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Originally posted by ProudBird
reply to post by chardonnay
That is one airplane. The "ghost" effect seems to be a result of the satellite's camera, for some reason.
Someone out there might know the details of the sat camera, and why that occurs.
The dual color is the result of a double exposure.
The satellite that takes many of Google Earth Satellite based (high resolution) images is QuickBird it employs linear array CCDs. One set takes panchromatic images (grey scale) and the second set takes multi spectral images (MSI). The MSI imager is mounted in different physical location on the satellite so its images are acquired later in time.
These images are time re-aligned on the ground on the assumption that there are no moving objects in the field of view. As a consequence any moving object will have a colored image that appears ahead of the moving object and at lower resolutions. These images are double exposures.
If you look on highways closely where you know vehicles are traveling at 60 plus mph you will observe the same red and blue shadows. Hope this helps.
They are flying extremely low and if it is a shadow it shouldnt be sticking around longer than what its shadowing.