For this image, the significance more so lies in the source of the image than the image itself. It is a snapshot of the power that this new search engine application for aerial and satellite imagery possesses. This particular photo is a Landsat satellite photo of pivot irrigation fields. The photo is pulled from the application itself where the user is able filter between aerial or Landsat imagery and either sift through popular search filters such as pivot irrigation or suburbs or input one of their own by selecting their own sample location. In choosing their own sample location, the user is supplied with a long list of like features throughout the tileset as determined by a likeness/likelihood algorithm. The application is becoming increasingly important in a day and age when aerial and satellite imagery is constant and flowing. Currently my supervisor at the State Cartographer's Office is using the application to attempt to find all baseball fields throughout southern Wisconsin that a potential client could market to based on his findings. This would be tedious by any other means, but with the application he can select a single baseball field in one area and use the accompanying mini map to find all baseball fields in southern Wisconsin based on likeness. Linked below is an article that gives context to the importance of the application and also a link to an FAQ provided by the lab behind the application's development that provides insight into how the application functions.
Article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/satellite-imagery-descartes-labs-geovisual-search-planet-1.4013039
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