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Military Tracked Malaysia Airlines Jet to Strait of Malacca
Malaysia Airlines said Tuesday that the Western coast of the country near the Strait of Malacca was “now the focus” of the investigation after the Malaysian military said it had tracked the plane by radar over the Strait of Malacca, one of the world's busiest shipping channels.... (www.reuters.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
It is puzzling why our sophisticated spy satellite network could not be used to track where the aircraft ended up using an infrared signature for the plane. The shutting off of the transponder combined with the large course deviation strongly indicates foul play of some sort. And if the Military knew or suspected the plane was on an errant course why did it not alert civilian air controllers and or send up its own planes to investigate. I agree with those who say information is being withheld. The only thing that may be going for finding out what has really happened is that China is concerned and much more influential in that part of the World than is the US.
There are some Spook satellites up there in geosynchronous orbit, mostly for missle detection, that may already have this info and it may have been given but is just not being broadcast as they don't want the whole world to know what they are capable of.
Maybe the INSAT-4F will be able to help the SAR teams in the Andaman Sea. It carries carries the payloads in UHF, C-band and Ku band and has immensely improved India's blue water capabilities. The Andaman Sea, however, is a vast section of the Indian Ocean with an average depth of 3,500 feet.
Rockets have strong infrared signatures for satellites to pickup. Turbofan powered aircraft not so much.
I have to believe that our IR spying capabilities from space are capable of monitoring the physical movements of human beings.
At least that's what they show in the movies. Sometimes the movies are ahead of actual capabilities. Sometimes real capabilities are well ahead of the imaginations of entertainment creators.
US news media has reported that the Americans have checked their infrared satelite data and did not find a signature that was consistent with a high altitude fuel explosion.
There's little explosive energy at high altitudes in areas without adverse weather like thunderstorms with lightning. I wouldn't expect it would be very difficult to identify the signature of a high energy explosion in an area of clear weather.
US news media has reported that the Americans have checked their infrared satelite data and did not find a signature that was consistent with a high altitude fuel explosion.
There's little explosive energy at high altitudes in areas without adverse weather like thunderstorms with lightning. I wouldn't expect it would be very difficult to identify the signature of a high energy explosion in an area of clear weather.
Just curious to know, but why do you think the U.S. would have satellites on Malaysia?
Just curious, you don't think the US has satellites on China? (Malaysia and the rest of SE Asia would be easily captured ad well as all geography all the way around. And worrying about if they can see Malaysia has the built-in assumption that the US satellites don't cover the entire globe all the way around. Can you pick out any one area of the world that the US military does't ever stop in (even for hunanitarian work) and/or aren't concerned about the regime there and/or atent concerned if their military assets get blown up?
Short answer: It's safe to figure that the US has overlapping simultaneous coverage of the entire globe. With the speed of ICBMs, a capability that was less than fully pervasive would not be adequate to properly warn of an early strike.
Short answer: It's safe to figure that the US has overlapping simultaneous coverage of the entire globe. With the speed of ICBMs, a capability that was less than fully pervasive would not be adequate to properly warn of an early strike.
China? Yes. Malaysia? Hmm, not so much. Like preacher1 said, that region in general, but not so much Malaysia. And I agree with you that the U.S. does have satellite coverage across the entire globe. Just curious about what he thought.
Except for geosynchronous satellites, satellites cover pretty much the whole world except the poles, except for polar orbit satellites, which are rarer because a polar orbit takes more work to obtain.