Burned or not burned, that is the question
A field south of Snizhne is according JIT the launch location where the BUK missile was launched from. Satellite photos indicate a corner of a field was either burned or ploughed at July 21 2014 while at July 16 it was still not changed compared to the rest of the field.
Some have doubts about if the field was indeed put on fire as a result of the missile launch. This post will investigate what likely has happened at July 17, 2014.
TL;DR
It is extremely unlikely the satellite images made by a satellite operated by Digital Globe and images made by a Landsat satellite operated by USGS/NASA were modified.
So we assume the northwesterly corner of the field indeed looks different than the rest.
Most likely the ears of the wheat was burned but the stems were mostly not burned. When viewed from a satellite the soil is black because of the burns.
The triangle shaped field itself was not ploughed. Only the borders were ploughed to prevent the fire from spreading further.
Introduction
Telegraph reporter Roland Oliphant together with Christopher Miller of Mashable went to the launch location at July 22. He initially published in 2014 two photos showing burn marks in a field. However it was not possible to exactly pinpoint where the photos were made. Telegraph also published a video showing the field.
Many other journalists visited the area. A collection of photos and videos are here.
Michael Kobs, a German citizen who researches MH17 in his spare time, made this image showing the point of view of the photos made by Oliphant and Miller
In September 2016 The Telegraph made public two previously unpublished photos showing the burned patch of field. This is the area which is at the edge of the field. It is not the area near a lone tree where the BUK TELAR was likely positioned when the missile was launched.
Michael Kobs, a German who does a lot of investigation into MH17, noticed that the September 26 photos at frst sight do not show any indication of burn marks or plough marks in the corner of the field. However, Google Earth satellite images shows that at July 21 the corner of the field looks different than the rest of the field!
It is hard to explain with certainty what caused this strange colour difference.
There are a couple of possibilities
- The burned wheat shows from a satellite a different colour than from groud level. This because of the nadir (angle) of the satellite camera point of view towards earth
- the field was never burned nor ploughed before July 22 2014
- Digital Globe adjusted the image colours to make it more easy to spot the field was burned or ploughed
JIT could not do investigation of the field in the first couple of months. In the September 28 2016 press conference JIT stated that “according eyewitness the field was ploughed’. This cannot be the case based on the Oliphant photo.
Lets look at the most likely option.
Option 1: the field was burned but only the ears of the wheat
The photos below were taken from a crop field that was on fire. This is the article the photos were published in. The photos show almost intact stems while the ears are cut off and the soil is burned. It is clear that this field looks from above like a dark field.
This is an image of a wheat field in France which burned. Same effect here. Stems are still intact but more black than a field which did not burn.
The complete story here. Thx Slozhny for the comment!
Very likely the density of the wheat as seen from the Oliphant photo prevents to see the black soil. From a satellite photo it could be well visible that the soil can be seen as the density of wheat is reduced in the triangle shaped corner of the field.
On the right of the photo below the soil can be spotted. The burned area is coloured more black than the area on the right of the burned patch, oval sized piece of land. This can be seen on the satellite photo as well.
Hector Reban asked Christopher Miller a couple of questions via Twitter in October 2016. These are the replies of Miller . He confirms the larger swath of land was burned. Miller did not notice a burned patch of land near the sole tree.
Digital Globe on July 20 made a photo of the area. The area of the field showed a different colour at that day.
The compilation below was made by Michael Kobs.
Dutch RTL had the satellite images analysed by experts. They concluded the field was ploughed and hardly any straw was left on the field. The report is here.
The image below was taken by a Landsat satellite at July 21 2014. It clearly shows a dark field. The darkness is such it cannot be a burned field with remains of straw. It almost certainly must have the colours of a ploughed field. However the Oliphant picture taken at July 22 (so the next day after the photo below was made) does not show any sign of ploughing.
The image below shows the area where the BUK TELAR was positioned. The traces of the tracks are visible. This because the BUK TELAR was parked and the tracks prevented the wheat to catch fire. The area to the right show more black patches. This is likely where the fire started as a result of the missile launch.
A ploughed field looks like this
BBC filmed using a drone the field in autumn 2015 (around October 10) . The video below shows that drone footage. According the BBC the field was ploughed when they filmed. There are no stems to be seen anymore.
At around 37:40 in the BBC Documentary “The Conspiracy Files. Who Shot Down MH17” the field can be seen.
At 51 minutes into the video the drone footage can be seen
The landsat image taken at October 5 2015 , about 5 days before BBC took the drone footage, looks as shown below. The field was ploughed between September 27 and October 4.
The camera’s white balance was set incorrectly. Looks at the color histogram. The sky area was taken for being white. Auto white balance applied to the part of the photo without the sky area gives this result: http://i.imgur.com/UwPg1rS.jpg
An example of a burned wheat field:
http://www.ouest-france.fr/sites/default/files/styles/image-640/public/2015/08/07/entre-deux-et-trois-hectares-de-cereales-ont-brule_0.jpg
From http://www.ouest-france.fr/bretagne/chateaulin-29150/feu-moguerou-entre-deux-et-trois-hectares-de-cereales-ont-brule-3608068
Originals of Oliphant/Miller’s photos with EXIF:
http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/image-3.jpeg
http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/image-4.jpeg
http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/image_5.jpeg
http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/image_7.jpeg
On the photo http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/image_5.jpeg
from top to bottom: blue sky, green trees, bright yellow (a thin line), dark yellow, black.
The black is completely bare soil.
The bright yellow is intact almost ripe wheat: ears on top of stems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear_%28botany%29
The dark yellow is stems only, ears burnt off. It’s dark yellow when seen along earth surface. If seen from above or 30-50 degrees off-nadir, much more black soil is visible between stems. Black soil is not visible through intact ears.
At missile launch near the lone tree, the missile has set ears on fire. Stems were not completely dry yet, so ears burnt off, stems remained. The wind (from east to west) carried the fire westward until field borders.
http://nos.nl/artikel/2035923-in-het-spoor-van-de-buk.html
Google translation: They confirm that the field has been on fire on the 17th of July. At the end of the day they were called by their boss to the field to plow to prevent would burn down the whole field. They say they do not know what caused the fire.
The farmers plowed only a line to serve as a firewall. The line between the dark triangle on satellite photos and the rest of the field. The entire area of the dark triangle wasn’t plowed then. Entire field (including the triangle) was plowed in 2015.
On http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/lena_from_kiev/45105459/2201/2201_original.jpg
I marked the lone tree, bright TELAR traces at missile launch (wheat protected from fire by TELAR tracks on them) and dark spot of soil burned at missile launch. Faint traces of TELAR tracks when the TELAR drove onto the field and back are wheat mashed into soil surface by TELAR tracks.
Interesting how much darker the burnt field looks when viewed from a drone vs from ground.
And the density of dried vegetation affect greatly to the darkness of the soil after it has burned.
+in the end… the fire could have started from many source.
1) BUK launch
2) camp fire
3) cigarette
4) fighter jet flare
5) deliberate fire to cover tracks
etc…
Too bad JIT did not reveal any soil sample results. Perhaps samples told them nothing vs BUK launch. So, BUK launch location was most likely determined by eyewitness+simulation+four plume photographs and then corroborated by SBIRS/SIGNT data.
Remains of a large barley crop field fire at Old Manor Farm, East Ruston:
http://www.edp24.co.uk/polopoly_fs/1.4184627.1438926789!/image/image.jpg
http://www.edp24.co.uk/polopoly_fs/1.4184628.1438926793!/image/image.jpg
From http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/warning_of_farm_fire_dangers_as_balloon_blamed_for_destroying_10_000_of_crops_1_4184634