DigitalGlobe, a commercial satellite operator, has recruited volunteers to help find the missing Malaysian plane through looking for clues in images.
The U.S-based satellite imaging company has invited people to log into their Tomnod website and find helpful hints buried in thousands of images gathered by their satellites from official search areas. Evidence showed that the plane might have crashed into the water and the company has been gathering satellite images of Pacific Ocean and the Malaysian Peninsula to help rescuers locate the missing plane.
As of this writing, 3,200 square kilometer of imagery has been uploaded to the site and more will be made available in the next hours. Twenty-five thousand people have signed up for the search and they were notified through email every time a new image was uploaded.
To find clues, users can zoom in on each image and "pin" something that like wreckage or debris. A special algorithm was designed to help eliminate multiple pins over the same thing. Analysts will then look at these tags and streamline them into the top ten most noteworthy locations before submitting the tags to the authorities.
"We'll say 'here are our top ten suspicious or interesting locations'," Luke Barrington, senior manager , said to Sydney Morning Herald. "Is it really an aircraft wing that's been chopped in half or is this some other debris floating on the ocean? We may not be 100 per cent sure, but if this is where I had to go pick a location to go looking for needles in this big haystack, this is where I'd start."
Images of the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, taken on Sunday, are currently uploaded to the site. If the search area will be increased or changed, Digital Globe will add more satellite images to their site.
Ten nations have already sent rescue ships and planes to search for the Malaysian Airlines plane which carried 239 people.
