Department of Defence (Australia)/AGO

MH370 DECODED
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Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation and the search for MH370

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing on Saturday, 8 March 2014.

On 17 March, the Australian Government assumed responsibility for search operations in Australia’s search and rescue region. The Department of Defence (Australia) supported the Australian Maritime Safety Authority as the lead search and rescue agency.

The Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation (AGO), is the lead geospatial and imagery intelligence organisation in the Department of Defence (Australia). The AGO became involved in the search for MH370 by analysing images of the search areas.



Background

The Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation (AGO) is the lead geospatial and imagery intelligence organisation in the Department of Defence. Its functions, as prescribed in the Intelligence Services Act 2001 (ISA), are primarily to support the Intelligence and Defence requirements of the Australian Government. However, there is provision for the AGO "To provide Commonwealth and State authorities and bodies approved by the Minister for Defence imagery and other geospatial products that are not intelligence, technical assistance and support for carrying out their emergency response functions." [1]


Satellite imagery analysis

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau summarised the role of the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation in the report The Operational Search for MH370:-

During the initial stages of the search for MH370 there was a concerted effort to identify MH370, or a possible condensation trail from the aircraft, in any available satellite imagery captured over the Malay Peninsula and the Strait of Malacca. Available satellite imagery for the Indian Ocean was also later analysed for the time of the flight and some hours after. The aircraft was not identified in any of this imagery although some possible condensation trails were identified and analysed.

During the subsequent surface search in the Indian Ocean, AMSA, with the assistance of the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation, made requests of foreign governments including France, Italy, Germany, Thailand, the People’s Republic of China and the United States to capture imagery (in various electromagnetic spectra including radar, optical and infrared) using their low earth orbiting satellites in the region of the MH370 search area. The intent was to cover as wide an area as possible with the satellites in the hope that aircraft debris floating on the ocean surface could be identified in order to focus the aerial and surface vessel search. This request was made around 15 March 2014, a week after the aircraft went missing.

Source: The Operational Search for MH370, Australian Transport Safety Bureau, 3 October 2017 ATSB-RPT-1306


AGO acknowledged in the Department of Defence Annual Report 2013-14

The Department of Defence Annual Report 2013-14 describes the role of the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation (AGO) supporting AMSA during the search for MH370, in a feature article Defence involved in search for MH370[2]. The AGO analysed satellite and other imagery:-

The AGO mobilised to take on the enormous task of searching the southern latitudes for signs of MH370. Cloud cover and the sea state made the search for floating debris challenging. The resources of partner satellite imagery organisations around the world were coordinated and approximately 850,000 square kilometres of ocean were scanned. The AGO was supported by private industry, which provided 386 images covering 1.56 million square kilometres at no cost.

The AGO’s work directly supported the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), the agency initially responsible for determining the location of the MH370 wreckage and the aircraft’s black box.

Around-the-clock reporting from the AGO helped AMSA plan daily aircraft search operations.

AMSA also received a steady stream of unsolicited debris sightings based on publicly available imagery. The AGO and partner organisations analysed this crowd-sourced imagery and provided AMSA with a confidence rating for each sighting. Using imagery analysis, the AGO was able to narrow down the list of more than 300 crowd-sourced sightings to two low-confidence identifications.

When the aerial search ended on 28 April, the AGO had spent around 4,500 hours searching approximately 850,000 square kilometres of the southern Indian Ocean and had provided AMSA with 61 possible debris detections for further investigation.

Source: Excerpt from a feature article Defence involved in search for MH370, Department of Defence Annual Report 2013-14.[2]



Notes and References
  1. AGO Website https://www.defence.gov.au/AGO/
  2. 2.0 2.1 Defence involved in search for MH370, Feature Article, Department of Defence Annual Report 2013-14,
    https://defence.gov.au/annualreports/13-14/features/feature-defence-involved-in-search-for-mh370.asp