World News - 2011-holiday-calendar

Dec

2011

6:01pm, EST

Satellites document North Korea's dark ages

NASA / NOAA

This picture of Earth at night is based on 1994-1995 satellite data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System, which maps the location of permanent lights on the planet. The borders of North Korea are outlined in white, with Japan off to the right, China to the left and South Korea below.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

The death of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, serves as a reminder that the hard-line communist country has long been in the dark — literally. A white border highlights the dark spot known as North Korea in this visualization of our planet's city lights.

This iconic "Earth at Night" picture is based on data gathered by military satellites in 1994-1995, just after Kim inherited power from his late father, Kim Il Sung. The darkness shows how much North Korea has lagged behind its neighbors — South Korea, China, Russia and Japan — in electrification and industrial development. Updates of the data sets show that there's been no change in North Korea's city-light situation between 1992 and 2009. Check out NOAA's "Science on a Sphere" webpage for more about the "Earth at Night" satellite data project.

A different kind of satellite project shows where North Korea has made progress during the dark age of Kim Jong Il: For years, the Institute for Science and International Security has been using satellite imagery to document the state of North Korea's nuclear program. Pictures acquired from orbit over the past couple of years show new construction at the country's Yongbyon nuclear center.

Here's a recent picture of the Yongbyon site from DigitalGlobe, a commercial satellite imaging venture. ISIS says the blue roofs on a gas centrifuge plant and an adjoining building appear to be part of increased construction activity:

DigitalGlobe

This high-resolution satellite image from DigitalGlobe, acquired on Nov. 4, 2010, shows new construction at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear site. The building with a deep blue roof is thought to be a gas centrifuge plant.

"Whatever the purpose, these activities show that more is going on at Yongbyon than commonly believed," ISIS analyst Paul Brannan wrote in his latest report. The future of North Korea's nuclear program will be a top concern for the United States and its allies as they assess Pyongyang's leadership transition — and satellites will provide the key data for that assessment.

These satellite views of North Korea serve as today's offering from the Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar, which presents views of Earth from space every day from now until Christmas. Catch up on these previous entries from the calendar:

Tip o' the Log to Ezra Klein's Wonkblog at The Washington Post and Afrikent.

Correction for 11 p.m. ET: I mistakenly referred to "Science on a Sphere" as being provided by NASA, when it's actually provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Sorry about that! Must have been because the first time I saw the "Science on a Sphere" display was at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Holiday calendar: Mystery in the Gobi Desert

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

What are those strange white patterns in China's Gobi Desert? For weeks, experts have puzzled over the crazy lines that show up in satellite images.

Some of the theories have taken wild turns: Maybe they're messages directed at Earth-observing extraterrestrials, or part of a UFO development program, or the remains of ancient cities. But the leading theory is that these patterns serve a variety of purposes for the Chinese military, including calibrating satellite imaging systems and testing radar avoidance techniques. There have also been claims that these are "fractal antennas" to shield underground weapons facilities from ground-penetrating radar.

This particular crazy-quilt pattern was picked up on July 27 from an altitude of 423 miles by the Ikonos satellite, one of the spacecraft in a commercial Earth-imaging constellation operated by GeoEye. The picture is today's offering from the Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar, which features views of Earth from space every day until Christmas.

Whatever the precise purpose of these patterns might be, it's not all that unusual for people to draw huge lines in the sand: Consider Peru's famous Nazca Lines, which were etched more than 1,500 years ago to form patterns that look like geometric shapes, insects and birds. Some of those patterns can be seen in their full form only from the air. More recently, archaeologists have puzzled over wheel-like patterns in the Middle East.

What do you think about the Gobi puzzles? Feel free to add your comments below, and check out these past entries from the Advent calendar:

Dec

2011

3:14pm, EST

Satellite spots China's first aircraft carrier at sea

DigitalGlobe / AP

This satellite image provided by the the DigitalGlobe Analysis Center shows the Chinese aircraft carrier Shi Lang (Varyag) sailing in the Yellow Sea. The picture was acquired Dec. 8 by DigitalGlobe's QuickBird satellite.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

A commercial satellite operator says it has captured a rare image of China's first aircraft carrier as it sailed through the Yellow Sea, after going through an exercise that's the 21st-century equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack.

DigitalGlobe said the aircraft carrier showed up on a cloud-filled picture snapped on Dec. 8 by its polar-orbiting QuickBird satellite from a height of 280 miles (450 kilometers). An analyst spotted the ship while checking the image on Tuesday, said Stephen Wood, the director of the company's analysis center.

"There is something that is always indispensable about having people involved," Wood told me. The ship was identified "using a combination of the satellite imagery plus open-source material on the Internet, and geography," he said, but "at the end of the day, it still comes down to a person."

Experts have been hoping for months to get a glimpse of the aircraft carrier at sea. The former Soviet Union started building the ship, originally known as the Varyag, but never finished it. After the Soviet breakup, the Varyag ended up in the hands of the Ukrainian government. The ship was auctioned off to the Chinese in 1998. Since then, the Varyag, which has reportedly been rechristened the Shi Lang, has been under refurbishment for sea service.

"This is a ship and a story that has had legs for many years," Wood said.

DigitalGlobe

Don't feel bad if you can't spot the aircraft carrier in this wide-field version of the satellite image from QuickBird. It's in the very center of the picture.

NBC's Brian Williams reports on the DigitalGlobe satellite picture.

DigitalGlobe said this picture was taken during the carrier's second sea trial, approximately 62 miles (100 kilometers) south-southeast of the port of Dalian. Wood said the picture indicates that the ship is "moving at a decent rate of speed, which would be expected in the middle of the ocean." The U.S. military could no doubt glean more information about the Shi Lang's status, from QuickBird's pictures as well as from classified, higher-resolution imagery.

China says the Shi Lang will be used for research and training, and the project is thought to be part of the country's strategy to expand its presence as a naval power. The Chinese military is expected to build more copies of the ship in coming years. In fact, sources told Reuters in July that a second aircraft carrier was under construction.

"China's next moves have to be watched carefully, or there eventually could be a negative impact on maritime safety in Asia," Yoshihiko Yamada, a professor at Japan's Tokai University, told Reuters at the time.

QuickBird's view of the Shi Lang serves as today's offering from the Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar, which features an image of Earth from space every day from now until Christmas. Here are the past offerings in the series:

Update for 10:45 p.m. ET: The Associated Press' Dan Elliott got in touch with a Pentagon spokeswoman, Cmdr. Leslie Hull-Ryde, who said the progress made by the Chinese on the aircraft carrier was in line with the U.S. military's expectations. A Defense Department report to Congress said the carrier could become operationally available to China's navy by the end of next year, but without aircraft. "From that point, it will take several additional years before the carrier has an operationally viable air group," Hull-Ryde told Elliott in an email.