US-based satellite imaging company crowdsources search for missing MH370 plane

You can now help search for the missing Boeing 777 flight MH370 by browsing through satellite imagery.

 

With 34 planes, 40 ships, and search crews from 10 countries looking for debris of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, there are still no sign of debris.

 

DigitalGlobe, a United States-based satellite imaging company, has made available high-resolution images taken over the weekend of the area where the plane might have crashed into the water, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

 

The company is asking volunteers to log onto its Tomnod website and help look for something that would help the investigation in the 3,200 square kilometers of imagery they made available. These are images of the area where the Gulf of Thailand meets the South China Sea. More images will be released within 24 hours, the report said.

 

"For people who aren't able to drive a boat through the Pacific Ocean to get to the Malaysian peninsula, or who can't fly aeroplanes to look there, this is a way that they can contribute and try to help out," DigitalGlobe's Luke Barrington told US news network ABC News.

 

Through Tomnod, users can zoom in on the satellite images and drop a pin on possible wreckages or debris, much like in Google Maps. An algorithm finds the spots where multiple tags were made. Expert analysts will then identify the most notable tagged areas and share the information with authorities.

 

"We'll say 'here are our top ten suspicious or interesting locations'," Mr Barrington said. "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."

 

Tomnod "was also used to map the devastation after Typhoon Yolanda that struck the Philippines last November, with thousands helping identify more than 60,000 objects of interest of regions and landmarks that could have been affected within the first 24 hours," the report said. — TJD, GMA News