Satellites take high-resolution pictures of the Earth every day – including of the Gulf of Thailand and surrounding areas – the part of the world where missing MAS flight MH370 is believed to have gone down.

So far, no wreckage from the aircraft has been found, but satellites – an dedicated volunteers – may be able to help.

While it is impossible for humans to review the billions of pixels of information taken by satellite, crowdsourcing is an online technique that asks lots of people to add their eyes to the search.

Tomnod is a US computer-based application designed for search and rescue operations during natural disasters. Recently acquired by Colorado-based Digital Globe, which operates commercial imaging satellites, Tomnod is now helping search for MAS flight MH370.

DigitalGlobe has made available online high-resolution images from the weekend showing the area where flight MH370, with 239 people aboard, is believed to have hit the water after an unexplained mid-air catastrophe.

Volunteers can log onto the Tomnod website set up to search for the plane and comb through images in the hope of locating something of interest. More imagery of the area is being loaded all the time.

Tomnod made its name when it launched a crowdsourcing campaign to examine satellite images of damage from the tornado that ripped through Oklahoma in May 2013 and from Hurricane Sandy in 2012.