Unfortunatly, this is the type of search mission where the only hope of finding him is via a physical aerial/surface search with spotters.
According to news reports, pieces of the balloons have been found and he got blown out to sea. He had a satellite phone and GPS with him, so they know what general direction he went. I spoke with Cathy about this and basically she feels that the imagery resolution needed to spot the priest in the water is beyond what exists with current satellites.
Another issue is the turn around time from when a satellite imagery request is put in until it is delivered to us, processed and put on line. This would take at least one month.
The thing with satellite imagery is that its availability depends upon both the satellite being in the correct location at the right time of day to capture the imagery (which can take weeks to line up depending upon its orbit) and there not being a higher bidder. When we are requesting satellite imagery be donated or provided to us at steep discount, our request has to wait in line behind higher paying clients.
Even with aerial imagery I doubt the turn around time could be any less than two weeks IF we already had an established agreement with an aerial imagery company in the area.
For now until the quality, availability and turn around time for imagery improves. The only search missions that have even a remote chance of being successful would be those where the lost asset is large (e.g. a plane) and in a fixed location (e.g. on the ground). While this technology does hold promise for the future, there are great limitations with it and it is not suitable for all search missions.
Previous
Index
Next
Flat
Re: InternetSAR.org: Search for Ron Boychuk
Edit
Reply
Quote
