Ok, so, what else do they want to see/ remove, or invent 'explanations' for?
'To date, only about five percent of the images have been scanned (and each photograph costs $30 to digitize). Because the perspective of the satellite distorts spacial accuracy of the terrain, (no, a wide lens tilted out of a plane will do the same TS) images require orthorectification before geographic features can be seen in their true position. But the software used to correct the images has improved in recent years'.
Ok, whoever is billing them for scanning is having them over
also, the software to do this is available in photoshop, as presets, so I don't buy this as a reason for delaying pictures. These guys will have a team who can quickly fix any image 'skewing' they could also just as quickly add in skewing, reshaping...
In my opinion, it is more likely they are examining these images for things they don't want regular folks to see, including historical markers, the shape of terrain, the earth, etc.
Of these images, how few will we ever see? 1% if we are lucky, and you can guarentee they are doctored.
Source
'Satellite imagery from the Corona project, a Cold War spy program that acquired military intelligence about the Soviet Union for the US, is proving useful in ways its creators could have never imagined—including for archaeologist'.
'A trove of some 850,000 images were taken by Corona satellites between 1960 and 1972, after President Dwight Eisenhower approved it as part of the world’s first space imaging program. A spy satellite offered an unprecedented view of the enemy and its missile sites, warships, and military bases'.
There is always a big 'lol' in these stories...
'At the time of its creation, Corona also represented an impressive feat of engineering, requiring the development of film that could survive space radiation and high air pressure—not to mention be retrieved from a satellite orbited high above the atmosphere. After a dozen failed launches, the first successful Corona flight managed to make eight passes over the USSR. An Air Force plane retrieved the 20 pounds of film in midair as it floated down to Earth by parachute.
I would love to study this film and it's protection. Film is so sensitive to light a mere photon will destroy it, nevermind 'space radiation'
Let's face it, this was a high altitude plane taking photos, wasn't it?
'Today, those high-resolution images represent a snapshot of an earlier planet, making visible global ecosystem transformations that happened right under our noses, including from the effects climate change. Spanning nearly the entire globe, the photographs were declassified in the mid-1990s'
'Examples of recent land use changes detectable on CORONA imagery: A) Western Mexico City, where massive urban sprawl has destroyed archaeological remains; B) Indus River Valley, Pakistan, where intensified irrigation agriculture has obscured archaeological sites; C) Three Gorges Dam, China, where construction of the world’s largest dam project has submerged countless archaeological sites. CORONA imagery courtesy US Geological Survey; Modern satellite imagery ©ESRI and DigitalGlobe'
'Analyzing Corona imagery, Ur has spotted “communication networks of the Early Bronze Age, state-sponsored irrigation under the Assyrian and Sasanian empires, and pastoral nomadic landscapes in northwestern Iran and southeastern Turkey,” he writes on his website. These large-scale features, if still in existence today, would be all but invisible on the ground, without the aid of the full picture'.
Ok, so, what else do they want to see/ remove, or invent 'explanations' for?
'To date, only about five percent of the images have been scanned (and each photograph costs $30 to digitize). Because the perspective of the satellite distorts spacial accuracy of the terrain, (no, a wide lens tilted out of a plane will do the same TS) images require orthorectification before geographic features can be seen in their true position. But the software used to correct the images has improved in recent years'.
Ok, whoever is billing them for scanning is having them over
also, the software to do this is available in photoshop, as presets, so I don't buy this as a reason for delaying pictures. These guys will have a team who can quickly fix any image 'skewing' they could also just as quickly add in skewing, reshaping...In my opinion, it is more likely they are examining these images for things they don't want regular folks to see, including historical markers, the shape of terrain, the earth, etc.
Of these images, how few will we ever see? 1% if we are lucky, and you can guarentee they are doctored.
Source
