Ocean wave currents in the search for Malaysia Air Flight 370

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More planes joined the search Sunday (March 23) in hopes of finding answers to the fate of the missing Malaysia Air Flight 370. Sunday’s search, which involves eight aircraft, has been split into two areas within the same proximity covering 22,800 square miles in a remote part of the southern India Ocean. There was a new satellite image of possible debris released yesterday. Why can’t they just fly to that spot and find the plane? The answer is ocean currents.

 These currents both frustrate the search and serve as a way of finding possible objects. If the plane crashed in one area, the currents could take it into a completely different region, days or weeks later.



That’s why the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is coordinating the search operation, is deciding where to search via what is called drift modeling.

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