The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said that its Rescue Coordination Centre Australia (RCC Australia) will continue to coordinate a search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane MH370 in the Southern Indian Ocean within the Australian Search and Rescue Region.

RCC Australia received an expert assessment of commercial satellite imagery on Thursday. It was provided by the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation as a possible indication of debris south of the search area that has been the focus of the search operation.

Captured by satellite, the imagery is in the vicinity of the search area defined and searched in the past two days.They may not be related to the lost plane.

Four aircraft have been reoriented to the area 2500 kilometres south-west of Perth as a result of this information.

A Royal Australian Air Force Orion aircraft arrived in the area about 1.50pm.

A further three aircraft have been tasked by RCC Australia to the area later today, including a Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion and United States Navy P8 Poseidon aircraft.

The Poseidon aircraft is expected to arrive at 3pm. The second RAAF Orion is expected to depart RAAF Base Pearce at 6pm.

The New Zealand Orion is due to depart at 8pm.

A RAAF C-130 Hercules aircraft has been tasked by RCC Australia to drop datum marker buoys.

These marker buoys assist RCC Australia by providing information about water movement to assist in drift modelling. They will provide an ongoing reference point if the task of relocating the objects becomes protracted.

A merchant ship that responded to a shipping broadcast issued by RCC Australia on Monday is expected to arrive in the area about 6pm.