ore content changing between different scans?

[king of nowhere]

i am scanning planetary bodies, and i am getting wildly different readings of ore content for the same biome.

I put an M700 survey scanner orbiting mun, and it told me some craters were void of ores. except, when i did move a rover there with a surface scanning module, it reported 10% ore.  I scanned all of minmus from orbit with a narrow-band scanner, and i landed a mining shuttle to refuel there, multiple times. it told me there was 7% ore in minmus midlands. i landed multiple times, and i always got similar values. except i have now a rover in minmus midlands with a surface scanning module, and it says there is 10% ore in midlands. and other biomes are also different, while some have the same values from the narrow band scanner and the surface scanning module.

what the hell? how do i actually know what's the ore content of a place if all my instruments give different readings?

[bewing]

The M700 scanner reports on a very coarse scale. In fact, the scale is averaged over each entire biome, and then smoothed further by distance. So if the scanner reports ore in the Eastside Crater, for example, all that really tells you is that there is some ore in the Eastside Crater. It doesn't really tell you a concentration. Sometimes you can vaguely get a sense that one biome has a greater maximum concentration than another biome by looking at the maximum intensity in the survey scan.

If a biome reports zero ore with the scan set at maximum sensitivity, then that should really mean that there is zero ore there.

Otherwise, the density of the ore is highly variable within a single biome. If you care to find a spot with relatively high ore density, then the only way to actually find such a spot is with a surface scanner.

However, the only real benefit to finding a high ore concentration is that you mine more quickly. And you have an infinite amount of time, so the concept of "quickly" is pretty meaningless.

 

[James M]

The orbital scanners are used specifically for finding out the general ore concentrations from place to place. It's the surface scanner that really tells you what the true concentration is where you're standing. Unfortunately, to answer your question, you won't really know for sure until you touch down.

1 minute ago, bewing said:

The M700 scanner reports on a very coarse scale. In fact, the scale is averaged over each entire biome, and then smoothed further by distance. So if the scanner reports ore in the Eastside Crater, for example, all that really tells you is that there is some ore in the Eastside Crater. It doesn't really tell you a concentration. Sometimes you can vaguely get a sense that one biome has a greater maximum concentration than another biome by looking at the maximum intensity in the survey scan.

If a biome reports zero ore with the scan set at maximum sensitivity, then that should really mean that there is zero ore there.

Otherwise, the density of the ore is highly variable within a single biome. If you care to find a spot with relatively high ore density, then the only way to actually find such a spot is with a surface scanner.

However, the only real benefit to finding a high ore concentration is that you mine more quickly. And you have an infinite amount of time, so the concept of "quickly" is pretty meaningless.

 

Lol dang it. You beat me to it xD

[king of nowhere]

12 hours ago, bewing said:

Otherwise, the density of the ore is highly variable within a single biome.

 

 

strange. i never noticed that. i mean, i cruised my rover across half of mun, and the surface module would give me 11% on midlands, and that value remained pretty much constant everywhere, within a 0.1% deviation.1

 

EDIT: furthermore, i see that every biome i'm visiting with my rover on minmus is consistently giving around 2% more ore than it did while i was flying. it's not random variation, the amounts are very consistent with each other, and they are consistently 2% higher than what reported by the narrow band scanner.

the values found on mun are consistent with what i got before, but i scanned mun biomes with a surface module. the results of the surface module are consistent with each other, but they disagree with the survey scanner.

it's like the same instrument gives the same values, but different instruments are in disagreement. it looks like a bug from my perspective.

Edited July 30, 2020 by king of nowhere

[Cavscout74]

Since 1.8 or 1.9, I've noticed the orbital scan is highlighting areas with low ore concentrations and completely missing areas with higher concentrations.  I'll send an orbital scanner to Mun or Minmus, find some likely areas and land a rover to find the best concentration like I've done since 1.2.2.  BUT what looks like the highest concentration from orbit has been consistently 7% or less with a ground scan and areas that look lower from orbit (even areas that appear to have no ore on at least one occasion) are turning out to be 10+% concentrations.  So far, out of Mun, Minmus, Duna, Ike & Eve in my current career, every area that I expected abundant ore from orbit has been no higher than 7%, while sending a rover into less highlighted areas (where I would expect 7-8% or less) have turned out higher.  It's not even consistent, its almost like the orbit scanner is looking at something totally different than the surface scan