Leaked Pentagon docs show the shot-down Chinese spy balloon may have had a feature known as 'synthetic aperture radar' that can see through certain materials, WaPo reports
www.yahoo.com
The Chinese balloon, nicknamed Killeen-23, could have had technology able to help with three-dimensional reconstructions of objects on the ground.

So spooky :specter: so very benignly spooky. :specter-global:

  • blobjim [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    That's how Google Earth can show you what the earth looks like without clouds, as far as I know. I might actually be completely wrong, idk. I guess they could always wait for a non-cloudy moment to take a picture.

    • abc [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Nah, they just use False Color (infrared and whatnot) and SAR (microwaves can penetrate clouds and bounce back, allowing you to 'see' through it).

      Highly recommend these two NASA pages for learning more:

      • https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/FalseColor
      • https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/backgrounders/what-is-sar

      This example of False Color for a satellite image of Bangor is a good example , the cloud obscures the northern part of the city under red light, but you can see 'past' it if you look at the shortwave infrared light.

    • MF_COOM [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Hahaha my dude Google Earth is not live it is a high-def composite image holy shit :michael-laugh:

      • blobjim [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        yeah they use images from other companies. Which have to be taken at some point.