Science - 2011-holiday-calendar

Dec

2011

7:10pm, EST

Drone-spotting at secret Nevada base stirs up debate

Google Earth / DigitalGlobe

A satellite image of Yucca Lake in Nevada, acquired on March 13, shows what appears to be a Predator or Reaper drone being towed at a restricted airstrip.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

A satellite photo that appears to show a military-style drone at a secret Nevada air base is stirring up a buzz on the Web, but don't worry: The imagery you're seeing on Google Earth is tweaked to avoid compromising national security.

The picture, which became the subject of multiple news reports over the past week, demonstrates the power of 24/7 satellite surveillance. It focuses on a dry lakebed, known as Yucca Lake, which has been used for secret projects for decades. Like the better-known Area 51, this patch of the desert (sometimes referred to as Area 6) is closely watched by amateur aficionados. It's been seen as a test site for unmanned aerial vehicles like the MQ-1 Predator, the MQ-9 Reaper and the RQ-170 Sentinel for at least the past three years.

Google / Digital Earth

A close-up taken from orbital imagery shows what appears to be an unmanned aerial vehicle sitting out at the Yucca Lake airfield.

RQ-170 Sentinels are in the news because the state-of-the-art spy drone was downed in Iranian territory, representing what appears to be a serious security setback for the U.S. military. The Nevada picture on Google Earth, which was acquired in March by one of DigitalGlobe's satellites and fed into the Google Earth system, doesn't show a Sentinel. It looks like one of the less advanced, less swoopy Predators or Reapers. Of course, there's always a chance that the craft is a decoy. (We are talking about secret air bases, after all.)

Flight Global's website, which published the image last week, speculated that the airfield is being used by the CIA to test hardware and software for its classified aerial operations. Since then, other news reports have been asking whether Google Earth is compromising national security.

U.S. satellite operators have worked out agreements with the federal government that govern the resolution of imagery made available through public databases, and you can imagine that the public images are fuzzier than the satellites' full capability. There can also be restrictions on what areas are targeted during particular times.

Potentially embarrassing images can surface, of course — such as pictures of drones in an area of Pakistan where the Pakistani government said there were no drones. And the concerns could become more acute as other countries launch imaging satellites that don't have to follow U.S. rules. But the Yucca Lake photo doesn't tell anybody who has been paying attention — including the bad guys — anything they didn't know already. The fact that the picture is still available, almost a week after it was thrown into the spotlight, suggests that national security has not been endangered.

I've made inquiries with the public relations folks for Google and DigitalGlobe, and if I hear anything back I'll update this item.

The Google Earth image serves as today's offering from the Cosmic Log Advent Calendar, which features views of Earth from space every day from now until Christmas. Check back for another image on Tuesday, and check out these previous offerings:

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Holiday calendar: Light up your St. Lucy's Day

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

Tonight's the night for Scandinavian girls to don crowns of candles and lead processions through the night, in celebration of St. Lucy's Day. In some locales, sweets and gifts are passed out to children. In others, the parties go on all night.

Although it's best known as a Swedish yuletide holiday, the roots of St. Lucy's Day actually go back to Sicily, where the saint lived and died. Lucy is thought to have lived in Syracuse, a city on the island of Sicily, and suffered a martyr's death around the year 310, on Dec. 13. That date has been celebrated as her feast day since the 1300s.

St. Lucy is said to deliver gifts to good children on the night of Dec. 12-13, in the company of a donkey and an escort named Castaldo. The children are told to leave out some coffee for Lucy, some flour for the donkey, and bread for Castaldo — kind of like the milk and cookies that American kids leave for Santa Claus. Click on over to "Your Guide to Italy" for more about the traditions of St. Lucy's Day.

Candlelight processions are a big part of the St. Lucy's Day festivities, whether you're in Sweden or Sicily. This night photograph of Sicily, snapped on Aug. 18 from the International Space Station, shows the island as if it were lit up for "Santa Lucia." It's tonight's offering from the Cosmic Log Advent Calendar, which highlights views of Earth from space every day from now until Christmas. We'll serve up another visual treat on Wednesday, and in the meantime, catch up on the calendar entries you may have missed:

Dec

2011

3:14pm, EST

Satellite spots China's first aircraft carrier at sea

DigitalGlobe / AP

This satellite image provided by the the DigitalGlobe Analysis Center shows the Chinese aircraft carrier Shi Lang (Varyag) sailing in the Yellow Sea. The picture was acquired Dec. 8 by DigitalGlobe's QuickBird satellite.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

A commercial satellite operator says it has captured a rare image of China's first aircraft carrier as it sailed through the Yellow Sea, after going through an exercise that's the 21st-century equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack.

DigitalGlobe said the aircraft carrier showed up on a cloud-filled picture snapped on Dec. 8 by its polar-orbiting QuickBird satellite from a height of 280 miles (450 kilometers). An analyst spotted the ship while checking the image on Tuesday, said Stephen Wood, the director of the company's analysis center.

"There is something that is always indispensable about having people involved," Wood told me. The ship was identified "using a combination of the satellite imagery plus open-source material on the Internet, and geography," he said, but "at the end of the day, it still comes down to a person."

Experts have been hoping for months to get a glimpse of the aircraft carrier at sea. The former Soviet Union started building the ship, originally known as the Varyag, but never finished it. After the Soviet breakup, the Varyag ended up in the hands of the Ukrainian government. The ship was auctioned off to the Chinese in 1998. Since then, the Varyag, which has reportedly been rechristened the Shi Lang, has been under refurbishment for sea service.

"This is a ship and a story that has had legs for many years," Wood said.

DigitalGlobe

Don't feel bad if you can't spot the aircraft carrier in this wide-field version of the satellite image from QuickBird. It's in the very center of the picture.

NBC's Brian Williams reports on the DigitalGlobe satellite picture.

DigitalGlobe said this picture was taken during the carrier's second sea trial, approximately 62 miles (100 kilometers) south-southeast of the port of Dalian. Wood said the picture indicates that the ship is "moving at a decent rate of speed, which would be expected in the middle of the ocean." The U.S. military could no doubt glean more information about the Shi Lang's status, from QuickBird's pictures as well as from classified, higher-resolution imagery.

China says the Shi Lang will be used for research and training, and the project is thought to be part of the country's strategy to expand its presence as a naval power. The Chinese military is expected to build more copies of the ship in coming years. In fact, sources told Reuters in July that a second aircraft carrier was under construction.

"China's next moves have to be watched carefully, or there eventually could be a negative impact on maritime safety in Asia," Yoshihiko Yamada, a professor at Japan's Tokai University, told Reuters at the time.

QuickBird's view of the Shi Lang serves as today's offering from the Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar, which features an image of Earth from space every day from now until Christmas. Here are the past offerings in the series:

Update for 10:45 p.m. ET: The Associated Press' Dan Elliott got in touch with a Pentagon spokeswoman, Cmdr. Leslie Hull-Ryde, who said the progress made by the Chinese on the aircraft carrier was in line with the U.S. military's expectations. A Defense Department report to Congress said the carrier could become operationally available to China's navy by the end of next year, but without aircraft. "From that point, it will take several additional years before the carrier has an operationally viable air group," Hull-Ryde told Elliott in an email.