Digital Globe: Lanka Satellite Images

1. digital_globe_20082. dg2009jan29_slk3. dg2009feb02_slk4. dg2009feb05_slk5. dg2009feb13_slk6. dg2009feb16_slk7. dg2009feb19_slk8. dg2009feb25_slk9. dg2009mar03_slk10. dg2009mar06_slk11. dg2009mar12_slk12. dg2009mar18_slk13. dg2009mar25_slk14. dg2009apr02_slk15. dg2009apr16_slk16. dg2009apr22_slk17. dg2009apr28_slk18. dg2009apr30_slk19. dg2009may06_slk20. dg2009may11_slk21. dg2009may13_slk22. dg2009may16_slk23. dg2009may17_slk24. dg2009may18_slk









2009 May 16 - 2. km² Defence.lk map of warfront

















This is more than 3 month sequence of overlay of the region under LTTE control since
2009 Jan 29th from defence.lk on the
mostly cloudless Digital Globe images of region taken in 2008.
Western half on left imaged on
2008-05-08 : Eastern half on right
imaged on
2008-10-31.

.
Google Earth has posted much higher resolution publicly available
images taken 4 years ago in 2005 May of the 2 sq. km of isthmus land
still under the LTTE on 2009 May 16th


You can zoom into this region which was under LTTE control shown above using
Google Earth.
Resolution probably about 40 cm is as high as for Colombo.
See 500 meter regions around the 2 villages identified in the defence.lk map


Above and below is Karaiyamullivaikal

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Above and below is Vellamullivaikkal

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An old unnamed Tent city put up after the Tsunami of 2004
December 26th, is shown in the image above. It was never part of the
NoFireZone or SafeZone.
It is a pity that high resolution images taken more recently have
not been posted on Google Earth, although it indicates that Digital
Globe images have been taken in 2009 February 6th and March 6th. Some
version of the images have been released by the US State Department and the UN in a 13 MB pdf report, Video - Kohona.
However none of these reports have posted images at the resolution
shown above which will indicate what is really happening. At the low
resolution they could be misleading. It was claimed that recent Ariel images show 30,000 shelters
in the original NOFIREZONE. Many are shown above, as bright white
(metal roof), and Brown (thatched with kajan) rectangles. At this
density 30,000 will cover 4 Square Km. which is clearly not visible on
the high resolution images of Google Earth. The region imaged on
2009-02-06 by Digital Globe doesn't look significantly different to Google Earth. A cropped region is shown below.

Below an overlay from Wikimapia.org which identifies the last 7 Sq.km region which was under LTTE as
of 2009 April 30th, with the locations shown at higher resolution marked


All of the region still under control of LTTE since 2009 April 30th
is on the isthmus which is less than a km wide, and most, but not all of it has been designated
as a NO FIRE ZONE.

GOSL has now pushed the LTTE into the less developed 4 Sq.Km region of
an and hopefully the remaining estimated 20,000 civilians,
will be able to escape soon from being human shields for the LTTE.
Most of them did since the Northern bund was breached on 2009 April 20th.



1976 May 5^th TNT becomes the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE).
On 1976 May 14^th the new parliamentary
party, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), which sought to make
political capital out of the changing aspirations of the Tamil Youth,
committed itself to the goal of Eelam through it's founding
Vaddukoddai Resolution. 33 Bullet ridden year later in 2009 the LTTE
locked into 10 Sq. km of land.