来源：观察者网 ：Natalie Wolchover/译者 洪豆等
最新谷歌地图显示在中国戈壁沙漠地区出现了一系列神秘构造和图案，从主流媒体到边缘媒体大都猜测其为中国军事实验基地、卫星定位坐标、华盛顿或纽约的街道地图甚至与外星人之间的信息交流。
这证明：它们很可能被用来测试中国的间谍卫星定位。美国亚利桑那州火星探测设备的技术专家和任务策划者、在美国航空航天局的火星任务中负责操作大量摄像机的乔纳森·希尔也是这样说的。希尔的工作就是处理这些通过探测器和卫星采集到的火星表面图像和美国国家航空航天局设置在地球轨道上的设备采集来的资料。
各种沙漠构造中最奇特的一个有着锯齿状的白线构成的网格，这是卫星定位的坐标，卫星摄像机聚焦在长约1.15英里、宽约0.65英里的网格上，用以调准卫星在太空中的位置。
这些卫星定位标的存在看上去似乎很可疑且具有启发性，但希尔却说并非如此。中国已被了解到要运作间谍卫星，其他许多国家也是如此。事实上，美国也在使用定位坐标。希尔告诉life’s little mysteries（ LiveScience的兄弟网站）“我刚发现的一个例子就是1960年代建于亚利桑那州32° 48' 24.74" N, 111° 43' 21.30" W的Casa Grande的一个为间谍卫星‘日冕’服务的一个定位坐标。
65码宽的中国定位坐标并不像其他新闻站点说的那样由反光金属建造而成。这些线他们本身并没有被全部填满，充满了条纹和起伏，他们在穿过那些小的天然地下水道时都会有缝隙。我觉得大致可以推断出是一种涂料，”希尔说道，如果这种涂料是由白灰或白垩构成的，风力会使之布满裂纹。
定位坐标比预想的要大一些，表明卫星摄像机的地面分辨率出人意外得低下。
不远处另一个奇特的图像显示了一个仿佛放射状巨石阵一样的装置，同时有战斗机停在其中心处，“这无疑是一个为太空轨道雷达装置定位的坐标，”希尔说道，“既然大量雷达接收信号是由于表面粗糙不同，这可能是一种测试方法，让飞机四周的地形足够崎岖，从而部分伪装飞机。”
换句话说，就是中国军队可能使用雷达装置从上至下发射到坐标上，并且测定有多少雷达波被飞机反射回雷达装置、多少雷达波被四周巨石阵一般的物体分散。由此可见，中国的雷达专家可以找到如何防止本国军事设施被他国间谍卫星侦测到的办法，同时也可以找到别国小心隐藏的物体的线索。然而，飞机由金属构成的这个事实会增加雷达反射的频率，使之很难被完全隐藏起来。”希尔说。
自从关于这些构造的初始报告广泛流传，小机械博客Gizmodo的勤奋读者们就找出了一些更有趣的中国的设施。希尔说，其中一个看上去是武器测试区，可能是用来测试爆炸物。此外，还有一个巨大的网格坐标像是一个反射天线阵列。这样的仪器可以用来做很多事情，比如气象跟踪、太空气象跟踪以及高空大气研究。
希尔指出这些构造大多数距离相近，“我想我们看到的是某种军事区域或测试区域，这可以解释为什么大量装备和技术设施被安置在偏僻地区，”他说，“有时，真相正像人们猜想的一样有趣。”
英文原文：
Newfound Google Maps images have revealed an array of mysterious structures and patterns etched into the surface of China's Gobi Desert. The media — from mainstream to fringe — has wildly speculated that they might be Chinese weapons-testing sites, satellite calibration targets, street maps of Washington, D.C., and New York City, or even messages to (or from) aliens.
It turns out that they are almost definitely used to calibrate China's spy satellites.
So says Jonathon Hill, a research technician and mission planner at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University, which operates many of the cameras used during NASA's Mars missions. Hill works with images of the Martian surface taken by rovers and satellites, as well as data from Earth-orbiting NASA instruments.
The grids of zigzagging white lines seen in two of the images — the strangest of the various desert structures — are spy satellite calibration targets. Satellite cameras focus on the grids, which measure approximately 0.65 miles wide by 1.15 miles long, and use them to orient themselves in space. [Gallery: Mysterious Structures In China's Gobi Desert]
The existence of these calibration targets may seem suspicious or revelatory, but Hill said it really isn't; China was already known to operate spy satellites, and many other countries (including the United States) do so as well. In fact, the U.S. also uses calibration targets. "An example I found just now is a calibration target for the Corona spy satellites, built back in the 1960s, down in Casa Grande, Ariz., [at coordinates] 32° 48' 24.74" N, 111° 43' 21.30" W," Hill told Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience.
The 65-foot-wide white lines that make up China's grids are not made of reflective metal as many news sites have suggested. "They have gaps in them where they cross little natural drainage channels and the lines themselves are not perfectly filled in, with lots of little streaks and uneven coverage. I think it's safe to say these are some kind of paint," Hill said, noting that if they were made of white dust or chalk, the wind would have caused them to streak visibly.
The calibration targets are larger than might have been expected, he said, suggesting that the satellite cameras they are being used to calibrate have surprisingly poor ground resolution.
Another strange image taken not far away shows a Stonehenge-like arrangement of objects radiating outward, with fighter jets parked at its center. "This is almost certainly a calibration/test target for orbital radar instruments," Hill said. "Since a significant amount of radar return is due to differences in surface roughness, they're probably testing ways of making the areas around planes 'bumpy' enough that the planes are partially masked."
In other words, the Chinese military probably uses radar instruments to send signals down at the target from above, and determine how much radar bounces back to the instruments from the fighter jets, and how much gets scattered by the Stonehenge-like arrangement of bumps surrounding them. From this, the country's radar experts can learn how best to hide China's military operations from other countries' satellites, and possibly get clues for how to find carefully hidden objects in other countries. However, the fact that the planes are made out of metal will increase their radar return and make it very hard to completely mask them, Hill said.
Since the initial reports of these structures became widespread, industrious readers of the gadget blog Gizmodo have spotted a few more interesting structures in China. One, Hill said, appears to be a weapons testing zone, perhaps for evaluating explosives. Elsewhere, a giant grid resembles a Yagi antenna array. Instruments like this can be used for any number of things, such as weather tracking, space weather tracking and high-altitude atmospheric research.
Hill noted that most of these structures are quite closer to each other. "I think we're seeing some sort of military zone/test range, which explains the large amount of equipment and technology in an otherwise remote area," he said. "Sometimes the truth can be just as interesting, if not more so, than the conspiracies that people come up with."
原文链接：http://news.yahoo.com/mysterious-symbols-china-desert-spy-satellite-targets-expert-132005935.html
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