One of the main goals of our “The New Weddington Expeditionary Program” is to search the area in the general co-ordinates logged in historic sightings of the Royal Company's Islands, unclaimed territories in the Indian Ocean currently listed as 'phantom isles' and now claimed as The New Weddington Isles.
For this we have been accessing several existing commercial satellites - via a link up to the New Weddington Isles' Prime Consul ex aliena in Canberra - that track over the area from latitude 51°20′S 143°93′E to 50°87′S 144°50′E.
As the area is prone to cloud cover this project went back to 2003 in a bid to gain a tantalising glimpse of the Isles we claim. The key provider of this data is NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) which provides the capability to interactively browse over 900 global, full-resolution satellite imagery layers and then download the underlying data. We caught our first glimpse of the Isles in this area back in May (see previous blog post).
We have logged several times periods with gaps in cloud cover and, whilst it still covers some of the area, are delighted to release the latest imagery of the Isles taken on 13 August 2021.
Unfortunately we have been unable to cross match the EOSDIS satellite image to higher resolution imagery from the Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 as previously - as the feed to Landsat is temporarily offline - but we continue to monitor the satellite images. Time consuming and laborious; but we will post a full gallery on our website soon.
Whilst, realistically, setting foot on and ultimately establishing a presence on this unexplored land remains a medium to long term – but key - aim, the Expeditionary Program also covers some exciting land-based exploration projects – including an ascent to the summit of Mount Kosciuszko; Australia’s highest peak, in partnership with the Principality of Sealand later this year. More soon!
For this we have been accessing several existing commercial satellites - via a link up to the New Weddington Isles' Prime Consul ex aliena in Canberra - that track over the area from latitude 51°20′S 143°93′E to 50°87′S 144°50′E.
As the area is prone to cloud cover this project went back to 2003 in a bid to gain a tantalising glimpse of the Isles we claim. The key provider of this data is NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) which provides the capability to interactively browse over 900 global, full-resolution satellite imagery layers and then download the underlying data. We caught our first glimpse of the Isles in this area back in May (see previous blog post).
We have logged several times periods with gaps in cloud cover and, whilst it still covers some of the area, are delighted to release the latest imagery of the Isles taken on 13 August 2021.
Unfortunately we have been unable to cross match the EOSDIS satellite image to higher resolution imagery from the Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 as previously - as the feed to Landsat is temporarily offline - but we continue to monitor the satellite images. Time consuming and laborious; but we will post a full gallery on our website soon.
Whilst, realistically, setting foot on and ultimately establishing a presence on this unexplored land remains a medium to long term – but key - aim, the Expeditionary Program also covers some exciting land-based exploration projects – including an ascent to the summit of Mount Kosciuszko; Australia’s highest peak, in partnership with the Principality of Sealand later this year. More soon!