---
title: NASA Technique Reveals Ancient Temple Paintings
description: "Via Hacker News: At Angkor Wat in Cambodia, about 200 faded paintings were discovered between 2010 and 2012 by a Singaporean archaeologist using decorrelatio..."
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### NASA Technique Reveals Ancient Temple Paintings

Hacker News • September 10, 2026 at 11:29 AM ET

[×](/dev?tab=hacker-news)

At Angkor Wat in Cambodia, about 200 faded paintings were discovered between 2010 and 2012 by a Singaporean archaeologist using decorrelation stretch, a technique from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Originally designed to enhance satellite imagery, the method heightens color contrasts to reveal invisible details. Jon Harman, a retired mathematician with a Ph D from Berkeley, adapted the algorithm after seeing NASA's Mars rover images at a rock art conference around 2005. His background in medical imaging and algebra — he studied under Michel Loève, coinventor of the Karhunen–Loève Transform underlying the technique — enabled him to create the Dstretch plug-in for Image J, an open-source NIH program, and later mobile apps.

The technique originated at JPL in the 1970s when Jim Soha proposed applying the transform to digital imagery. Ronald Alley, who learned it from Soha's group, used it in the 1990s to map lava flows in Hawaii while preparing for the ASTER instrument launched on the Terra satellite in 1999. Alley's 1996 paper provided the algorithm Harman implemented. By replacing multiple intermediate images with a single matrix diagonalization, Harman reduced rounding errors. The method has become essential for studying faded rock art worldwide, transforming archaeology through a chance intersection of hobby, mathematics, and space technology.

[Read original article](https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Manipulating_Satellite_Photos_Now_Reveals_Ancient_Images)

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