Posted on 03/24/2014 10:34:25 AM PDT by don-o
snip
"We looked at the Doppler effect, which is the change in frequency, due to the movement of a satellite in its orbit. What that then gave us was a predicted path for the northerly route and a predicted path the southerly route," explained Chris McLaughlin, senior vice president of external affairs at Inmarsat.
This information was relayed to Malaysian officials by 12 March, but Malaysia's government did not publicly acknowledge it until 15 March, according to the Wall Street Journal. Malaysia began to redirect the search effort that day, to focus on the areas the information described. However, some officials involved with the probe warned that the lost days and wasted resources could impede the investigation.
Meanwhile, Inmarsat's engineers carried out further analysis of the pings and came up with a much more detailed Doppler effect model for the northern and southern paths. By comparing these models with the trajectory of other aircraft on similar routes, they were able to establish an "extraordinary matching" between Inmarsat's predicted path to the south and the readings from other planes on that route.
"By yesterday they were able to definitively say that the plane had undoubtedly taken the southern route," said McLaughlin.
These pings from the satellite – along with assumptions about the plane’s speed – helped Australia and the US National Transportation Safety Board to narrow down the search area to just 3 per cent of the southern corridor on 18 March.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
This thread is worthless without the Ancient Aliens guy.
Oh, I’m sure he was around here somewhere.
It is at least somewhat geostationary. I say "somewhat" because the map I've seen shows its ground position a little south of the equator. That would imply that its ground position actually oscillates north and south of the equator over the course of a day. To be truly geostationary, its orbit would have to be in the plane of the equator, and its altitude would have to be such that its orbital period matches the earth's daily rotation time. That would cause it to hang over the same point on the equator all day.
But what matters is not the movement of the satellite — it has to move to stay in orbit — but, rather, the movement of the satellite relative to the airplane.
The new piece of information is that Inmarsat used the Doppler effect to measure the airplane's speed relative to the satellite. I assume that's what McLaughlin meant. The original Inmarsat contribution to the investigation was the plane's distance from the satellite at the hourly ping times. That can be calculated from the ping delay time and the speed of light and narrows the plane's position to a circle on the earth's surface. The Doppler effect would cause the ping's frequency to deviate slightly, allowing the plane's speed towards or away from the satellite also to be calculated.
McLaughlin said they applied the same analysis to normal flights and concluded that the southern part of the arc, not the northern, was where the plane went. Then, of course, there is the fact that none of the countries along the northern arc admit to spotting the airplane on their military radars. And no ransom demands.
Looks like a certain retired three-star is not going to be pleased.
Find a good one. Post it and ping me to it.
One more if
If a gun had gone off in the cockpit would the bullets bounce off the windows?
Only if the Lexan was thick enough. We run 3/16 to 1/4 inch thick in the cars. For true bullet resistant you need at least 1/2” thick and I am sure the cockpit windows are not that. More like the same used in the race cars. Caliber and load also play a part. But they are far more secure in an aircraft mounting which makes them to a certain degree stronger because of how they are mounted.
If in fact the current scenario spelled out by the Malaysian government is that it went down where they say, nothing to date accounts for the sudden southward turn if in fact all were incapacitated before then.
>> The Doppler effect would cause the ping’s frequency to deviate slightly, allowing the plane’s speed towards or away from the satellite also to be calculated. <<
Sure. But why would any Doppler effect be different when coming from the Southern arc, as opposed to the Northern arc? Isn’t one arc an exact mirror image of the other?
Now that's just not true - the warming religious zealots (are you included?) blame everything on global warming (high rainfall, low rainfall, high snowfall, low snowfall, high temperatures, low temperatures, etc., etc., etc.), and many of those events are in fact day-to-day and week-to-week.
Besides, you obviously failed to get the sarcasm in my post.
I’m a FIRM BELIEVER in Global Warming, Global Cooling and Climate Change! However, I don’t believe that the so-called science for “Anthropogenic Global Warming” is valid. I hope that explains it for you ... :-) ...
Again ... Global Warming, Global Cooling and/or Climate Change is not relevant on a day-to-day basis.
No, they’ll never remove the “off button” ... because pilots have come on here to give very solid reasons for having the “off button”.
I just now saw a report on TV that said this plane would be able to glide for quite a distance - and also - the pilot could attempt a “landing” on the ocean surface, trying to keep the plane intact and afloat for a limited amount of time.
I think you need to talk to the engineers at Inmarsat and the AAIB (UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch) ...
http://www.aaib.gov.uk/home/index.cfm
You're going to have a long sleep.
LOL ... I heard a great quote on the news this morning ...
“They’re not looking for ‘a needle in a haystack’, they’re trying to locate the haystack!”
Hmm, I agree that there is climate change, but it cannot be caused by or corrected by humans (it sounds like we agree here, so maybe I wrongly accused you). Now I’m not saying we should destroy our environment (I’m an environmental engineer - different than an environmentalist), but being good stewards is totally different than being religious, politically-correct alarmists.
The fact that the weather will be different tomorrow than it is today, and next week / month / year / decade than it is this week / month / year / decade is indeed climate change! And, the fact that we are no longer living in an ice age is further evidence of climate change. But to attribute any part of that to mankind, especially since extreme changes, like the onset and disappearance of the ice ages, were before industrialization, is totally unscientific, irrational and unreasonable!!!
I would say it’s QUITE SIGNIFICANT that the people at Inmarsat and the AAIB (UK Air Accidents Incestigation Board) did just ONE THING ... which was determine whether the plane went on the “northern route” or the “southern route”!
That’s because you’re listening to a lot of conflicting opinions - which is the very same thing we see at Free Republic ... :-) ...
Well ... one thing would be a meteor from outer space ... :-) ...
Nothing has been “determined” until the pieces are found, which is looking like “never.” Until then, the conspiracy theories will simply compound.
No wreckage = no bragging rights.
It’s all about “increasing your chances” and you don’t increase your chances if you divide up your search in two major area - both the “northern route” and the “southern route”.
With this latest analysis from Inmarsat and AAIB (UK Air Accident Investigations Board) and zeroing in on this area — the chances have increased.
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