After initial assessment, it was possible to determine that several images showed the same location but were taken from a different angle.
When different images contain overlapping information, that can be a good place to start the geolocation work.
Investigators often rely on satellite imagery for geolocation.
Analysis of the roofs and roads in the images can yield valuable information. Roof aspects (size, colour, shape) can be compared with road layout to make a unique pattern MW can then look for in satellite imagery.
Lay Kay Kaw (လေးကေ့ကော်) in Kayin (ကရင်) State, once designated a ‘town of peace’, has been the site of violent clashes between the Myanmar military and the Karen National Union (KNU), since December 2021.
Instead of providing a site of refuge to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), returning refugees and KNU families, fighting in Lay Kay Kaw (လေးကေ့ကော်) has forced many residents to flee for their lives.
MW have published the first in a series of reports that document events in the region. It provides a detailed chronological reconstruction of the clashes between the military and oppositional forces between 13 and 28 December 2021.
Following reports of a village being burnt, the first thing that we try to do is verify the attack. For that we look for thermal anomaly detections from several satellites that orbit the globe twice per day. These are the VIIRS and Aqua/Terra Earth Observation satellites.