Satellite imagery from the NNSS (Nevada National Security Site)

NNSS imagery

Nothing earth shattering here. I stumbled upon this link last night. It has newer imagery than Google Earth for the Nellis range (NTTR), but then again, so does Bing. But looking at the shadows from tall structures, it is not the same data set that Bing uses. I haven't been able to determine if it is newer than Bing, but it is not as high of resolution.

What is interesting is they attempted to put the physical border of the NTTR on the map. [Not to be confused with the restricted air space.] If you navigate (move the view) to the Groom Lake front gate, you can see how the border lines up with the terrain in the imagery. It looks accurate there regarding where the camo dudes hang out and at the so-called Hawkeye Hill location. [Warning: obey signs in the area. Never depends on a map. Hiking Hawkeye hill can be tricky.] The border does appear to be wrong around Creech.

If you go to 37°47'24.57"N 116°46'7.03"W on Google Earth, you can see the empty spot where they put a new building at the TTR. Obviously I know this because it is on Bing and also this NNSS imagery. The same goes for the new apron at the Keno airstrip, roughly 37°46'32.21"N 116°14'58.61"W.

There is no way to go to a specific location on this NNSS link. So again, I am posting coordinates from Google Earth that correspond to the area in question.

reply to post by gariac


Not to sound like a complete noob but anyway to pull of coordinates off this I a haven't found that button.

reply to post by abeverage


Well I did say there is no way to get coordinates from it. ;-) You can put coordinates in Google Earth and Bing, then move the NNSS imagery to the same area. Hawkeye Hill is around 37°20'50.33"N 115°38'46.23"W

I haven't been up on the Hawkeye Hill in a while because I haven't had anyone with me to guard the car. The camo dudes mess with your car when you climb the hill unless someone is by your vehicle. They think this pisses off the hiker, and they are correct!

The last time I was up there, they still had the "silver balls" (radar calibration targets on poles) that reflect the old border limits.

One of these balls is in the Little Aleinn.

The trick with hiking this area and not crossing the border is to always have 3 of the orange poles in sight. Two isn't enough since you may be at a corner. But due to terrain, you can't always see 3 orange poles in this general area.

The base is getting a bit sloppy regarding marking the border. The last time I was at Roadblock Canyon, the warning signs and the poles were missing, presumably stolen. The nice thing about stealing federal property is federal prisons are much nicer than state prisons. ;-) OK, they probably won't toss you in jail for stealing a military sign, but the FBI handles crimes on bases and in national parks. I can't see this being a pleasant situation.

Other than the loons at the BBC that crossed at the back gate, nobody has escaped getting fined for border crossing.

Originally posted by gariac
reply to post by abeverage

 

Well I did say there is no way to get coordinates from it. ;-) You can put coordinates in Google Earth and Bing, then move the NNSS imagery to the same area. Hawkeye Hill is around 37°20'50.33"N 115°38'46.23"W

I haven't been up on the Hawkeye Hill in a while because I haven't had anyone with me to guard the car. The camo dudes mess with your car when you climb the hill unless someone is by your vehicle. They think this pisses off the hiker, and they are correct!

The last time I was up there, they still had the "silver balls" (radar calibration targets on poles) that reflect the old border limits.

One of these balls is in the Little Aleinn.

The trick with hiking this area and not crossing the border is to always have 3 of the orange poles in sight. Two isn't enough since you may be at a corner. But due to terrain, you can't always see 3 orange poles in this general area.

The base is getting a bit sloppy regarding marking the border. The last time I was at Roadblock Canyon, the warning signs and the poles were missing, presumably stolen. The nice thing about stealing federal property is federal prisons are much nicer than state prisons. ;-) OK, they probably won't toss you in jail for stealing a military sign, but the FBI handles crimes on bases and in national parks. I can't see this being a pleasant situation.

Other than the loons at the BBC that crossed at the back gate, nobody has escaped getting fined for border crossing.

LOL I was at work and I skimmed a but of it! LOL

For the mouse "challenged", here is a screen capture of Hawkeye Hill and the border.



Your best bet is to stay on the round shaped spot, which if you haven't guessed is where the camo dudes park. Needless to say the camo dudes get off the hill if they think you are going to climb it. They drive to your car, try to open it if nobody is there, then go to their other perch. In addition, there is surveillance from this location: 37°20'39.07"N 115°39'24.81"W . It is a tall tower with a decent camera and a pan/tilt/zoom. This camera is presumably hard wired to the guard shack. If you go in the opposite direction from the tower, there is a faint trace of a road that eventually fades away. But at N37.333729 W115.655517, there does seem to be something other than a creosote or Mormon tea plant. Somebody with a quad copter can go figure out what is there.

During the 50th Anniversary of Groom Lake, there were enough tourist around that it was easy to climb the hill and still keep the dudes at bay. They were going kind of crazy, driving up the road quickly to see who was there, then backing down the road (yes, really) to get away.

Slightly off topic, but I'm a noobie here and can't start a new thread.

Near the TTR airport, at: 37 50' 49.50" 116 42' 16.90" there is a massive concrete bunker-like structure that appears in satellite imagery - and from the ground as picture 19/33 here.

The surrounding area is double-fenced, cleared in all directions, has motion sensors every hundred yards or so, is monitored by a permanent guard station nearby, and (in GE imagery) has a helicopter parked nearby.

Anyone know what this is? I'm guessing it's a part of Enduring Stockpile, where we keep our nuke cores, but that's just a WAG.

Gariac? Anyone?

reply to post by bryanm61


Possibly the depleted uranium storage. Take a look at this map. Also note the direction of north if you are trying to compare the map to Google Earth. The map itself is not to scale.




Supposedly there were never nukes stored at the TTR. All that was in (Lake Mead Base)/(Area II) by Nellis. The usual suspects like the FAS are quite sure there were nukes at Nellis. The area also has a kill zone (space between the fences). Also in theory all the nukes at Nellis are gone. That I have second hand from "I can't say".

The TTR had high explosives stored there. That is for sure. Many of those explosions were done at Site 300 east of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. Over the years, civilization encroached on Site 300, so the big bangs were moved to Nevada.

I'm not so sure what the deal is with special storage for depleted uranium at the TTR. The A-10s have certainly trained in the past on the NTTR with DU rounds based on environmental studies. So there must be a stockpile of DU rounds at Nellis AFB too.

DU isn't very radioactive, but it is depleted of only one isotope IIRC. So there is a bit of residual radiation. The danger is when you hit something with a DU round. The DU vaporizes as it penetrates the target. It is toxic, but so is lead. ;-)

You could email the Desert Research Institute and ask about the facility. The TTR isn't so secret that it isn't inspected. I met a guy that did a bird survey at the TTR for the DRI. He got to stay in the mancamp. He also had a minder with him since the bird survey required a spotting scope. He had a beautiful Swarovski spotting scope with him. No way they would let you on the range with such a scope without supervision. The TTR has some watering holes and thus a fair amount of wildlife.

Swarovski's are popular with birders since you can be in business quickly. Setting up a telescope takes much longer. Here is the link if anyone is curious since google hits will be for Swarovski jewelry.
spotting scope

Thanks, Gariac! Very much appreciate your reply and your insight!

I do recall some stories about watering holes at TTR, and some horses drinking from them. It wasn't pretty.