Routine Data Analysis Helped Inmarsat Pinpoint MH370's Path

[FarCenter]

Inmarsat leveraged a “groundbreaking but traditional mathematics-based process” to analyze data from other flights that use its satellite network and establish a pattern that helped investigators nail down Malaysia Airlines Flight 370’s (MH370) final flight path as traveling south over the Indian Ocean, an Inmarsat executive explains.

Inmarsat’s initial analysis, handed over to investigators on March 11, helped investigators establish the now-famous northern and southern arcs as possible flight corridors for MH370 after it dropped off radar on March 8 over the Andaman Sea.

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A key calculation done by Inmarsat was determining the “Doppler shift” in the ping, or the slight change in the frequency of the signal caused by the movement of the aircraft relative to the satellite in space.

“From that process – a compression or an expansion of the wavelengths – you can determine whether the aircraft is getting closer or farther away,” McLaughlin explains. “It’s been a groundbreaking but traditional mathematics-based process that was then peer-reviewed by others in the space industry, and indeed contributed to by Boeing.”

The data analyzed was generated by pings from MH370 to one of Inmarsat’s 10 satellites. McLaughlin likened the Inmarsat avionics and antenna on an aircraft to a mobile phone, while the applications that use the satcom link, including the Aircraft Communications and Reporting System (ACARS), are “apps.” On MH370, “the apps were turned off, but the handset wasn’t,” he explains.

Since MH370 was not sending routine communications, the Inmarsat satellite was sending hourly “polling signals” to the Boeing 777. So long as the aircraft was operating, acknowledgement signals came back. “This includes its unique identification code, and confirmation the aircraft satcom is still operating and available for communications, if required,” Inmarsat explains on its website.

Inmarsat used these signals to establish that MH370 was in the air for about 6 hr. after it lost contact. The deeper analysis helped the company and U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch investigators narrow down the final ping to a remote area over the southern Indian Ocean, in the vicinity of where search teams have been working for more than a week.

http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/awx_03_24_2014_p0-674902.xml

[longship]

1. Technology and science cuts through the speculations.

This is the first hard evidence I have read about this mystery.

BTW, fuck CNN and their black holes and other looney toons woo woo.

They may never find that plane. The Indian Ocean is deep, and they have no idea of precisely where it went down. And that area is not a friendly place to be searching. Plus, winter is approaching.