23678: (Discuss) Reid: Haiti Keyhole Satellite Reconnaissance (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Ralph Reid <rafreid@yahoo.com>

Haiti Keyhole Satellite Reconnaissance.
A software review for the Corbett Haiti List.
by Ralph Reid -

A few days ago, internet search company Google bought Keyhole, a
company specializing in digital mapping. Keyhole's system is built
on a multi-terabyte database with trillions of bits of mapping data
collected from satellites and airplanes.

I decided to look them up and see what images they had available
on Haiti. Download and install was easy.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that 0.7 meter resolution
pictures of the Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien metropolitain area
were available. Wow! Time to look up the house I grew up in Petion
Ville. When I launch the application, I saw a globe floating in
space with North America. I hastily click on Haiti where I
descended on the Petion-Ville area. As images where getting sharper,
I zoomed in from space-level to street-level.

It did not take too long to find the Mais-Gate Airport [ 18°34'33.41"N
72°17'40.61"W], the runway lies east-west and you can actually read
the name "Air Haiti" on the roof of one of the adjacent building.
The sun glare off the planes fuselage prevented me from reading any of
the planes' marking. American Airlines maybe?

By tilting and rotating KeyHole viewing angle from a flat 90 degrees
to a more realistic 45 degrees angle, you get a bird like view of
the terrain. Keyhole dynamic 3D terrain interface simulates what it
would be like to fly over Delmas. I recognized my Alma Matter
Saint-Louis de Gonzague Delmas campus [ 18°33'14.74"N  72°18'13.79"W].
The church, administration and classroom buildings are clearly
visible. I counted about a dozen cars in the parking lot. From the
angle of the shadows, the cars in light circulation on the Delmas
and Bourdon road, and the activity around the Petion-Ville market,
I am guessing it must have been an early Saturday or Sunday.

Soccer fields and pools are among the easiest things to recognized.
The water in the El Rancho Hotel pools is intensely blue compared to
some empty pools in the Delmas area.

The 'Palais National' was also easy to find [ 18°32'35.17"N
72°20'20.17"W]. From higher up it looks like a big inverted
letter 'M". You can see the circle shape Musee du Pantheon National
(Mupanah) and the Champ Mars. One very discernable feature is the
giant Veve south of the Mupanah. Using Keyhole Measurement feature,
I was able to estimate it at 50 feet long. I wonder if you can
recognize it when standing on the ground.

The measuring tool is a very useful tool, I was able to calculate
disputed Navasa Island to 1.80 sq mile. No discernable houses or
structures though.

Keyhole has some great potential as a sales tool for real estate,
travel agencies, education and government. It give me a better visual
and spatial understanding of where things are in Haiti. I found out
these pictures were taken in February 2004. Haiti being one of the
latest international political hotspots, satellites were busy
snapping pictures.

Anyone can use Keyhole. Haitian children will be able to see a
devastated and rapidly changing Haitian environment. The comparison
with neighboring Dominican Republic is simply depressing.

Keyhole Pro has some additional capabilities to measure and
incorporate your own overlay data, and do high resolution printing.
There is also a LT version that does not have these features that
can be had for $29/yearly. You can download Keyhole and try it for
free for a period of 7 days at www.keyhole.com.