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To: djf; All
No matter what, I’m pretty confident that if it’s not a defect in the mapping imagery, it’s certainly not a natural structure.

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Sorry, but, based on knowledge of the post-processing that is applied to Google Earth data, I am very confident that those are minor differences (faint lines resulting from combining vessel scans with other data) that were enhanced by the "shadowing" filter used to give the image a 3-D appearance.

First of all, side-scan sonar looks out to the sides - always leaving a "dead zone" line directly under the track where the instrument was towed. This website explains and illustrates the phenomenon -- and explains how closely-spaced scan tracks can be used to fill in the data gap.

If the "gap-filling" (by scan overlap or digital interpolation) is imperfect, faint lines remain in the resulting digital image.

Rather than embark on a (even more) pedantic discussion of gradient convolution matrix math, I did a little demo:

I created two identical pairs of orthogonal lines which were only faintly different in brightness from the background. Then I applied a shadowing algorithm (like used by Google Earth) to the pair at lower right. Voila!

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FWIW, such algorithms are quite useful for analyzing overhead imagery. My son bought a big stack of WWII (grayscale) BDA (Bomb Damage Assessment) photos of German targets at a flea market. On one photo of a bombed-out German airfield, I noticed faint lines in some adjacent grassy fields.

Application of a similar "shadowing convolution" algorithm turned those faint lines into clearly-visible pairs of "ruts" leading to seventeen (clearly visible due to their "shadows") aircraft that had taxiied out into the woods -- and escaped the bombing of the airfield...

As to modern applications for such algorithms, "deponent further sayeth naught"... '-)

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But you were correct re the Google Earth pattern:"it’s certainly not a natural structure."...

58 posted on 02/11/2011 7:07:26 AM PST by TXnMA ("Allah": Satan's current alias...)
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To: TXnMA

As I said, I’m still not convinved one way or the udder!

But thanks for the very technical explanation.

I personally have written some image compression software used to process images stored in PCL format. And it is true that a wide variety of effects can be created, especially if you try to do compression and decide you can tolerate a bit of loss.
It is interesting!

One thing worth noting, though, is that the lines are not precisely vertical or horizontal, which is usually how these anomalies show up.


60 posted on 02/11/2011 7:37:40 AM PST by djf (Touch my junk and I'll break yur mug!!!)
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