“Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is normally the
project manager of Japan, but since in the immediate aftermath of the
disasters, the JAXA repository was down, it was decided that I would
act as project manager,” Dr. Nagai reveals. Dr. Nagai is Associate
Director at AIT’s Geoinformatics Center, and has been seconded to AIT
by JAXA.
The International
Charter is activated following a disaster and partner agencies
immediately start sharing satellite information and data on the
disaster. Dr. Nagai was also project manager during the tsunami that
struck Indonesia last year.
Emergency satellite observation and rapid analysis is being
coordinated by Dr. Nagai along with major international space agencies
to provide critical support in the recovery operations. “The list of
major affected areas has grown from five to eighteen since we began
work,” Dr. Nagai says.
Dr. Lal Samarakoon, the Director of Geoinformatics Center said that a
team of four research associates of Geoinformatics Center (GIC) at AIT
is helping produce images for the International Charter and assist Dr.
Nagai in his Project Management activities. “The image creation began
the day following the disaster and would continue till the end of the
week, when the situation is reevaluated,” Dr. Lal says. He adds that
GIC was involved in emergency mapping since last year with the
recognition of GIC/AIT as the Principal Data Analysis Node of Sentinel
Asia, an initiative by number of space agencies in Asia including JAXA
to help emergency mapping in the region.
Apart from JAXA, European Space Agency (ESA), United States
Geological Survey (USGS), Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) of
France, Centre for Satellite Based Crisis Information (DLR-ZKI) in Germany, Canadian Space
Agency (CSA),
China National Space Administration (CNSA), Korea
Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), Geo-Informatics and Space
Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) of Thailand, and
National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan, are
among the agencies actively involved in helping for disaster relief
operations.
AIT maps, which have been posted on the International Charter website
include a map of Sendai airport, Ishinomaki Port, and mouth of Kyu-Kita
Kamigawa among others.
Satellite images are helping detect changes in the landforms,
particularly in the coastline in North West Japan. It is estimated that
the coastline has moved by about four meters, resulting in a huge
alteration in the landscape. Using change detection techniques, where
the satellite image before the disaster is compared with the satellite
image after the disaster, the difference in landforms becomes very
apparent.
New threats are identified and new mapping helps guide rescue and
relief teams to reach the destination. Since the devastation caused by
the earthquake and tsunami is huge, new maps have to created in the
affected areas. This is where satellite imagery assumes critical
importance.
An image of Iwanuma, south of Sendai
Airport, Japan created by AIT