Satellite technology plays a crucial role in dealing with natural disasters and man-made crises.
From flooding and earthquakes to civil unrest and war, the information helps assess the scale of problems and co-ordinate a response. The results are literally life-saving.
Radar monitoring of the Earth's surface is being used to map ground movements and help us focus earthquake preparation efforts where they will be most needed. Watch a video about how radar is being used to identify urban areas that might be at risk of earthquakes
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A project is underway to find out how satellite data on weather patterns could be used to predict where malaria outbreaks might occur. With this information, aid agencies could have resources in place to prevent and contain outbreaks. Watch a video about this project
Types of work Humanitarian relief usually has four distinct phases:
The tsunami response In December 2004, a huge earthquake in the Indian Ocean caused a massive wave, known as a tsunami, which devastated a wide area of South East Asia.
Estimates made in February 2005 put the number of dead at 280,000 and the number of homeless at about a million people.
Since the disaster struck, satellites have been sending back images of the devastated region. The aim has been to use the data to identify the worst-hit areas and target humanitarian relief efforts.
ActionsImmediately following the disaster, the "International Charter for Space and Major Disasters" was activated, a space agency initiative dedicated to assisting in the aftermath of such events.
The European and French space agencies (ESA and CNES) initiated the "Charter" in 1999 with the purpose of using their satellites to acquire and make space data freely available immediately following a natural or man-made disaster and deliver it to those dealing with the disaster.
Since then agencies of Canada (CSA), India (ISRO), America (NOAA) and Argentina (Conae) have signed the Charter. BNSC joined the Charter in November 2005 by making the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) available to "Charter" operations. DMC International Imaging (DMCII) represents the four partners who own the satellites that make up DMC, Turkey, Algeria, Nigeria and the UK. DMC consists of four microsatellites, launched in 2003 and 2004, the DMC is able to capture very large images (some 600 km wide) in one go and can cover any site on Earth every 24 hours.
Humanitarian aid support was also provided after the Tsunami by a European consortium known as "RESPOND". The RESPOND project was initiated in 2004 as part of the joint ESA/EC GMES programme and is led by InfoTerra of the UK. The project team works with humanitarian aid community to improve access to maps, satellite imagery and geographic information in crisis situations e.g. disasters and famines.
So far, RESPOND members have produced over 200 maps of the whole area and made data available to nations, aid agencies and international institutions like the World Bank.
Data has also been available from a number of spacecraft designed to assist in emergencies and images are detailed enough to pick out roads, towns, airports and ships, which can be used to assess the extent of a disaster.. Respond is using data compiled from commercial satellites which can "see" down to 2.5 m and make an assessment of the number of houses destroyed in towns and villages.
New Orleans
In August 2005 America's worst natural disaster in living memory struck. Hurricane Katrina left over 1000 people dead and many more homeless in New Orleans and the surrounding area.
DMC images acquired by its NigeriaSat-1 were sent to the United States Geographical Survey to aid mapping of the disaster zone. The images helped recovery teams assess damage far quicker than they could have with helicopter images.
