UN-SPIDER Updates November 2020

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), through its United Nation Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER), organized the United Nations International Conference on Space-based Technologies for Disaster Risk Reduction - "Lessons learned during the unprecedented pandemic situation" on 24-25 November 2020. The Conference… Read more

The hurricane season in Central America normally quiets down at the end of October, but this year is one of those rare years when tropical storms and hurricanes in the region have occured beyond the typical season. With 30 events thus far, the 2020 tropical storm season in the Caribbean continues to take its toll in developing countries in Central America.… Read more

Officially launched in 2015 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the SMAP mission is an orbiting satellite that measures the amount of wetness in the top layer of soil incrementally every 2-3 days. These Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) measurements rely on radiation frequencies that point to different… Read more

When disaster looms, early warning about potentially affected areas and the extent of the event are critical for disaster management efforts. Using in situ and satellite-based observations, two web-based systems provide critical information to support flood early warning efforts worldwide, for instance in the context of the current record-setting Atlantic hurricane season, which has brought… Read more

A new report by the world’s largest humanitarian aid network highlights global disasters, populations most vulnerable to them and the efforts of local institutions in preventing, preparing for and responding to them. The 2020 edition of the World Disasters Report, “Come Heat or… Read more

The Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) and Africa programme, a joint initiative by the European Commission and the African Union Commission, has launched an online training platform to strengthen capacities in the use of Earth observation data and services for information decision-making. The new system follows the publication of the… Read more