One of the local SAR teams, about 40 miles west of us, is conducting an ongoing search for a missing hiker. So far, the the search has come up empty handed after several attempts. And it is still uncertain whether this person even went hiking in the area that he previously said he had planned on.

Now the family of the missing hiker has funded further searching and the local SAR team with the assistance of a Discovery Channel producer and camera tech, along with a helicopter company have taken hi res photos and video of the area. These videos have started to be posted on YouTube and they are asking the public to review and see if they can spot any anomalies then email the SAR team with details.

In reviewing the first video, it is real difficult to discern and spot anything due to the terrain, weather etc. There have been some YouTube comments but so far, nothing concrete.

I am not sure though if I am in agreement with such crowdsourcing of SAR searches as it reminds me of the search for Steve Fossett. In the documentary "The Last Flight of Steve Fossett." I recall a comment to the affect that there 1000's of phone calls to the CAP and they had to change their phone number.

I suspect that with people "seeing" things that are not there in the video will result in a ton of emails and phone calls and all to no avail.

I dare say you are absolutely correct, but you reach a point in search operations where desperation prevails. Pre internet, we would reach a point in an ineffectual search where publicity was pervasive enough that we would start to get calls from psychics, who would have feelings or premonitions or dreams etc., about where the individual might be.

I remember a personal interaction with one such an individual. We had been looking for more than two weeks, finding zip. She had a vision about the location of the individual. We took her car, using her gas, and visited the area (a place we had flogged at least twice), finding nothing. It wasn't a scam. She wasn't asking for anything, but simply wanted to be at peace.

It always intrigued me that psychics always contacted us after media had elevated the operation in public awareness. As far as I know, we never received a call out of the blue, saying "I just got a message - someone is in deep doodoo in Sabino Canyon. Could you check it out?"

Yes, I am a bit skeptical, but you reach a point where you are out of options. Let the crowd sourcing begin!

Ain't the internet just wonnderful?

CrowdSourcing is an interesting term and implies that a lot of people looking at mediocre resolution video or satellite imagery will make the resolution better. Knowing where the Fossett crash site was located, did anyone go back and look at the satellite imagery on google earth to see if the aircraft could be detected? In the case of a lost hiker, what do people expect to see in G.E. resolution imagery? It's digitized imagery with definite limitations and not a high resolution print.

OT: Anyone else here shoot Kodak Panatomic-X BW film back before digital cameras replaced those archaic film cameras? That was high resolution film.

Why yes, I remember Pan-X, and that was just the stuff that was readily available. A neighbor was a lt col in the air Force, in charge of maintenance of the local u-2 squadron. He offered to arrange an overflight of our excavation, averring that they could tell whether we were using square point or round point shovels in our dig. I don't know what film they were using,but it probably had superior resolution to Pan-X. This was all part of their training routine; they had already photographed all the golf courses in Arizona, so why not do a cliff dwelling?

I would hope that beside the crowd sourcing, someone in that search effort is involving the military. We did that on the operation i referred to previously, and something flew down from Scott AFB and zapped our search area. They were not at liberty to discuss the technology involved.

I'll bet that experienced photo interpreters will be more productive than the public at large....

I participated in the GE search for Fossett.

I went back and looked at the site on GE and there was no possible way the GE search was going to work.

The resolution wasn't there and the wreckage was only a burned skeleton of fuselage rather than intact wingtips. Pictures of the wreck site (taken on foot) suggest the fuselage tubing would look like tree branches from just a few meters away.

Some folks alerted on totally routine things (like blue tarps put up by outfitters) and had to be talked down.

Without the resolution the extra eyes have no value. But if there is high resolution but not enough educated eyes to scan it all - then the crowd starts to offer a chance. But the Fossett search also revealed the lack of skill in photo interpretation and the energy required to deal with the false alerts.

unimogbert -- Thanks, that's what I figured.

Hikermor -- Pan-X was the best I found available for we mere mortals. The photo guy in my first squadron used BW high contrast copy film and a tricked out Nikon F to get some amazingly high resolution prints. I couldn't do that with a standard Nikon FM and Pan-X, but he used that high contrast film and his own dark room (he had to finesse the developing process). Is there a useful conversion to compare digital megapixels with film ASA? Or is that an apples and oranges thing?

I would think that grain size must relate somehow to pixel somehow, but I have no idea of what the conversion would be...

Google Earth resolution depends on the source. If the light is hitting it right, you can even see some of the power lines in the current image they use of my house. Older images range from off color & slightly fuzzy to very fuzzy.

I wonder if there are Probabilities of Detection figured out for this sort of Search Tactic?

Probably not enough data yet. Frankly, I think it is more of a PR device than an effective search tool. It would be different if you had a system where you relay real time, high resolution video to several trained, rested,alert observers sitting in a comfortable environment.