Satellite images of the capture site scrubbed from Google Maps

Eleven months apart. Same coordinates. Same season. Same sun angle. The buildings are gone and the trees are wrong.

Type: PHOTOGRAPH
Date of Record: 2014-03-22
Source: Imagery archivist, name withheld

Abstract

Side-by-side comparison of two commercial satellite passes over the same Varginha city block, captured eleven months apart. The earlier pass shows a fenced enclosure with three vehicles and a covered structure. The later pass renders the same parcel as low-resolution vegetation tile inconsistent with the rest of the image.

Artifact Inventory

Earlier pass: April 2013
Later pass: March 2014
Tile resolution (later): Inconsistent with surrounding tiles
Provider: Commercial imagery aggregator (declined to comment)

What the earlier image shows

A fenced lot of approximately two thousand square meters. Three vehicles are parked along the western edge. A covered structure occupies the eastern third of the parcel. The fence is consistent with a perimeter of recent installation; vegetation around the fence base has not yet recovered from clearing.

What the later image shows

The same parcel rendered as a low-resolution canopy tile inconsistent with the surrounding imagery, which is high resolution and seasonally appropriate. The fence is gone. The vehicles are gone. The covered structure is gone. The tile has been resampled in a way that an imagery analyst commissioned for the comparison described as "cosmetic substitution, not redaction."

The substitution is bounded almost exactly by the fence line of the earlier image. It does not extend to neighboring parcels.

What the provider says