[morrison1976]

Insignia on Oct 6 2008, 11:50 PM, said:

same, i had a right good chuckle

Yes, this is very strange! To have it on another system other than google earth, well, the chances are slim i think. I have just downloaded google earth so i could look at these objects. I dont know what to make of them. They def are moving and changing shape, glitch? maybe, but interesting all the same.

[Mr. Blonde]

Those other pictures are rubbish ... but I think Graylady may be onto something?

[morrison1976]

Mr. Blonde on Oct 7 2008, 06:21 AM, said:

Those other pictures are rubbish ... but I think Graylady may be onto something?

All the stuff on google earths seems a bit odd, esp when the same thing is happening on different programs. That is very odd.

[Pericynthion]

Hi everyone. The odd shapes you're seeing in the cloud cover on Google Earth are not a glitch in the Google Earth software, but a natural side effect of the way the cloud cover data is gathered. We don't have a magic camera that can take pictures of the entire Earth at one time, so global cloud maps are assembled by stitching together several different satellite photos. The "glitches" I've seen so far are just gaps in the satellite photo coverage. These gaps change with time as some of the polar-orbiting satellites move in their orbits and as Google adds or deletes images from various geostationary satellites. It appears to me that whatever source Google uses for their data doesn't always include every satellite. This isn't some new phenomenon -- these gaps have always been there in composite satellite images. We just don't yet have full-time satellite coverage of every spot on the Earth.

Most of the weather satellites are in geostationary orbit over the Earth's equator. At 22,300 miles altitude, these satellites orbit at the same speed as the Earth's rotation, so they basically hover over one location and always see the same portion of Earth. This is very handy for getting continuous weather coverage for most inhabited regions, but these satellites can't quite see the poles. If these were the only satellites available, we'd ALWAYS have gaps at the poles in the global weather maps. Fortunately, there are weather satellites in low-earth orbit running north-south over both poles which can help fill these gaps, but they don't provide constant coverage.




As an example, here's a sketch I threw together to explain the diamond image Sam just posted. It's just a gap in the coverage after stitching together images from four different geostationary satellites. I'm guessing at the satellites in use here, but I'm pretty sure I've got the right ones:



Most of this gap is the result of missing data from GOES-11, stationed over the eastern Pacific and western U.S.


FYI, here's a list of the world's current geostationary weather satellites and their locations:
World Meteorological Organization

For a good overview of the world's satellite network, take a look here: (link)


And finally, just to show that this isn't something that just started happening within the last few days, here's a composite view of the weather over Antarctica from June, 2007:


You can find this image as part of an archive of the past year's Antarctic composite images by following the link at the bottom of this page. If you browse through the images, you'll see that gaps in the data are very, very common.

[SamWhiteHopi]

Ok, Percynthion, thanks for the info.

Love&peace,
Sam

[Pericynthion]

SamWhiteHopi on Oct 7 2008, 01:32 AM, said:

Ok, Percynthion, thanks for the info.

Love&peace,
Sam

You're welcome, Sam. This isn't my area of expertise, but I'm pretty sure that's what we're seeing here.

P.

[747400]

Graylady on Oct 7 2008, 06:15 AM, said:

Why is this thing visible in maps.google.com and not in google earth???




South pole and north pole is pretty much blurred out in google earth...

Google Earth isn't in real time, it can be several years old. This weather feature, as elucidated above, is a new feature. Pericynthion's explanation is more or less what I was thinking, albeit explained more clearly by someone who knows what they're talking about .

This post has been edited by 747400: 07 October 2008 - 07:17 AM

[SamWhiteHopi]

Pericynthion on Oct 7 2008, 06:41 AM, said:

You're welcome, Sam. This isn't my area of expertise, but I'm pretty sure that's what we're seeing here.

P.

Ok, now that I have had a little time to mull over your explanation, Pericynthion, my next query is [taking into account that you have limited expertise in this area]: Why if these patches are areas where no information has come through, we see land mass and/or clouds in most of the ‘glitches’ and not a total blank, and these patches are blue not black? The example you gave during 2007 for one of the patches is easy to understand as it is totally black with no land or cloud formation with it also being a highly irregular shape.

Have also asked in the ‘UFO in Washington last night’ thread, page 6 post #86 to why there are strange unclear images coming back from the north and south poles [images provided by Chaoszerg]. A similar question by Graylady on thread ‘Another google bugs?...or.. post #15.

Love&peace,
Sam. Thankful we only have six more days of this.

[Emma_Acid]

SamWhiteHopi on Oct 7 2008, 12:13 PM, said:

Ok, now that I have had a little time to mull over your explanation, Pericynthion, my next query is [taking into account that you have limited expertise in this area]: Why if these patches are areas where no information has come through, we see land mass and/or clouds in most of the ‘glitches’ and not a total blank, and these patches are blue not black?

Because pictures have been taken of that area previously. They can't take a photo of the entire world in one go. They do it in tiny chunks and piece it together like a jigsaw puzzle. Any odd shapes you see on a satellite picture are because of the fact that the image you see is hundreds of small images pasted together, all taken at different times. If theres a hole in the clouds, its because there were no clouds there when the photo was taken.

[DigitalSentinal]

Awesome. Thanks Percynthion. Looks like Blossom is front loading a good portion of her information, which is worrying. I sense a disappointment looming...

See? I can be objective and criticize Blossom. Doesn't mean I refute everything she says, but open eyes are better, for sure.

[Sweetpumper]

Those are not spaceships. Trust me.

Hate & war,
The 'Pumper

[Pericynthion]

SamWhiteHopi on Oct 7 2008, 06:13 AM, said:

Ok, now that I have had a little time to mull over your explanation, Pericynthion, my next query is [taking into account that you have limited expertise in this area]: Why if these patches are areas where no information has come through, we see land mass and/or clouds in most of the ‘glitches’ and not a total blank, and these patches are blue not black? The example you gave during 2007 for one of the patches is easy to understand as it is totally black with no land or cloud formation with it also being a highly irregular shape.

Hi Sam,

As Emma mentioned a few posts earlier, Google Earth is really just a database of thousands and thousands of photos, all pieced together like a puzzle. The main photos of the ground were taken by airplanes or satellites on days when the weather was clear, so there are very few clouds visible. These photos are all pieced together and are used to "paint" the surface of the Earth model. These images don't change very often. As a matter of fact, the photos of my neighborhood are almost two years old now.

To show cloud cover, Google uses another set of photos from the satellite data I was talking about in my last post. These are recent pictures, and I think Google updates them several times a day. The photos have been processed so that they ONLY show the clouds, not the ground or water below them. Areas with clear sky (or missing satellite data) will be blank. These cloud photos are then sort of pasted over the ground photos by your computer as you look around. The ground photos will show through any blank areas in the cloud maps.

SamWhiteHopi on Oct 7 2008, 06:13 AM, said:

Have also asked in the ‘UFO in Washington last night’ thread, page 6 post #86 to why there are strange unclear images coming back from the north and south poles [images provided by Chaoszerg]. A similar question by Graylady on thread ‘Another google bugs?...or.. post #15.

I took a look at your post in that thread. I agree with everything Emma and 747400 said in their responses. The whirlpool effect is just the result of a flat picture getting scrunched up at the poles when it's "wrapped" around the Earth model.

Regards,

P.

[Pericynthion]

DigitalSentinal on Oct 7 2008, 06:51 AM, said:

Awesome. Thanks Percynthion. Looks like Blossom is front loading a good portion of her information, which is worrying. I sense a disappointment looming...

You're welcome! Yeah, I think the fact that Blossom has tried to link the satellite "glitches" to her FoL channeling is pretty strong evidence that she's just making this stuff up for one reason or another. Not going to speculate on her intentions.

DigitalSentinal on Oct 7 2008, 06:51 AM, said:

See? I can be objective and criticize Blossom. Doesn't mean I refute everything she says, but open eyes are better, for sure.

I agree. Open eyes are always a good thing.

[Aanica]

The Silver Thong on Oct 6 2008, 10:35 AM, said:

Oh ya sure and I'm suppose to believe a drunken squirrel. However this drunken squirrel is correct, nothing fantastic about the pic's.

[Taybris]

There is some good coming out of all this Oct. 14th/FOL fodder...
It is generating A LOT of imagination/creativity exercising.

Edit:
Now THIS I can agree with 'the believers' on, 100%!

SamWhiteHopi on Oct 7 2008, 05:13 AM, said:

-snip-
Thankful we only have six more days of this.

This post has been edited by Blondigeist: 08 October 2008 - 05:52 AM