I wonder what it would take to do this for in-flight aircraft? I.e. simultaneously surveying the entire sky and tracking all aircraft in flight? This could allow finding downed aircraft much more quickly. Would a megaconstellation like starlink with cameras suffice?
Just consider: If a private, for-profit company that sells public imagery is publishing this openly, what capabilities does the NRO have that synthesize data from SAR radar-specialized satellites, visual spectrum camera satellites, infrared-band specialized sensing satellites, and possibly NSA SIGINT satellites that capture emissions from aircraft traffic?
For those curious/wondering, the last satellite image is of the Budapest International Airport [1], a reverse Google Lens image search was surprisingly good at finding it.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/@47.4343334,19.2735672,4635m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDMxOS4yIKXMDSoJLDEwMjExNDUzSAFQAw%3D%3D" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/maps/@47.4343334,19.2735672,4635m/dat...</a>
TFA doesn't really explain how is this better/cheaper than existing ADSB based technologies, or where one is more appropriate than the other (ie which use cases it's targeting)?
> On the commercial side, understanding how many aircraft landed in a city on a specific day can help predict economic trends<p>lol, as if you'd use satellite imagery for that and not just (freely) available data on airplane movement.<p>> assess the impacts of world events - such as the quantity of aircraft present for large sporting or entertainment events<p>wow, there were a hundred small airplanes in Las Vegas, there must have been an event there, who knew. Everyone knew and it's easily available information.<p>The application is military. That's the only thing this is good for. It's the only thing their screenshots show. Why not just say that.
<i>> After significant experimentation with many different model architectures, we determined that aircraft <25m in length or wingspan are too small to be reliably detected in medium resolution imagery, so we elected to focus on aircraft this size or greater.</i><p>Build small aircraft.