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Primary Radar works by bouncing an electronic pulse and listening for any reflections when also looking in the same direction. It is hit-and-miss, where mostly it miss. Without a transponder assisting with the reply there is no information about what the reflection could be and the return is approximate in horizontal place (azimuth) and even less reliable in the vertical plane (elevation). Introduction: What has been released: 19 March 2014: Montol Suchookorn (Thai Air Force) textual description of post-turnback http://bigstory.ap.org/article/thailand-gives-radar-data-10-days-after-plane-lost "was able to detect a signal, which was not a normal signal" 21 March 2014: apparent some returns west of Butterworth http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/2014/03/21/mh370-search-briefing-3.jpg (2982x2286, 1.9MB, Kim Kyung Hoon, Reuters) http://tmfassociates.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Beijing-event.jpg (2448x3264, 0.3MB, scaled/rotated to 1945x1533) 29 April 2014: apparent crossing of the Malaysian peninsula http://www.blogcdn.com/slideshows/images/slides/259/296/0/S2592960/slug/l/china-malaysia-plane-1.jpg (2500x1666, 1.4MB, Ng Han Guan, AP) 26 June 2014: apparent south-west turn-back after IGARI word/media/image6.jpg (1372x941, 0.2MB, Joint Investigation Team; p.8/p.3 of in ATSB report http://www.jacc.gov.au/media/releases/2014/june/mr052_MH370_Definition_of_Sea_Floor_Wide_Area_Search.pdf) Thai Primary Radar ================== Textual descriptions. http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/thailand-finds-radar-blips-that-could-be-mh370-india-says-indian-ocean-has http://news.yahoo.com/thailand-gives-radar-data-10-days-plane-lost-124915659.html Montol Suchookorn "Because we did not pay any attention to it. The Royal Thai Air Force only looks after any threats against our country, so anything that did not look like a threat to us, we simply look at it without taking actions." "When they asked again and there was new information and assumptions from Prime Minister Najib Razak, we took a look at our information again," "It didn't take long for us to figure out, although it did take some experts to find out about it." "was able to detect a signal, which was not a normal signal, of a plane flying in the direction opposite from the MH370 plane," Some publications displayed an unrelated image purporting to be Thai Radar next to these stories. This image was taken on 17 March 2014 by Chaideer Mahyuddin, on-board an Indonesian Search and Rescue vessel: http://www.imageforum-diffusion.afp.com/ImfDiffusion/Search/Results.aspx?srchMd=1&ID_Fulcrum=1153411613_2 AFP ID: Par7824608 Malaysian Primary Radar ======================= Derivatives of apparent Malaysian Primary Radar data was displayed initially to families in Beijing, and again in an ATSB report A briefing was held in the Lido Hotel Beijing, beginning at 2014-03-21 02:00 UTC (10:00 local time). The black (non-illuminated) areas of the projection screen often appear orange in photographs where the white-balance is coming primarily from the screen. The projector in the room was not quite aligned to the projection screen, and the left-hand 5% of the image is off the side. Slide: "BRIEF ON MH 370 SEARCH AND RESCUE OPERATIONS" ===================================================== The first photograph available of the opening slide was taken by 赵迪 at 02:05:06 UTC: http://zqb.cyol.com/images/1395430722812_1.JPG 10:05:06+08:00 3月21日10时,北京丽都饭店 … 表示飞机最后一次出现在空军雷达屏幕上2:22分,距离空军基地200海里。 … 赵迪摄 Slide: "MILITARY RADAR PLOT FROM PULAU PERAK TO LAST PLOT AT 02:22H" ==================================================================== At ~02:54 an apparent primary Radar plot is shown, this is photographed by a number of people, with varying degrees of success: http://www.takefoto.cn/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/39500_201403221141091WlfC.jpg http://image7.club.sohu.net/pic/e2/2e33c78dd1c7fb0a880f99591e16f9e2.jpg http://www.kwongwah.com.my/news/2014/03/21/92_1.jpg http://cdn.feeyo.com/news/140321/14032103094252.jpg http://img6.caijing.com.cn/2014-03-21/114029398.jpg http://tmfassociates.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Beijing-event.jpg (02:54:15.787, iPhone 4S, 1/30second, 2448x3264, scaled/rotated to 1945x1533) This is good enough to show the captions (right-to-left): 1. PENANG 2. TIME - 02:02H PERAK ISLAND 279R 89nm from Butterworth AB 3. (circle) 4. TIME - 02:22H 295R 200 nm from Butterworth AB (2) this appears to be Pulau Perak (5.682,98.944) relative to Butterworth (3) this appears to be a circle of missing Radar returns (unconfirmed) (4) this appears to be an incorrect description. ( maybe relative to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulau_Perak ) However, thanks to Kim Kyung Hoon of Reuters, there is a slightly better image of the slide (again, appears to have an orange background from flash fire, rather than black): http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/dbe/news/world/article17607143.ece/ALTERNATES/w620/PEK707-MALAYSIA-AIRLINES+.JPG http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1000/20140321/d02788e9b25b149630e702.jpg http://image.cnwest.com/attachement/jpg/site1/20140322/001372d8a213149718c705.jpg http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh212/727Kiwi/MH370/Lido_Hotel_Beijing_21March_zps2eb1b3f1.jpg http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/picture_this/public/2014/03/21/mh370-search-briefing-3.jpg Same image in larger sizes: http://i.lidovky.cz/14/033/lnorg/MSL5202c7_PEK707_MALAYSIA_AIRLINES_0321_11.JPG (2056x1576 382kB) http://i.imgur.com/NkACC20.jpg (2982x2286 647kB) And then what appears to be the image Reuters distributed: http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/2014/03/21/mh370-search-briefing-3.jpg (2982x2286 1,868kB) (02:54:42(?), 2982x2286) sha1sum=fc2b1dcd1d8ebca600d0578e14b7fe3eb5d88a00 by_line= © Kim Kyung Hoon / Reuters creator=KIM KYUNG-HOON title=MALAYSIA-AIRLINES/ reuters_id=RTR3HZHB source=X01368 fixture=GM1EA3L14WB01 transmission_id=PEK707 What appears to be pixels from the projector are visible. On the right-hand side, the apparent straight edge in white crosses the pixel columns. This points to it either being a photograph of a display (rather than a direct digital plot), or to digital keystone correction in the projector (or both). Previous analysis ================= Working from this, some earlier decoding of timestamps was done by "Backseater", having obtained a compressed 2982x2286 image directly from the photographer: http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/6087189/#29 http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/6087189/#38 http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/6087189/#39 http://i.imgur.com/N0MWBCK.jpg Method ====== The times, and notes on the photographs below were mainly obtained using 'exiftool'.