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> Someone once said that looking for a ship on the ocean is like trying to find your car keys in a field with a pair of binoculars. That is true if you try to
by krisoft 2y ago
> Someone once said that looking for a ship on the ocean is like trying to find your car keys in a field with a pair of binoculars.
That is true if you try to look for a ship visually. But nobody would do that. Everyone uses radar. The radar can be mounted on the shore, on a rig, on a ship, on an airplane, or on a satellite.
Or you use underwater microphones. Those can be mounted on the ocean floor, or a ship, or a submarine.
Neither of these share much with looking for your car keys with a pair of binoculars. The keys don't emit sound and the field does not transfer the sound as well as oceans do it. And the keys don't light up as nicely as a ship on a radar image. So i'm not sure what aspect of maritime surveillance does that saying illuminate.
- gorgoiler 2y agoI couldn’t find the attribution but I do remember it was regarding the disappearance of the Arctic Sea in 2009: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Arctic_Sea https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Arctic_Sea 4000 tons, 100m long, and it was lost for two weeks!
- krisoft 2y agoJust based on the wikipedia page it doesn't sound like it was lost? "After the ship's seizure the Malta Maritime Authority stated that the security committee—composed of Maltese, Finnish and Swedish authorities—were aware of the ship's location at all times, but withheld the information to protect the crew." Certainly a murky situation but doesn't feel like it demonstrates the complexity of finding a ship. Sounds like right away once someone wanted to find the ship they could find the ship no problem. Presumably using Synthetic Aperture Radar satellites and then the frigate's own radar.