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What Happens When a Plane Flies Through a Google Maps Satellite Photo?

by Robert Quigley | 2:50 pm, December 9th, 2010

The Atlantic spotted this Google Maps satellite photo taken near Chicago’s Hyde Park. A commenter speculates that the rainbow effect could have been caused by a satellite imaging process that consisted of “several colored exposures [taken] over a few seconds and then combined”; failing that, unicorn magic.

Update: Brendan Tripp informs us that he spotted this Google Maps oddity in October.

(via The Atlantic)

  • Rkryszak

    I had an even earlier siting of the plane….see my comment at the following link…

    http://chicrosscup.com/2010/09/07/tuesday-ccc-updates-28/#comments

  • Anonymous

    If the satellite’s imaging process is to take a blue, green and red exposure in rapid succession, then what did it use for the fourth and final seemingly normal exposure?

  • Anonymous

    And the answer is? . . . good question!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Clemmie-Hooper/100001895437755 Clemmie Hooper

    I would say it’s a FOUR step imaging process – using a good ol Black & White shot for a base/framing target reference, then layering on the three primary colors. Much the same as true ‘photo grade’ Inkjet Printers layer 4, 5, or 6 colors – one or two of which are Blacks – to produce a color image.

    One shooting mode on my Sony DSLR, intended for STILL subjects, produces a similar (though less pronounced) effect, if accidentally used on a close-by moving subject. That mode – used to get maximum contrast detail from heavy shadows – fires two vastly different exposures, in very rapid succession, then blends the two into a single shot. If the subject is MOVING across the frame, in that mode, it produces a double image.

  • Zachary

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-spectral_image
    You are all close. An imaging satellite is not a camera like you are used to but a sensor. These sensors capture the image on multiple bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and compile them to form what appears to be a fully colored image.

    Source: I work with satellite imagery for the government, this is stuff I work with every day.


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