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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Google Maps Swaffham Turbine Anomoly


jevansio

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My mate showed me this today, it's Swaffham Turbine.

 

Notice in the pic it's casts a full shadow, but the tower itself is not complete?

 

So how did this happen?

 

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=ts176qy&sll=54.531081,-0.997267&sspn=0.009401,0.013454&g=ts123da&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Stockton-on-Tees,+Cleveland+TS176QY,+United+Kingdom&ll=52.656856,0.683183&spn=0.001001,0.002704&t=h&z=19

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The images that make up Google maps are made up of multiple datasets which aren't all taken at the same time (they are flown in strips), because these images are all geo-referenced they can be updated at different times without affecting the overall coverage. the images are colour balanced and then blended with surrounding images automatically.

 

What has probably happened here is the first flown strip overflew the turbine itself, then the flight which captured the segment to the left was flown at a later date, after the turbine was completed, and hence the shadow is there.

 

You occasionally end up with areas which have shadows in opposite directions if the flights covering adjacent "tiles" are flown at significantly different times of the day too.

 

Mike

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The other option, which is probably more likely in hindsight, is this.

 

Multiple images are taken as it the aircraft flies along. These images deliberately overlap geographically so that they can be blended together seamlessly. Each image, due to parallax, contains more, or less, coverage of the sides of any objects in view. When the software stitches the images together one image will contain the full turbine, the next will have none in it the result is decapitation of the turbine.

 

This is particularly noticable on tall buildings which are affected more by the parallax effect of the photographing process. There will be plenty of other examples throughout the dataset.

 

Mike

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The other option, which is probably more likely in hindsight, is this.

 

Multiple images are taken as it the aircraft flies along. These images deliberately overlap geographically so that they can be blended together seamlessly. Each image, due to parallax, contains more, or less, coverage of the sides of any objects in view. When the software stitches the images together one image will contain the full turbine, the next will have none in it the result is decapitation of the turbine.

 

This is particularly noticable on tall buildings which are affected more by the parallax effect of the photographing process. There will be plenty of other examples throughout the dataset.

 

Mike

 

and thats a wrap :D

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Big fooking tree?

 

 

Yes, a tree with a canopy higher up than the surrounding trees and bushes on the border of that field, which make it look a bit weird IMO.

 

EDIT: After looking at it again, and the additional turbine blades after the next round of photos were taken (ahem).

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