Higher Res Sensor Launched in Search for Fossett

While the official search is over, a privately funded one continues. This week higher resolution sensors are going up. The focus is finding debris or perhaps a forced landing site, rather than an intact plane.

Using a dedicated jet aircraft, the High Altitude Mapping Missions (HAMM) photography expected to begin this Sunday (21 October) will generate an image with a pixel size of 6 inches (approx 15 cms), many times more detailed than standard satellite images.
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Mission flight paths are being determined by analysis of a Geographical Information System (GIS) map incorporating all known GPS traces from the aircraft involved in the private part of the search, plus data received from the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), Army and Air National Guard and US Air Force search efforts.

Analysis of the HAMM data will be done initially via a network of computers, with anomalies to be sorted by shape (searching for straight lines, etc), color (especially the bright blue part of the aircraft’s fabric cover) and reflection / shine - or a combination of any and all these elements.

- KOLO TV which pretty much repeats material from SteveFossett.com