What are the lines in the grassy area of this image?
March 21, 2018 9:07 PM   Subscribe

I was browsing some Sat. images on Google and came across this

It's an ATT telephone station, but what are the lines you can see looping around in the grass in the left hand side of the image?
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a to Technology (11 answers total)
 
I would guess that they're underground, automated or drip irrigation lines - there's just a little more water directly around them than everywhere else, so the grass is just a bit greener.
posted by restless_nomad at 9:09 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


I'm going to guess that they're old tire tracks or similar. I would guess they're greener because they hold a bit more water than the surrounding area.

If you're interested, here's the location on google maps.
posted by gregr at 10:55 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


I'd feel a little better about this answer if the two big dishes we can see pointed in the direction of the grassy area (though one of them does seem to have a rotatable base), but for efficient microwave transmission, it's important that the area around the transmitter and presumably the receiver not reflect microwaves in order to avoid multiparh attenuation , in which the direct path and the path with a reflection interfere destructively, so I would guess those loops are the locations of wires which absorb microwaves and make that area black in the microwave spectrum.
posted by jamjam at 11:02 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


I'm thinking the tire (tyre) tracks on a large riding lawn mower.

People do this on purpose on sportsball grass for fun.
posted by porpoise at 11:22 PM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


I don't think they're underground lines - there's an area to the left of the central rectangle where the line crosses itself and then loops back to retrace a previous curve in the opposite direction. You just wouldn't do that with irrigation lines or anything else that required a bit of planning.

The fact that whatever made those lines has a pretty consistent turning circle, and that fact that the lines clearly begin with something coming in at the bottom of the image and exiting at the top-right (or vice versa) implies a mower. The path traced by those lines exactly matches the way someone on a ride-on mower would navigate the grass if they were trying to avoid the central rectangle.

The large stripes on sports pitches come about because of rollers. The rolling may be done at the same time or after mowing. This creates areas where the grass blades point in opposite directions and catch the light differently. You wouldn't roll out a thin, meandering strip like the line in the photo.
posted by pipeski at 4:24 AM on March 22, 2018 [4 favorites]


I was thinking this looked like it was mowed and then someone came through with a swather, leaving the hay to dry out a bit before they come back through with a baler. But a mower that dumps all the cut grass to the side would look about the same. Typically the patterns are neater (for efficiency), but there's nothing stopping someone from having all the loops and twists they want.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:55 AM on March 22, 2018


Best answer: I'd note that all the lines in the grass are outside the fence line of the AT&T earth station and look similar to the lines in the fields nearby.

The brighter green rectangle in the field is mostly likely a low point in the grade where water collects first and last, which makes the grass a little healthier than the area around it. It was probably built that way to retain rainwater draining off the AT&T site.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:30 AM on March 22, 2018


Best answer: Another tip: if you see something curious on Google Maps or Google Earth, switch over to Bing Maps and look there as well.

At the high zoom level it looks like mowed grass. At a closer zoom it looks like....more grass.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:45 AM on March 22, 2018


Best answer: My guess is it's from a 3-wheel commercial lawn mower of some kind. Here is one example.
posted by LightMayo at 9:06 AM on March 22, 2018


Response by poster: I didn't realize that there could be two possibilities here. I think yes. the lines are from a mower, but what had me confused was the rectangular spot.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 4:58 PM on March 22, 2018


The imagery on Bing makes it look like the rectangle is raised, which means it could be a septic field.
posted by mollweide at 4:48 PM on March 23, 2018


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