• Product catalogue
  •  
  •  
  •  

Summary of imagery analyses for non-natural objects in support of the search for Flight MH370: results from the analysis of imagery from the PLEIADES 1A satellite undertaken by Geoscience Australia

On 8 March 2014, the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft registered as Malaysia Airlines 9M-MRO and operating as flight MH370 (MH370) disappeared from air traffic control radar after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on a scheduled passenger service to Beijing, China with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board.


After analysis of satellite data it was discovered that MH370 continued to fly for over six hours after contact was lost. All the available data indicates the aircraft entered the sea close to a long but narrow arc of the southern Indian Ocean.


On 31 March 2014, following an extensive sea and air search, the Malaysian Government accepted the Australian Government’s offer to take the lead in the search and recovery operation in the southern Indian Ocean in support of the Malaysian accident investigation.


On behalf of Australia, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) coordinated and led the search operations for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean. Geoscience Australia (GA) provided advice, expertise and support to the ATSB in sea floor mapping (bathymetric survey) and the underwater search. In March 2017 GA was subsequently asked by the ATSB to provide advice and scientific expertise in the analysis of satellite imagery (PLEIADES 1A) (Source: French Military Intelligence Service © CNES) for the detection of possible non-natural objects. All enquiries regarding the overall search should be directed to the ATSB (atsbinfo@atsb.gov.au). atsbinfo@atsb.gov On behalf of Australia, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) coordinated and led the search operations for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean. Geoscience Australia (GA) provided advice, expertise and support to the ATSB in sea floor mapping (bathymetric survey) and the underwater search. In March 2017 GA was subsequently asked by the ATSB to provide advice and scientific expertise in the analysis of satellite imagery (PLEIADES 1A) (Source: French Military Intelligence Service © CNES) for the detection of possible non-natural objects. All enquiries regarding the overall search should be directed to the ATSB (atsbinfo@atsb.gov.au).

Simple

Identification info

Date (Creation)
2017-06-01T11:00:00
Date (Publication)
2017-08-16T11:00:00
Date (Revision)
2019-05-12T23:55:15
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/111041

Citation identifier
Digital Object Identifier/http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2017.013

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Author

Minchin, S.

1
Co-author

Mueller, N.

2
Co-author

Lewis, A.

3
Co-author

Byrne, G.

4
Co-author

Tran, M.

5
Name

Record

Issue identification

2017/013

Status
Point of contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Owner

Minchin, S.

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
Owner

Lewis, A.

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
Point of contact

Mueller, N.

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
Point of contact

Tran, M.

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
Spatial representation type
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information

Extent

N
S
E
W


Maintenance and update frequency
Not planned

Resource format

Title

Product data repository: Various Formats

Website

Data Store directory containing the digital product files

Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes

Discipline
  • earth observation

Product
  • satellite imagery

Project
  • mh370

Platform
  • PLEIADES 1A satellite

Sub-Topic Category
  • image object detection

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification: Fields of Research
  • Earth Sciences

Keywords
  • Published_External

Resource constraints

Title

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Alternate title

CC-BY

Edition

4.0

Website

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Access constraints
License
Use constraints
License

Resource constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Distributor

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
OnLine resource

Download the Record (pdf)

Download the Record (pdf)

Distribution format
  • pdf

Resource lineage

Statement

The Centre national d'edtudes spatiales (CNES) and the French military intelligence service is acknowledged as the source of the PLEIADES 1A earth observation products. Geoscience Australia is responsible for the analyses conducted in the report. On behalf of Australia, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) coordinated and led the search operations for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean. Geoscience Australia (GA) provided advice, expertise and support to the ATSB in sea floor mapping (bathymetric survey) and the underwater search. In March 2017 GA was subsequently asked to provide advice and scientific expertise in the analysis of satellite imagery (PLEIADES 1A) (©CNES) for the detection of possible floating objects in support of the search for MH370.

Hierarchy level
Document

Metadata constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/96f5e354-8ed8-4ffe-a947-3a6c786a6d65

Title

GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Mueller, N.

Point of contact

Tran, M.

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice

Type of resource

Resource scope
Document

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/111041

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/96f5e354-8ed8-4ffe-a947-3a6c786a6d65

Date info (Creation)
2017-06-02T04:03:05
Date info (Revision)
2018-04-20T06:00:27

Metadata standard

Title

AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-3

Title

Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014

Edition

Version 2.0, September 2018

Citation identifier
https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551

 
 

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

PLEIADES 1A satellite earth observation image object detection mh370 satellite imagery
Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification: Fields of Research
Earth Sciences

Provided by

Access to the portal
Read here the full details and access to the data.

Associated resources

Not available


  •  
  •  
  •