Update 3: Mick West shared these two images on twitter, further supporting the fact that this is just a boat wake and some satellite image bonkery.Apple is conducting ground surveys with vehicles around the world to collect data to improve Apple Maps and to support the Look Around feature. If something looks exactly like a boat wake, in a place where there are plenty of boats, when a similar boat can actually be seen in the same region, it’s a boat. There are no whale sharks in Loch Ness (how would they survive in freshwater?).

Both the boat in the northern picture and the “ghost boat” in the monster picture are about 20 meters long.

The fact that the image only shows up in Apple Maps, not Google, is due to Apple either using a slightly different image set to stitch together a picture of the loch, or has a less robust algorithm for dealing with artifacts.

Apple doesn’t have it’s own imaging satellites.

For example, if one picture has a boat that’s totally washed out (like almost every boat is when photographed from space) and another picture is just blue water, then you’ll be left with the ghostly blue outline of a boat, which is clearly visible on the “Nessie” picture. Just like when you take a panoramic picture with your phone.

Satellites travel along an orbital path, taking pictures that are then stitched together.They came from DigitalGlobe, which means they were either taken by the QuickBird satellite, or purchased from another company. The photographs in question were taken in January, 2005. Satellite images aren’t taken in real time.So here’s Andrew’s 5-point primer on satellite imagery as it pertains to the Loch Ness Monster: Update 2: Well, I naively thought that I wouldn’t have to spend my time debunking an obvious picture, but it seems like a lot of readers aren’t certain how satellite imagery works. gif) , from a slightly earlier satellite image, showing the boat heading south from the very north end of the Loch: Update: It’s this boat(now with excellent.

Apple maps satellite