After collecting some initial data and calculations he figured he had a good story. One example he gives is about a dust storm over Beijing. “And if you’re not careful and set your priorities, you can get lost easily.” “It is a very deep sea,” says Marco Hernandez. With an endless stream of new satellite imagery being published in near real-time, it’s easy to get lost in the amount of data that’s available. You’ll need to convey to your audience what it is they’re seeing. It may look like you can see flames in the image, but often this is just a visualisation of fire hotspots based on infrared radiation. Pierre Markuse, a remote sensing expert, explains in a blog post that you should be careful when characterising images of wildfires. “This could potentially lead to wrong claims regarding the time of an incident (for instance, the destruction of a building etc.).” Johanna Wild says that people sometimes misread the copyright date on Google Maps as the time when the imagery was taken. He recommends always keeping the ‘Thomas theorem’ in mind: “If you define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.” Two common mistakes to avoid You need to verify with other sources, like flight data, weather data, local news reports, social media, sources on the ground, etcetera.” “You could spark a diplomatic scandal, and you could well be wrong, so you need to be careful. With satellite data you need to be especially careful, says Heubl, as satellite imagery often provides a window into politically sensitive areas. On closer inspection, the black spots in the image turned out to be from naturally occurring phytoplankton. Wim Zwijnenburg, a Bellingcat contributor and project leader at PAX, recalls an incident where someone reported an oil spill based on black spots that were visible around an oil tanker off the coast of Jemen. “You might think you’re 95% sure of what you’re seeing, but you need to think about that 5% uncertainty.” “If something looks like what you think it is, it doesn’t mean that’s what it is, ” says Ben Heubl, an investigative data journalist. It’s easy to misinterpret what you see, and there’s always a chance that the image has been tampered with. Just like you would never rely on only one person’s anecdote when reporting a story, you shouldn’t rely on one satellite image either. Or you might already have a story, and look for data that helps you put that issue in context. You might start with a tip-off about something that’s happened, and use satellite imagery to verify the information. How you should use satellite data depends on your reporting, but a good rule of thumb is to approach it like any other data source. This is not a mistake as such, but they’re missing out on the potential.” “It forms the replacement for using a stock image. “Sometimes you see reporting that uses satellite imagery basically as decoration,” says Johanna Wild. You can work with that data to show something different, something more sophisticated.” “It’s not just pictures - satellites offer data to play with. They all allow access to high-resolution satellite imagery for free.īut Marco Hernandez, a data visualisation developer at Reuters Graphics, recommends looking beyond the images. Google Earth, Sentinel Hub and NASA’s Worldview are great places to get started. “You need to know very clearly in which cases it makes sense to use satellite imagery, and in which cases it does not,” says Wild. This will give you an idea of how you might be able to use it in a story. Spend some time looking at satellite imagery and familiarise yourself with the data and the type of tools that are available. “The idea that you could track a person, or even some small vehicle relevant to your investigation - it just doesn’t work like that.” Johanna Wild, an investigative tech specialist at Bellingcat, says that people often come at it with unrealistic ideas about what is possible. The first thing you’ll need to do is manage your (and your editor’s) expectations. But how do you get started? And what should you be looking out for? In a guest post for the Online Journalism Blog, MA Data Journalism student Niels de Hoog speaks to four journalists who regularly work with satellite data about how to start, best practices and -most importantly - mistakes to avoid. For reporters satellite data offers unique opportunities for original investigations and visual storytelling.
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