There must be some cool application for this but I can't think of what. I guess computing shadows and things like that but we often already have 3d buildings (though maybe not for rural areas like this does).
https://medium.com/planet-stories/a-beginners-guide-to-calcu...
It works even better with high resolution synthetic aperture radar as you can measure the tank height displacement directly: https://www.iceye.com/blog/daily-analysis-and-forecast-of-gl...
ESA provides worldwide 20m x 5m radar imagery from Sentinel-1 free online. Revisit in the mid-latitudes is generally a few times per week, with an exact repeat cycle every 12 days. Once Sentinel-1C is fully operational, it'll be half that.
Might be good info to plan safer routes ahead of time too
No they don't. For airliners it doesn't really matter. The only place they can set down safely is an airport. Which are already listed in their systems and flight plan (alternates)
For the smaller stuff it depends on the pilot, a common electronic flight system like the Garmin G1000 doesn't have sensors to actually make that determination.
Could an automated system make a better determination than a skilled pilot? And is the scenario frequent enough to warrant the big cost of cameras etc (keeping in mind they must be stabilized and with huge aperture to function at night). I doubt it.
The "miracle on the Hudson" was not called a miracle for nothing. Usually it ends like a few months ago at Washington Reagan.
And a freeway is never a safe place to land an airliner of course. The traffic makes it so. Even if there's very little, there's lampposts, barriers etc. If an airline pilot ever steers towards one they're really going for the least terrible option. Small planes fare better of course but again they won't have such tech for decades.
Was also some similar evidence regarding three gorges dam, and how it's not doing so great. Ie estimated height of surrounding area over time to indicate problematic movement, or something like that.
If you can figure out fairly close-to-the-ground elevations, you can model a strike zone quite well.
Good for special operations raids.
But those folks might also have access to specialized NRO satellites, that can give you the data without the inference.
Seems pretty straightforward.