[ESIP-all] Looking for recent earth observations of the Tasman Sea

Fri Aug 9 20:28:59 EDT 2013

Hi everyone,

Please accept my sincere gratitude for all of your advice, especially Joe
Hourclé, who started this discussion.

We've just completed a nearly two-hour telecon to determine our next
steps.  Your advice has been invaluable.

About our effort:  we have a dedicated team of volunteers from many
different areas of expertise. Ralph Baird, who is leading this effort, is
experienced in aerial search and rescue.  Although this is outside of what
Texas Equusearch usually does, when Ralph was contacted by the family of
one of the missing passengers he found that he couldn't say no to their
request.

I myself am a solar physicist who works at Goddard Space Flight Center as
my "day job."  I joined the effort because Ralph said that anyone's
contribution is appreciated, and I had a similar "couldn't say no" reaction
when I heard the story of the Niña.  Because my experience is centered
around looking in the wrong direction (i.e. away from the Earth), I didn't
know where to start, so we are particularly grateful for your advice.

I am trying to avoid replying: all to these messages.  However, if any of
you want to continue helping with our effort, please let Ralph (
ralph at bairdusa.com) and me know.   We are happy for any assistance you can
provide.

Best wishes,

Barbara Thompson

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Doug Olsen <olsen at aero.und.edu>
Date: Fri, Aug 9, 2013 at 11:18 AM
Subject: RE: [ESIP-all] Looking for recent earth observations of the Tasman
Sea
To: Paul Woods <paul at skytruth.org>, frazmo <frazmo at gmail.com>
Cc: "barbara.j.thompson at gmail.com" <barbara.j.thompson at gmail.com>, "
earth-space-science-informatics at lists.nasa.gov Science Informatics" <
earth-space-science-informatics at lists.nasa.gov>, "<
esip-all at lists.esipfed.org>" <esip-all at lists.esipfed.org>, "
info at skytruth.org" <info at skytruth.org>

Don’t ignore the lower resolution imagery. For example, ship wakes are
clearly visible in 60m HICO data. Unfortunately HICO is on task request
basis and thus extremely unlikely to have been imaging in the area. Best
daily imagery I know of that would be routinely taken most everywhere is
MODIS, 250 m in the red and NIR channels, and is free. Not sure what
resolution would be needed to pick up the wake of a 70 footer, but you
never know. Even if the ship wake can’t be seen, the MODIS data could give
you daily weather and clouds conditions on the days leading up to and
immediately after last contact. ****

** **

May also be routine 30 m Landsat 8 imagery taken, emphasis is on land
surface but does extend at times of order 100km or more into neighboring
oceans, depending on location. Though only available on 16-day cycle.****

** **

There is also a UN program called International Disaster Charter, or IDC,
wherein spacefaring nations with earth observing assets agree to share
imagery on a humanitarian basis. Typically they activate a disaster charter
for hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. Not sure if they would do so for a
missing ship, but all it takes is a request from a member nation. Australia
is not a member, but the US is. If available, that may be the most
comprehensive way to see what imagery is available from any open source for
the time frame in question (as well as starting now and for a few weeks in
the future), and get it fast and free.  See
http://www.disasterscharter.org/home****

** **

Not sure how to get US to activate a charter search, but one place to start
might be USGS EROS Data Center in Sioux Falls SD, they are point for US for
IDC matters. See http://www.usgs.gov/natural_hazards/emergencymanagement/***
*

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Good luck,****

** **

Doug Olsen****

Dept. Earth System Science and Policy****

John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences****

University of North Dakota****

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*From:* esip-all-bounces at lists.esipfed.org [mailto:
esip-all-bounces at lists.esipfed.org] *On Behalf Of *Paul Woods
*Sent:* Friday, August 09, 2013 5:14 AM
*To:* frazmo
*Cc:* barbara.j.thompson at gmail.com;
earth-space-science-informatics at lists.nasa.gov Science Informatics; <
esip-all at lists.esipfed.org>; info at skytruth.org
*Subject:* Re: [ESIP-all] Looking for recent earth observations of the
Tasman Sea****

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Frazmo et al:****

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Have you folks looked at Tomnod?****

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http://tomnod.com/nod/challenge/ninarescue2****

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The've got hi-res imagery form Digital Globe.  ****

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Paul****

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On Aug 8, 2013, at 11:23 PM, frazmo <frazmo at gmail.com> wrote:****

****

It may be a long shot, but the folks at Skytruth might be able to help with
this issue of the lost ship. See their web site at:

http://skytruth.org/****

and the recent article from the Washington Post Sunday magazine, which is
informative and could be of general interest to the community:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/skytruth-the-environment-and-the-satellite-revolution/2013/07/31/3a1d181a-d52b-11e2-b05f-3ea3f0e7bb5a_story.html
****

The same kinds of techniques they use to find illegal fishing ships could
be relevant to the question of what happened to the Schooner SV Niña. Best
and cheers,****

Steve Young

****

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On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 9:59 PM, Joe Hourcle <oneiros at grace.nascom.nasa.gov>
wrote:****

I'm not much of one for observations pointed down from spacecraft.

Does anyone know of any near-real-time observations of sufficient spatial
resolution to help?

(that they're actually allowed to talk about, of course)

-Joe

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Barbara Thompson <barbara.j.thompson at gmail.com>
> Date: August 8, 2013 6:26:43 PM EDT
> To: Joe Hourclé <oneiros at annoying.org>
> Subject: Virtual data pointing in the other direction?
>
> Joe,
>
> My friend Ralph is leading a search and rescue effort for a ship that's
> been missing on the Tasman Sea.  They were last heard from June 4.  We're
> trying to get images from May 28 to the present (emphasis on the earlier
> part of that window) to see if we can get any clue of what's happened to
> them.  There are 7 people on board - one of the people on the Schooner SV
> Niña is Evi Nemeth, author of many famous Unix/Linux sysadmin manuals.  :
(
>
> Google granted us a free license to Google Earth Pro, but it still doesn't
> have images that are recent enough.  I wrote Google to see if they could
> give us more recent images, but I haven't heard back.  I'm kind of lost
> when it comes to Earth-pointed data, but then I realized I have a friend
> who is involved in Informatics for the American Geophysical Union.  : )
>
> Any idea how to get high-res data?  The ship is 70 feet long, so the 1.5-m
> resolution stuff in google earth would be fine.  Until we get images,
> they're focusing on ocean current models + drift models for other
abandoned
> ships to help the aerial searchers more clearly refine the expected
> location for the ship.
>
> The ship was fairly well equipped for a 3-week cruise, so it's possible
for
> them to survive with their supplies + fishing for several months.
>
> Any advice is appreciated.  We're posting info on the efforts at:
>
> http://evxx.com/
>
> Anyhow, if you have any idea how to get high-resolution data over the
> Tasman Sea, I'd be very happy to hear it.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Barbara

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[image: www.skytruth.org] <http://www.skytruth.org>*Paul Woods* CTO
www.skytruth.org
<http://www.facebook.com/SkyTruth><http://www.twitter.com/SkyTruth>
Mobile: +1 240 432 1674 | Skype: pwoods25443 | paul at skytruth.org ****

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