Giant Chinese Desert Mystery Structure Solved

Velcroman1 writes "Slashdotters read Monday about strange symbols in the Gobi Desert recently imaged and indexed by Google Maps. Alien landing zones? Some military thingy? Bizarre art project? Nope. The grids of zigzagging white lines seen in two of the images — the strangest of the various desert structures — are spy satellite calibration targets, according to one NASA scientist."

Comments

spy satellite calibration targets

[ackthpt]

So... they correspond to something on the ground they want to match, I betcha. They may have added a few lines to mask their intent, but the drawings to the west look like airfieds and I imagine the two which look like random stuff in a rectangle do match some city roads, somewhere.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[CmdrPony]

No, they don't match any other places. They're just for calibration. US has similar ones in Arizona.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[n5vb]

No, they don't match any other places. They're just for calibration. US has similar ones in Arizona.

And Texas. (Although that one was a NASA photogrammetry calibration target, I think..)

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[MozeeToby]

They're just using it as a controlled environment to test out some new radar based spy satellites and possibly to test countermeasures against similar satellites orbited by other nations. The quasi-random grid layouts are the most visually striking, but I think the fighter jet surrounded by carefully positioned radar reflectors is more interesting. In theory you could mess up the image enough to camouflage your planes from satellite based radar. I could imagine the same being true for some of the qausi-grid layouts as well, they could be testing for multi-path effects or any number of other things.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[Anonymous Coward]

Luecke is used for calibration, but it was not originally intended for that.
IIRC it was done due to a land dispute with the state.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[amicusNYCL]

So... they correspond to something on the ground they want to match, I betcha.

I betcha not. I betcha they send the satellite up with an image of what to look for on the ground and where to find it, the satellite heads above it, and then orients itself until the view on the ground matches the image. The purpose is for the satellite to calibrate its own position and orientation in space. Once that's done then they can just tell the damn thing where to go to look at whatever the hell they want to look at.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[Anonymous Coward]

Please let the target be "It's a Small World!"

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[Anonymous Coward]

An old friend of mine told a story of developing fake fighter jets for the Airforce. Lightweight, easily deployed, looks like a plane from 1000 feet or farther away, and must withstand winds of up to 50 knots "from any direction." Thought being, three guys in a truck could drive to an existing airfield and "deploy" a squadron of jets there in a matter of an hour or less.

The fun part came with the review by the brass... "Very impressive solution with the lightweight canvas and all, but what about the wind requirement?" "Yes, sir, General, these decoys have been tested to withstand 60 knot gusts and 50 knot continuous winds for over an hour from all sides." General looks like he's found a gotcha and says: "But what about from a 50 knot wind from underneath? The requirements say "from any direction."?"

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't have the slightest fracking idea of what you're talking about.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[Anonymous Coward]

that actually makes sense and explains the unusual pattern...

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[larry bagina]

Inflatable tanks were used in WW II. Of course, they also camouflage to hide their real tanks.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[jimi1x]

Anyone know what the structure is at 40.955017,100.645925 in google maps?

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't know but if you follow the "tyre" tracks north west of here there is an even more interesting structure at 41.030853,100.599484

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[realityimpaired]

Clouds. Zoom in far enough and you can easily distinguish the shadows they're casting.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[hairyfeet]

Nope just use Google images to check out the AZ desert and White sands in NV and you'll see similar targets like bullseyes and zig zag and all kinds of other targets. It is simply a cheap and easy way to calibrate a spy sat since all you need is a piece of desert and some white paint. IIRC there are also some bombers and fighters left in the middle of the desert in NV near an abandoned runway that is used for practicing taking shots of aircraft on the ground, its easy practice since its always in the same place and same position so it is easy to compare.

If anything to me the interesting part is how much more poor the resolution on the Chinese sats are to the Americans since the Chinese targets are fricking huge and the bullseyes they have in AZ go down to some pretty tiny center targets. I'm sure in another decade though they'll have it tight enough they'll be able to read the license on a car, they'll just need a GUI in VB like the CSI guys.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[tlhIngan]

If anything to me the interesting part is how much more poor the resolution on the Chinese sats are to the Americans since the Chinese targets are fricking huge and the bullseyes they have in AZ go down to some pretty tiny center targets. I'm sure in another decade though they'll have it tight enough they'll be able to read the license on a car, they'll just need a GUI in VB like the CSI guys.

The actual resolution of a spy satellite is classified. The use of smaller and smaller targets gives away the resolution of the satellite you're using it with. The fact that the targets have been getting smaller and smaller (and it's measurable) just means that they can ballpark the resolution easier.

The Chinese "huge targets" doesn't reveal a thing about the quality of their optics. It could be (as assumed) extremely bad. Or it could be extremely good and they're now focusing on parts of the design. Hell, the other test targets around the world are known - the Chinese could simply be targeting using those targets as well, and using these to throw everyone off.

Part of the role of a good spy is providing disinformation, after all.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[Chrisq]

How about this one 41.030853,100.59948". It looks as though some of it has been painted out from the map image!

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[rioki]

Makes complete sense to me. You want a pattern that exists nowhere else on earth, so when your satellite sees the pattern it knows exactly where it is. Then you give it a different pattern, say for example the pattern a ICBM missile silo looks like from space and the satellite will tell you where they are all located.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[Serpents]

I remember reading somewhere that after the war the Soviet military even fitted such decoys with hot air fans so that they would have IR signatures similar to real tanks.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[Saintwolf]

How about south of that at 40.993792,100.598963? 2 blue squares (Same colour as the bright runway).

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[ME-tan]

The UK also has them on some military bases, although I am at work so don't currently have the google maps link for an example to hand.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[Anonymous Coward]

"The calibration targets are larger than might have been expected, he said, suggesting that the satellite cameras they are being used to calibrate have surprisingly poor ground resolution."

I've found too this part of the article a tad naive and a lot propagandistic. First and foremost because it could be there from the 'seventies. Secondly because it says nothing about the optics, nor that it's so large because of the satellite sensitiveness. Third because it assumes they're using the lines to calibrate the satellites while they could be very well use the edges.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[ewanm89]

No, in google earth you can clearly see it was added in 2005

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[ewanm89]

there is even a nice pic of it half done.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[drinkypoo]

hahaha you're funny. the problem with your idea is that we already have plenty of manmade facilities the same size whose properties are known which could therefore be used for calibration. There is no logic whatosever in having any facilities strictly for satellite calibration. I'm not saying they're not used for same, but I am saying they weren't made for same.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[jmac_the_man]

If anything to me the interesting part is how much more poor the resolution on the Chinese sats are to the Americans since the Chinese targets are fricking huge and the bullseyes they have in AZ go down to some pretty tiny center targets. I'm sure in another decade though they'll have it tight enough they'll be able to read the license on a car, they'll just need a GUI in VB like the CSI guys.

Confirmation bias. The targets you see are only the ones big enough to be seen clearly on Google Maps. If we (or the Chinese or the Russains or whoever) had a spy satellite that could read the year off a quarter, the quarter would just be placed in the correct place and they'd take pictures of it. The fact that you can't see the quarter on Google Maps because GOOGLE doesn't have that kind of resolution doesn't mean nobody does.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[drainbramage]

If you don't believe me, go ask Louis Armstrong (The first man on the moon.)

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[jackbird]

Why don't they use, say, Yankee Stadium then, or the hardscaping on the Washington Mall rather than purpose-built targets?

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[SleazyRidr]

You need something that you can be sure is what you think it is. Areas open to the public are prone to changing in ways that you may not be able to predict. This is specifically constructed to be that shape, and it will be that shape every time you point a satellite at it.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[Anonymous Coward]

If you successfully send up a spy satellite, you know exactly where your satellite is - it is where you put it, and it is pointing where you asked it to point. Otherwise you didn't successfully send up a spy satellite.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[hairyfeet]

Because people come and go, planes fly overhead, clouds roll in, too many constant changes for it to make a good target. if you look at both the USA and the Chinese targets they are built in areas with almost zero clouds or rain, so that nothing ever changes. its always there, its always the exact same shape, size, color, etc.

Its like that test pattern they used to show at sign off, by giving you the exact same pattern every single time they made it easy for the techs to spot problems with just a glance, whereas with a changing target closer scrutiny would be required.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[luis_a_espinal]

If you successfully send up a spy satellite, you know exactly where your satellite is - it is where you put it, and it is pointing where you asked it to point. Otherwise you didn't successfully send up a spy satellite.

I'm not sure I follow how your post follows as a counter-argument to what amicusNYC said:

the purpose is for the satellite to calibrate its own position and orientation in space.

Yeah, obviously the launcher will know where the bloody satellite is. But that has nothing to do with calibration of the artifact itself. The bloody think still needs to calibrate itself (orientation, lensing, etc.) independently of the launcher's knowledge of its position. In fact, the satellite needs to calibrate itself to confirm his position and trajectory down to base. Then you know the thing is working as intended. Then you know - as you said it - where exactly the satellite is. People do several forms of deployment confirmation (to see that shit is working as expected, where they should be) for simple CRUD web apps. One would imagine aerospace agencies would do at least that much with expensive shit flung into space, me thinks.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[Coren22]

Hey, stop peaking at my house! :)

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[Cid Highwind]

I think the roofs really are painted that bright blue color.

Now look at the main road, it looks like they have a scale Eiffel tower over this intersection.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[The Gaytriot]

Just got off the phone with him, he says you're full of shit and also that your mom says "Hi."

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[Tubal-Cain]

hahaha you're funny. the problem with your idea is that we already have plenty of manmade facilities the same size whose properties are known which could therefore be used for calibration.

Not to the same degree. OK, sure, you can point it at just about anything and eyeball whether it's in focus or not. But what about sensors outside the visible spectrum? Is there a weak spot in the lower left corner of the thermal imager, or is that part of your calibration target actually cooler for some reason? Only way to be sure is to have thermometers scattered across your target.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[drinkypoo]

I agree with what you've said, but the problem with the idea is that it's based on the concept that it's easier to go dig up the desert someplace than to plant some thermometers in a well-documented location, and it's just not supported by reality.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[Anonymous Coward]

What the fuck? Are you retarded? The satellite needs to do two things, communicate with a base station and perform the maneuvers it's commanded to. There is zero need for it to have any intelligence of its own. It can be useful if it has some, but it is by no means mandatory.

Re:spy satellite calibration targets

[luis_a_espinal]

What the fuck? Are you retarded? The satellite needs to do two things, communicate with a base station and perform the maneuvers it's commanded to. There is zero need for it to have any intelligence of its own. It can be useful if it has some, but it is by no means mandatory.

And the base station is telling it to recalibrate, for fault-tolerance and redundancy. Obviously, calling people names while posting anonymous shows your experience and extensive CV in the satellite communications industry, so I bow corrected by your articulate prose.

Bombs..

[Oswald McWeany]

Doesn't explain why some of the structures have heavy bomb damage.

Assuming no foreign power has been bombing China- I can't fathom why China would bomb their own calibration units.

(unless it was to test what would happen- before an enemy did it to them)

Re:Bombs..

[kvvbassboy]

Assuming their long term plan is autonomous aircraft fighters (as is with other military superpowers), they wouldn't want entire fleets to fail because their calibration site was sabotaged or damaged.

Re:Bombs..

[fragfoo]

Assuming their long term plan is autonomous aircraft fighters (as is with other military superpowers), they wouldn't want entire fleets to fail because their calibration site was sabotaged or damaged.

Yes but this way is "easy" to know were the calibration units are. If it was some random existing structure it would be harder to tell.

Re:Bombs..

[BitZtream]

Yes, they drop bombs there.

Its a bombing range. Used to practice bomb drops by the Chinese military.

Re:Bombs..

[demonbug]

Doesn't explain why some of the structures have heavy bomb damage.

Assuming no foreign power has been bombing China- I can't fathom why China would bomb their own calibration units.

(unless it was to test what would happen- before an enemy did it to them)

Could just be for training in photo/radar interpretation for damage assessment, etc. Seems reasonable to set up a few "known" scenarios so you can train the people (or software) that will be dealing with the actual intelligence product. Probably helpful to see the results of a few known explosions when you are trying to determine how big a bomb France dropped on Libya that one time (actually, France didn't drop any ordnance on Libya; they merely surrendered it from altitude).

Re:Bombs..

[icebike]

Doesn't explain why some of the structures have heavy bomb damage.

Assuming no foreign power has been bombing China- I can't fathom why China would bomb their own calibration units.

(unless it was to test what would happen- before an enemy did it to them)

Its pretty clear this is a heavily bombed area, the whole vicinity is riddled with bomb craters. Just a few clicks away from the strange lines is a
runway mock-up, with a shadow mock-up offset from it. Exploring this area you can zoom in on this target ad see what appears to b missile booster stages laying around, generally facing east-to-west. They can't be tanker trucks, because they are narrower than the nearby dirt road tracks.

Zooming out from that link shows the two mock airfields.

I'm sure all the major intelligence agencies of the world have very much better photos than these.

Re:Bombs..

[pclminion]

Doesn't explain why some of the structures have heavy bomb damage.

It's a reasonable expectation that they would want to test how well their calibration devices work even if the enemy drops bombs on them.

Re:Bombs..

[davcorp]

Unless the damage was FROM the satellite *wink* *wink*...

Re:Bombs..

[anubi]

Yes. I am convinced this is a bomb target for calibration of "smart bombs".

Basically, you would feed images into your bomb, showing it the path it is to follow and exactly where it is to end up.

In the event of a war, you really cannot expect your enemy to continue to broadcast GPS and homing information for you.

I would suspect all "space-based" assistance would be quickly rendered useless by a few tons of pea-gravel launched into an elliptical polar orbit.

I could see where smart bomb guidance systems could be a by-product of the 3D video gaming industry. Since they have the foundries and production factories in China, this may pose quite a problem for countries who have exported and laid off their technical talent.

Re:Bombs..

[marcosdumay]

Then you'd see a city sized crater, not an exploded buiding.

Re:Bombs..

[Martin Blank]

GPS is now so heavily used by so many segments of the civilian world that no nation can afford its loss unless it was about to be annihilated. The more precise signals can be re-encrypted, as they were for a long time, but the basic signal is too ingrained for the US to completely shut down GPS (or remove all access to it).

Re:Bombs..

[Jarik C-Bol]

you never repurposed anything? Perhaps the area once was a bomb range (cold war era perhaps) and they have repurposed these vast tracts of government owned land into satellite calibration areas. Hell, look at this:
http://g.co/maps/39mhb
That is near where i live. On google earth it looks like an air base mockup. from the ground, you can't even see the thing. That *was* an air base about 50 years ago. Now its a few foundations and a crumbling runway. Things look a lot different from above.

Re:Bombs..

[Anonymous Coward]

If you were going to calibrate your secret military satellites, wouldn't you do it somewhere the military has complete control? A bombing range would be the perfect spot - and no need to worry about trespassers either.

Re:Bombs..

[Anonymous Coward]

(As anonymous as I've moderated here)

If China goes to war with the US, the first step is to annihilate GPS capabilities with satellite killers. A big chunk of the US war machine is GPS driven, and if you have a capability to operate without GPS and still hit your targets then you have an advantage.

Re:Bombs..

[ctid]

The article does explain this.

Re:Bombs..

[rioki]

Absolutely. It depends on the scope of the war. If we enter a war against china and GPS must be shut off for civilian use, so no one else can use it, it will be suddenly very patriotic to use a map. Sure China will probably try to kill the entire system, just to gain the advantage.

Re:Bombs..

[Patch86]

A big chunk of the US war machine is GPS driven, and if you have a capability to operate without GPS and still hit your targets then you have an advantage.

That's a big "if". Much of the US military uses GPS, but is capable of falling back to more traditional methods. The Chinese military is likely to be just as reliant on GPS, and just as able to utilise fall backs.

The advantage of destroying GPS would probably be relatively minimal, but the disruption it'd cause to civilian operation (including in China) would be huge.

Re:Bombs..

[davcorp]

If it was explosive oridinance, not a precision laser. :) (with Shark attached hopefully)

Re:Bombs..

[RivenAleem]

That's no satellite!

Re:Bombs..

[marcosdumay]

That is for a kinetic payoff (just dropping stuff from the satelite). I can't even imagine how do you fire any other thing?

Re:Bombs..

[AngryDeuce]

Totally off-topic, but I wonder why the trees/bushes are growing predominately on the remains of the runways? It's almost like an agar plate with the way they follow it.

Re:Bombs..

[tmarsh86]

Most likely it is the material in the concrete used for the surface, which includes water.

Re:Bombs..

[NickDanger3rdEye]

Totally off-topic, but I wonder why the trees/bushes are growing predominately on the remains of the runways? It's almost like an agar plate with the way they follow it.

Off-topic speculative answer: the old runways might help to retain or channel any moisture, more so than the surrounding area, giving more vegetation a chance to grow for a longer period of time.

Re:Bombs..

[Coren22]

(actually, France didn't drop any ordnance on Libya; they merely surrendered it from altitude).

As a descendant of the French, I laughed at this joke.

Re:Bombs..

[Jarik C-Bol]

you win. the water runs off the runways to the edges or it, or into the cracks, making those areas get a higher net amount of water than the surrounding terrain, so more grows there. You see it along the highways here also, the bar pit is all green, and a few meters past it is all brown.

I'm sure I'm going to get nuked for this...

[Anonymous Coward]

But don't they have cities, airfields, etc. in China already? Why not just use an existing site as a target? I'm sure it wasn't free to build all that stuff.

Re:I'm sure I'm going to get nuked for this...

[X0563511]

Well, it's a bombing range too, apparently.

I wouldn't doubt they used it as an exercise engineer corp as well.

Re:I'm sure I'm going to get nuked for this...

[AHuxley]

Less intrusive emissions? A tiny National Radio Quiet Zone to test their spy sats mb?

Re:I'm sure I'm going to get nuked for this...

[rioki]

Like the Chinese have any problem with cheap labor?

Re:I'm sure I'm going to get nuked for this...

[Patch86]

A lot of people have pointed out that some targets are bomb damaged, others have military jets parked in the middle, etc. Odds are they're using the sites to test their equipment in all sorts of novel set-ups, recreating "enemy bases", seeing how their equipment deals with random craters in the image, and so forth. Not the sort of thing it'd be easy to replicate just by taking pictures of existing sites.

Why Needed?

[wisnoskij]

And why would these be needed. There are already many structures easily visible form space and static, so why not just use one of those?

Re:Why Needed?

[Hatta]

Ancient Chinese espionage secret.

Re:Why Needed?

[kvvbassboy]

Also, why would need to be something that is "visible" in the first place. A few tens of randomly placed antenna arrays should be enough no?

Re:Why Needed?

[Oswald McWeany]

If they did that the US would spend their military budget on building weapons instead of trying to figure out what the Chinese were up to.

Re:Why Needed?

[Anonymous Coward]

great wall of china

Re:Why Needed?

[dido]

Well, from reading the article, I gather that it's because they might have needed something bigger because the resolution on their spy satellites is not that good. FTFA: "The calibration targets are larger than might have been expected, he said, suggesting that the satellite cameras they are being used to calibrate have surprisingly poor ground resolution."

Re:Why Needed?

[Oswald McWeany]

Perhaps they were worried about hacking. After all the US has had satellites hacked. It would cost more to duplicate their calibration patterns (and couldn't be put up on the fly).

Antenna arrays could be duplicated and potentially be portable.

Re:Why Needed?

[demonbug]

And why would these be needed. There are already many structures easily visible form space and static, so why not just use one of those?

Lots of reasons for purpose-built ones. You know exact dimensions, they can be made any size/shape/color/material necessary to test the specifics of your imaging system, and they are presumably placed in the desert because there is rarely cloud cover - so good availability. Trying to use various existing objects/places presents all sorts of additional variables that they may wish to avoid.

Re:Why Needed?

[wisnoskij]

But if there was absolutely nothing on earth they these poor cameras could see clearly then how are they useful in the first place?

Re:Why Needed?

[dido]

Calibration is one thing, and actually seeing shit is something else. Maybe they just wanted to make calibration easy with a big easy target to calibrate against.

Re:Why Needed?

[TWX]

Who wants some Wang?!

Re:Why Needed?

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, even with dictatorial powers in hand, trying to keep a bunch of existing structures the same for an arbitrary period of time has to be a hassle. Wang Ho hangs out his laundry or harvests the rice. The whole test is screwed up!

Re:Why Needed?

[Anonymous Coward]

i love you lol

Re:Why Needed?

[X0563511]

Because you have corps that build things that need exorcise too? Might as well have one big project with multiple uses.

Logistics guys get practice... logisticing?
Engineer guys get practice building.
Sat guys get free calibration and practice doing their stuff.
Bombardiers and other munitions guys get practice shooting at it.
Intel guys get practice doing damage assessments.
R&D probably gets a chance to test a bunch of stuff, too.

The list goes on. The question is "why not?"

Re:Why Needed?

[FhnuZoag]

Then again, maybe they are intended to make the US think that, when the real satellites use actually smaller targets, or calibrate using only a sub-portion of the grid?

Re:Why Needed?

[Anonymous Coward]

The same reason we use our own calibration markings out in Arizona. Structures can catch fire, be knocked over by an earthquake, be carried away by a tornado. Lines on the ground, if wiped away by a flood, are faster and easier to replace.

Re:Why Needed?

[Anonymous Coward]

rabbits!

Re:Why Needed?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because you have corps that build things that need exorcise too?

The devil is in the details.

Re:Why Needed?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dibs on the movie rights!

Re:Why Needed?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Chinese just like to replicate things.

Re:Why Needed?

[Anonymous Coward]

The list goes on. The question is "why not?"

- There are already alternative structures free to use.
- This structure could be either sabotaged or trivially replicated at a different location.
- Other structures don't give away that you're calibrating spy satellites of an approximate resolution.
- I should imagine mage processing to find such an area is relatively awkward compared to triangulating radio wave signals.

And probably a ton of other reasons I haven't thought of, but I'd expect the Chinese to have considered.

It'd make more sense to me if it was used for something like guided missiles picking out a house on a street. Who cares then if it's destroyed or replicated and short of actually sticking buildings there it would seem to be exactly what you'd build to test such a thing. And apparently the area is a bombing range to boot.

It's really a pricetag

[Anonymous Coward]

Magrathea is back in business.

I'm not buying it

[Anonymous Coward]

I still say it's alien crop circles so they can signal each other about the coming attack. I think M Night was on to something. The one thing we learned from "Signs" is aliens can't work door nobs so I added door nobs to my car doors in case I'm caught out on the road when the attack happens. I'm still trying to figure out how to strap a closet on to the back of my car as a panic room so I can be truly safe. I already have my super soaker loaded and ready and a baby monitor so I can spy on them.

Re:I'm not buying it

[DrgnDancer]

You know that's great, but what are you going to do about zombies?

Re:I'm not buying it

[Zancarius]

Carry a jar of pickled brains.

Stupid China

[Anonymous Coward]

In Soviet Russia, spy satellite calibrates YOU!

Re:Stupid China

[maiki]

Yes, but in Red China, the ### ######### calibrates ### !

Expert?

[naturaverl]

And how exactly is a NASA scientist an expert of Chinese spy satellite technology? Just wondering.

Re:Expert?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe he is an expert on US spy satellite technology... which the Chinese stole?

Re:Expert?

[Anonymous Coward]

Which the Chinese bought. /fixed

Clinton, Bush W. and Obama have all sold us out.

Re:Expert?

[amicusNYCL]

Maybe he's just assuming that's what it is because he's familiar with the satellite calibration patterns that the US used with Corona in the 60s. Or maybe it's just a guess.

Re:Expert?

[AHuxley]

The US gov did have some non spy satellite too.
Map Soviet harvests, drug plantations - funded as agricultural satellites.

Re:Expert?

[Anonymous Coward]

Um, because NASA is an instrument of the US government, and the US gov keeps track of Chinese military technologies.

Re:Expert?

[pushing-robot]

Because this calibration field is for our satellites. We outsourced it. We also outsourced the satellites.

Re:Expert?

[cujo_1111]

Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, H. W. Bush, Clinton, W. Bush, Obama have all been selling you out

Seriously?

[OverlordQ]

This was my first thought when seeing the pictures. It looks like a giant test pattern used for cameras, given the size, likely satellite photography.

Too bad...

[Anonymous Coward]

I was hoping it was a mass grave to hold the bodies of at least three-quarters-of-a-billion Chinese people.

Would you trust Fox news?

[sammcj]

/really?

Re:Would you trust Fox news?

[schnogg]

No. I can't believe that slashdot actually linked to foxnews.com

Painted roads and buildings

[BitZtream]

The 'structures' are lines painted on the ground used for target practice.

Its a documented bomb range with an airport and a simulated airport to bomb as well.

If you bother to zoom out on Google Maps you can figure it out fairly quickly, oh and a few Google searchs will reveal that we've known this for years.

Re:Painted roads and buildings

[TWX]

The 'structures' are lines painted on the ground used for target practice.

Its a documented bomb range with an airport and a simulated airport to bomb as well.

I hope they don't get the two confused! That would make for a whole helluva lot of paperwork...

Indian government, take note

[sonamchauhan]

Free satellite calibration provided over China

Re:Indian government, take note

[hellkyng]

Chinese government goes open source with spy calibration tools!

Nope.

[bunratty]

Alien landing zones? Some military thingy? Bizarre art project? Nope.

Chuck Testa.

I am not fooled.

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Thats what they want you to think. No one can stop me from imagining the most paranoid delusional scenario. It is a free country and I have the freedom to be fearful of future, gays, the 99% hippies, the mexicans. I will not be pacified, I will not be ameliorated, I will not be persuaded from using words like ameliorated, It is my time, It is my mind, and I'm gonna blow it on the most trivial stuff.

Hmmm is the Godi neutral gray as well?

[FlyingGuy]

Talk about your white balance target!

Yep!

[Greyfox]

Thanks, China! I now know that all my spy satellites are perfectly calibrated. You can take those things down now, if you want to.

Re:Happy Holidays from the Golden Girls!

[Taty'sEyes]

this first post is something i've seen now for many weeks. it is always the same, with the same cosmonaut mistake. and sure enough, several posts correcting the mistake. my question, is this some running gag like 'in soviet russia'? just trying to keep up with any /. inside jokes. sorry no caps as i'm eating a whopper with the other hand. smile

It's the queers.

[El Puerco Loco]

They're in it with the aliens. They're building landing strips for gay martians. I swear to God.

Re:It's the queers.

[Anonymous Coward]

Stuart!

Re:It's the queers.

[Anonymous Coward]

and just look at what they are doing to the soil

-stewart

Lies!! Chinese are secretly Scientologists!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Long live the great Xenu! We await his return.

More

[Anonymous Coward]

There are lots of unusual 'structures' in that area

Two lots of crazy mosaic

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.458679,93.31314%09&hl=en&ll=40.45792,93.387995&spn=0.024915,0.054932&sll=40.458018,93.392587&sspn=0.0208,0.040426&vpsrc=6&t=h&z=15

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.458679,93.31314%09&hl=en&ll=40.451617,93.741703&spn=0.024917,0.054932&sll=40.458018,93.392587&sspn=0.0208,0.040426&vpsrc=6&t=h&z=15

Airbases on a vast scale, with no runway markings or buildings.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.458679,93.31314%09&hl=en&ll=40.477574,93.506269&spn=0.049815,0.109863&sll=40.458018,93.392587&sspn=0.0208,0.040426&vpsrc=6&t=h&z=14

Things that look like huge bombed mirrors

And just weird.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.458679,93.31314%09&hl=en&ll=40.490896,93.510714&spn=0.001556,0.003433&sll=40.458018,93.392587&sspn=0.0208,0.040426&vpsrc=6&t=h&z=19

Re:More

[Jarik C-Bol]

the trouble with these places, is because its in the desert, and has so little around it, getting a sense of scale is rather tricky. Sure, there is the little bar that says '50m is this much' in the corner, but it is not the same as having something of a known size (like a car, or a municipal street) in the image to compare to.

Re:More

[strength_of_10_men]

...getting a sense of scale is rather tricky.

Use Google earth. It has a measuring tool that's surprisingly accurate. For kicks I used it to measure a local (American) football field and it was accurate almost to the foot.

Re:Happy Holidays from the Golden Girls!

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope, it's just a 4chan meta-troll known as "copy pasta."

This would fall under the categories of: Troll
Copy Pasta
Forced Meme

...as forced as it is it can spread. As stupid as anyone likely thinks it is there will come a time when it will eventually become amusing. Either via the sheer absurdity of the many absurd factors involved in it's continued existence or out of spite for those same factors. I've seen it happen, it's happened to me. Revel in it. Why not? You'll laugh eventually either way. Any display of disdain will only make it more frequent anyway.

Re:Happy Holidays from the Golden Girls!

[Roachie]

In Soviet Russia whopper eat YOU!

They're for people, not satellites...

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's my theory about the weird assemblage of lines and angles.

They are to test the people tasked with interpreting imagery from spy satellites -- not the optics of the satellites themselves.

Here's how it would work:

1. The powers-that-be paint lines of varying lengths intersecting at varying angles, and over a non-flat surface (note the evidence of water drainage over some of the lines).

2. They use their spy satellites to capture imagery of the lines at various distances and elevations.

3. Their interpreters use these images to reconstruct the lengths/angles of the various lines.

4. The powers-that-be check the interpreters' reconstructions with what they know was actually painted on ground.

5. The interpreters learn how to accurately reconstruct measurements from spy satellite imagery, and thereby gain knowledge of what other countries are doing.

6. Profit! (or something) :-)

Re:Happy Holidays from the Golden Girls!

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope :) The official lyrics are "confidant", but if you listen closely to the GG theme song, they actually did say "cosmonaut" in the third season. That was an inside joke (Bea Arthur's husband at the time was, in fact, Russian (defected) and a cosmonaut)

Great Chinese Desert Mystery

[Anonymous Coward]

And I was all ready for an article on "fortune cookies." Maybe I need to see the eye doctor.

More explainations at SPON

[gentryx]

I'll just quickly link to the German news site Spiegel Online where they've summarized the clues of a number of experts. Google translation here.

Crash Landing

[Frosty Piss]

Are you sure they are Chinese bombs? Perhaps they are UFO crash landings?

Re:Crash Landing

[Anonymous Coward]

That's exactly what the lizard people WANT you to think!

Re:Crash Landing

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't say they have UFOs (at least not the alien kind), but it would make sense that China has it's own equivalent to Area 51 and places like White Sands.

trusting fox news

[Anonymous Coward]

hahahaha wow

Ah!

[Black Parrot]

So now we know what the Nazca lines were for.

Saber rattling on a giant scale

[Lexx Greatrex]

China had better build all the infrastructure they can afford before the west defaults on their debts. When that happens, rattling a few sabers will be the only fallback China will have.

Giant antenna array

[l00sr]

Dammit, is nobody else interested in the giant antenna array?

Re:Giant antenna array

[braindrainbahrain]

I am. let me know what you discover. See also, this antenna array, which looks a lot like HAARP or maybe the SHARE Antenna:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.458679,93.31314%09&hl=en&ll=40.474701,93.509531&spn=0.053604,0.132093&sll=40.458018,93.392587&sspn=0.0208,0.040426&vpsrc=6&t=h&z=14

ugh!

[toby]

You linked to FOX News...

(which is, if nothing else, predictably consistent about whipping up paranoia about the Chinese Menace...wonder who benefits from that?)

Re:Happy Holidays from the Golden Girls!

[Anonymous Coward]

GNAA was mildly amusing...
Then someone made an RIAA spoof complete with the ascii art and all that hit it right out of the park.

Military thingy?

[ArundelCastle]

Some military thingy? Nope.

Tags: military

Do we distinguish government intelligence ops from the military? Even when they involve China? Even when they involve orbital satellites?

New tag: spymantics

spy satellite calibration!?!?!?! c'mooooon!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

so.. Chinese spy satellites are like joysticks in Windows '95.... they need calibration to work!!!! hahahhahaha by far the funniest thing i read this year

Well, he might be an expert...

[DerekLyons]

Well, he might be an expert in something regarding Mars, but he knows nothing about camera calibration targets.

Because this (the array of lines) is what a camera calibration target looks like. The lines let you test for distortion, the spacing between the lines lets you test for resolution. Just like TV test patterns they're carefully designed to present exactly the features you want to test for. They aren't semi random fractal patterns, and they aren't allowed to degrade the way the ones in the Chines desert have.

The same goes for his "radar test target" - it looks precisely nothing like how aircraft normally appear on flight lines or adjacent to hangars.

Re:Well, he might be an expert...

[Anonymous Coward]

From the linked article: "Satellite cameras focus on the grids, which measure approximately 0.65 miles wide by 1.15 miles long, and use them to orient themselves in space."
Not to calibrate cameras but to let a satellite know where it is, which way it is facing and how high/fast it is, without GPS etc.
Like in this N95 augmented reality game. http://youtu.be/zyWVH6jkDHg
The ground grid can be read by a low res camera, and the angles, parallax etc enable the satellite to determine its position and attitude.

Chinese Leni Riefenstahl

[Anonymous Coward]

Chinese Leni Riefenstahl www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP33K72nmDo

Soon they'll dance all over you

A link to fox news?

[Anonymous Coward]

Really? Disgusting.

Nah, it's just FSM messin' with ya

[bryan1945]

But watch out for the space pirates. Some of them even steal ice.

Artefact

[GerryHattrick]

Don't believe it - why would they say that? Look at the edge definition. These are overlays - you couldn't be that consistent on bumpy ground with whitewash. Particularly obvious on the 'airfields', someone's used a special marker-pen on the photos.

Re:Artefact

[Anonymous Coward]

Go to 40.45089444,93.73541389 in Google Earth, which is next to one of the calibration targets, and go back to 4/14/2005 in the historical imagery. What you can see there looks to mee like lorries, containers, a water basin next to the place where the paint probably is prepared, and a lot of white stuff has spread out over the ground around it. The calibration target (to the east) is half finished.

At 40.450375,93.74040556 you can clearly see that crossing a bump isn't perfect. Different historical images aren't photographed from exactly the same direction.

More oddities

[Bazman]

So can anyone tell me what the circled numbers 1 to 5 are:

here

40ft across, irregularly spaced, close to something the size of a soccer/football field.

Image processing problem

[Misagon]

I think that what we see on Google Maps is just a weird composition of several satellite images taken at days when the mountains were covered by snow and on days when there was no snow. That's it.

Re:Image processing problem

[V-similitude]

I have a feeling it might be something like this as well. I also almost guarantee that Google sticks some falsities in their images to catch people who might try to represent them as their own. Though I imagine they'd be more subtle than this . . . but who knows.

Chinese window grammar?

[braindrainbahrain]

If you follow enough links as provided by slashdotters above, you will eventually find this one on the subject of Chinese window lattice designs of the 19th century:

http://web.mit.edu/~haldane/www/icerays/

Does Type II look familiar? There is even code for you to generate your own geometric window grille.

See also this link:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/u41779k5083148p7

Baigong Pipes

[Anonymous Coward]

Baigong Pipes... now that's a real mystery for skeptics to chew on. http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4181

Makes sense...

[hesaigo999ca]

Really makes sense when you think of it, I do not know why they did not think of this 20 years ago!.....maybe could have avoided many collisions up there??

the future

[Anonymous Coward]

Well it's certainly going to confuse the hell out of archaeologists and others in a few thousand years

Real estate development?

[Animats]

It's going to be embarrassing if this turns out just to be a failed real estate development. China has those too.

Compare this image from Google Maps. There's a nice "alignment target" in the middle of nowhere. It was supposed to be an industrial park near Dubai, but never got beyond road building. The China one looks like a project that never got beyond bulldozer stage.

Buzz kill

[Anonymous Coward]

You folks know you're harshing my mellow. The World News or the ilk laid claim that these pattern were proof POSITIVE that the aliens had landed. Thanks you alien buzz killing clods!

Re:Happy Holidays from the Golden Girls!

[Anonymous Coward]

Copypasta out dates 4chan by several years buddy. Not only were the japs, from which 4chan comes calling it Kopipe (read: copy-pa[ste]) in the mid 90's, but the GNAA was doing it on slashdot in 2000. More importantly though, it was basically just crossposting from usenet.