Eye in the Sky Busts Fraudulent Farmers

Peter Kuhns writes: "Awesome article about Big Brother using USGS satellite photos to ferret out a fraudulent farming company that scammed insurance companies over lost crops. The USGS apparantly takes lots of infrared (re:remote sensing) photos of the entire nation and stores this data going back a number of years. This is a big wake up call to farmers, the government, and potentially the USGS, who could suddenly be in the business of big business." Another very cool use of USGS data is drawmap, which I discovered a few months ago.

Comments

Synthetic Aperatures

[slew]

Since probably many people on /. probably don't know how this works, I'll post a brief summary.

The aperature equation determines the resolution of a satellite (or any other imaging instrument).

X = h*lambda/(L*cos(A))

where h is the height, lambda is the wavelength of the electromagnetic signal (light, radio, etc),
L*cos(A) is the projected length of the receiver (antenna, lens aperature)...

Plugging in some numbers say...

h=1000km, (too high for a survellance satellite, but easier math)
lambda=1um (near infra-red)
L=1m (a small satellite)

With this you get 1 meter resolution (yikes), although it doesn't account for distortion, etc...

Of course one way to increase the resolution is to get closer (reduce h), use higher frequencies
(reduce wavelengths), or increase the receiving aperature (big satellites are hard to fly).

Then there's this trick to increase the resolution of satellites that combine multiple "looks" of
the same object from different positions to simulate a large aperature. This technique is
called synthetic aperature imaging.

Non-geo-stationary satellites can combine multiple "looks" at a point while they fly by to
improve the resoltion. Of course there are problems like dopper shift, atmospheric distortion,
range shifts, etc that have to get accounted for, but this is the basic idea.

The problem with a geo-stationary satellite looking at you is that they fly very high
(very large h) and the don't move relative to the point target.

Of course a more realistic account would be in Tom Clancy's Patriot games where the real-time
image could only be obtained for a short time until the low-flying fast-moving spy satellite
couldn't see the target any more over the horizon...

But I digress... ;^)

Get more clues - X's in roads

[crisco]

Actually, a great many of the X's you see on pavement are there as 'control points' for photogrammetry done from airplanes, not satellites. These are used for surveying and land use purposes, often stereo sets of photos are taken to determine elevations within about 1/2' ( 15cm ) and horizontal location to a few inches ( 10cm ). Those X's are surveyed with conventional equipment or high accuracy GPS (1cm) so that the relationship to the rest of the world can be established and so that errors due to the airplane's tilt, deviation from flightpath, etc. can be determined. Then maps are made from the stereo pairs that allow subdivisions and shopping malls to be built. Of course I'm simplifying the entire process but that will get you started.

Google Category

Chris Cothrun
Curator of Chaos

CLUES, GET CLUES

[Multics]

The responses to this article just are freaking me out. HOW MANY SLASHDOTTERS DOES IT TAKE TO KNOW SOMETHING? ABOUT 50 POSTS BEFORE THERE IS A QUALITY ONE.

Now that I have that said...

At one point or another your property (the few of you that actually own property in the USA) was probably imaged this week. Your land is probably imaged 30 or 40 times a year (especially right now where there is maximum sun and sun angles are very high). That 30-40 doesn't count being spied on the NRO or the Russians (or whomever else). Most of the pictures are so low-res that they get what they need for time-sensitive maps (crops, diseases, erosion, land types, etc) that short of you doing something outrageously odd, you'll not be bothered.

How do you think that your precious GPS navigator got its maps? It wasn't from a State Road Inventories since they are not accurate enough. It was from being overflown.

Ever see big Xs, +s or Ls painted on the pavement? Well those are there so the overflight photos can be tied to known geographic locations and the photos can be tied together to build a mosaic.

What makes this story vaguely more intresting is that it is about satelite photos, not traditional air photos. Further the USGS took the photos but the USDA got to use them.

USDA has been overflying on crop validations since at least the 1960s (perhaps as far back as the mid-1940s). How do you think the estimates of crop production get produced? Overflights by Billy-Bob in his Piper with a classic B/W Kodak IR film (roughly 10"x10" negatives, BTW) do most of the heavy lifting then some poor photogramitrist measures whatever was of interest and poof, yet another thematic map.

You folks need some sense of how the world works. Most of this has been happening since long before you were born.

-- Multics

See also:
GEOG 415-001: Air Photo Interpretation
Air Photo Interpretation
And for you EUers, Air Photo Services.

P.S. About crop insurance... go read the USDA web site before you spout about it -- no bailouts there, oh clueless ones.

Re:CLUES, GET CLUES

[scoove]

Bravo - wish I could mod++ and post at the same time. Insightful, at a minimum. Then again, I'm biased.

It's mystifying to listen to slashdotters rant and rave about their hatred of Microsoft corporate conspiracies, and then turn on their principles and kiss up to the same forces in other industries. They whine about PHB corporate behavior, then act just as ignorant when they run to the supermarket and make horribly foolish assumptions and embarrassing simplifications.

Our city folk slashdotters need to step back and consider for a moment what would happen if their city didn't have its daily food shipments from the the distributors who control their survival. (Yes, you are 0wned, but not by who you think).

Do a mental inventory of what's in the fridge and where it came from - and try to survive on what came from within your city limits.

Hungry yet?

We hear Katz rant about how the McDonalds culture poisons America, but where did he get his groceries at? (Care to reply for once on a post, Katz, or still hiding from any sort of discussion?)

Yea, I'm ranting alright. Hopefully I can stir up enough slashdotters so they won't go hungry. The other side of the force doesn't need to worry about its food supply.

*scoove*

Re:CLUES, GET CLUES

[_Mustang]

You are so right on this. That most people find this newsworthy is a simple testament to "how far from the land" people have become; ie: city folk.

In fact at this very moment I have a large photo of the entirety of my family farm hanging on my wall. The scale of the picture is roughly 2KM by 5 KM and believe me when I say that it's not too difficult to distinguish every feature including my Dad's car. Actually we have one from every five year period between 1965 until 1985, which makes it kinda neat to see how the area developed over the last x-years as the farm expanded..

This is actually very typical and has been done with fly-overs since at least the late 60's. That they have begun to use satellite to do this is hardly surprising since you get more area with a higher detail for less money...

Sounds to me like those weren't family farmers in involved since they would know about this kind of stuff.

Fun with the USGS...

[stefanlasiewski]

Ever see big Xs, +s or Ls painted on the pavement? Well those are there so the overflight photos can be tied to known geographic locations and the photos can be tied together to build a mosaic.

I see a fun anarchist legend in the works...

Get black paint, and cover up the white crosses.

Get white paint, and paint random Xs, +s or Ls all over your town in random locations.

Before they know it, the USGS will be mapping Los Angeles right next to San Jose! Wish I could see those Geologists faces right now...
"Holy shit! Now THAT is some big Continental Drift!"

Re:Ever heard of an adjuster?

[scoove]

I just showed this article to a soybean farmer friend of mine (5500+ acres in southwest Iowa).

Besides not being surprised that the government would spend its billion dollar defense network on spying on the little guy, he pointed out how amusing it was that all this energy is going into protecting the government's crop insurance stake while the farmer is slowly slipping into oblivion.

(And before some city fool posts an obnoxious, ignorant post about crop subsidies and all the government waste, let me point out that these guys can't stand it either - but faced with government protection of wholesale monopolies that name their price for crops in ebay fashion, that subsidy means the difference between them eeking out a pathetic survival and you having nothing on your dinner plate).

Record low crop prices, record high fuel and fertilizer prices and the whole mess about GMOs (resulting in international boycotts of US produced foods, using GMO as an excuse for nationalistic crop protection) are encouraging the die hards to get out of the business. Heck, in the state of Washington, they're considering paying apple producers to simply destroy orchards. They can't affect the wholesalers, so they'll affect you at home (while the wholesalers rake in even more dollars).

It'll backlash, certainly. Consumers are engineering the beginnings of a California energy crisis in the agriculture markets by choosing to destroy their producers. Just like the greens in CA successfully killed off electricity production, protection of ag distribution monopolies combined with other factors will ensure prohibitively expensive foods in 10-15 years.

So yes, the big guy is doing well. He's smart - greasing both parties at the same time (Microsoft's recently corrected error). He's also getting a great return on his investment, especially if the world's greatest military is now working for him by spying on the serfs in the fields.

You're going to get just what the big guy wants you to buy, at the price he names. Groceries at 40%+ of your income just around the corner...

*scoove*

p.s. If you want to do something about it, support the open source of agriculture. Go down to your local farmer's market this weekend and buy food there. Slashdotters claim to hate Microsoft, yet support the Microsoft of agriculture every time they go to the big grocery store. BUY DIRECT - better, fresher, honest food!

Ever heard of an adjuster?

[selectspec]

Why didn't the insurance company send somebody out to inspect the crops? Why wouldn't the insurance company require the farmers to at least photograph the crops and the damage?

Re:Ever heard of an adjuster?

[dhovis]

It says in the article that the farmers planted about 200 acres of cotton and claimed damage on nearly 1000 acres. They may well have shown an adjuster some of the 200 acres that were distroyed, but I doubt that the adjuster (who probably had to confirm a bunch of damages in the area) took the time to confirm that 1000 acres had been planted in the first place.
--

Re:what about...

[Trekologer]

What about the recent SCOTUS decision about using heat sensors to discover pot grows? theoretically, this could even be used for the exact same thing. This stuff gives me the creeps.

Heat sensors were being used to look inside houses while these satalites photograph what is out in the open. Legally, its called "plain sight". Anything that can been seen out in the open can be used against you. For example, the police pull over a car for running a red light. The police can not open and search the trunk to find the money the people in the car just robbed from a nearby bank (unbeknownst to the police). Now, if the loot was in the back seat and the police officer could see it though the window (in "plain sight") he could use it as evidence and arrest the people in the car for the robbery. He still can't open the trunk to find the 20 killos of coke in it (unless he received a warrant, received consent from the driver, or had evidence suggesting there were drugs in it).

It would be another story if the satalites could "see" inside building (ie: infared heat sensor).

mirror mirror on the wall

[tedtimmons]

I'm working on a mirror. The page is up, the images are on their way, hopefully.

http://www.perljam.net/misc/drawmap/www.ttc-cmc.ne t/%257Efme/drawmap.html

Re:what about...

[Rick the Red]

For example, the police pull over a car for running a red light. The police can not open and search the trunk to find the money the people in the car just robbed from a nearby bank

I wish that were true. It was once, but no longer. The supreme court just ruled ('Atwater vs. City of Lago Vista' April 24, 2001) that an officer can arrest you even if the violation which got you pulled over is a misdemeanor with no jail time. As Sandra Day O'Conner said in that decision: "After today, the arsenal available to any officer extends to full arrest and the searches concomitant to that arrest." In other words, if they want to search your trunk all they have to do is pull you over for failure to signal a lane change or some other lame excuse then arrest you. Now they have you in handcuffs in the back of the cruser and they can legally do any damn thing they want to your car without a warrent, and anything they find can and will be used against you.

The only thing the Supremes have left to do is find a way to empower the cops to just shoot you on the spot and avoid the cost of a trial.