Earthquake

Having reliable and timely population distribution data can make a life or death difference for individuals facing crises or living in conflict-ridden regions. These data are also essential for development decision-making and planning and for monitoring progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the international community. We need to know where people are located, what conditions they are facing, what infrastructure is available, and what basic services they can access. We also need to ensure that no one is left off the map in pursuit of meeting the SDGs. 

Gridded population data, which often use remote sensing inputs to improve the spatial allocation of population within a country, are vital for all these purposes. Together with the  growing variety of applications that require spatial population data, there is now a bewildering array of population grids, and users need to know which ones are most suitable for their applications…

The European Space Agency is organising the 11th International Workshop on “Advances in the Science and Applications of SAR Interferometry and Sentinel-1 InSAR”, Fringe 2021.

Format

Fringe 2021 is organised around:

• Papers and e-posters selected by the Scientific Committee;
• Invited papers on ESA-funded studies and Sentinel-1 and future ESA SAR mission status reports;
• Round-table discussions with seed questions prepared by the session chairpersons and ESA.

The event will take place from 31 May - June 4 2021. No participation fees will be charged.

Objectives

• To bring together the global InSAR research and development communities and facilitate international exchange between researchers and research groups; 
• To present the Sentinel-1 mission status, algorithms and products;
• To review and assess the progress according to the…

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States Government (NASA) signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 17 December 2020 pledging cooperation in areas of science and technology to support the peaceful uses of outer space.

The MoU brings together NASA's wealth of open-source spacecraft data, tools, and expertise and UNOOSA's unique position as the only UN entity dedicated to outer space affairs, to expand global opportunities to leverage the benefits of space. The partners will design capacity-building programmes, particularly for institutions in countries that do not yet have or that are developing space capabilities, to help them access space.

Together, UNOOSA and NASA will develop ways to leverage the Artemis programme as part of UNOOSA's Access to Space 4 All Initiative, which offers opportunities for international researchers and institutions, especially in…

The European Commission plans to rapidly expand its environmental monitoring programme Copernicus. For this purpose, the European Space Agency (ESA) recently pledged 2.55 billion Euros towards contracts to advance the production of six new Copernicus satellite missions. The final of the six contracts was signed last Thursday between ESA and Thales Alenia Space for a mission that will provide new and important information to climate research and disaster management.

The high-priority Copernicus Radar Observation System for Europe in L-band (ROSE-L) mission is planned to launch in 2028 for a period of 7.5 years. The ROSE-L mission will orbit Earth every few days at an altitude of 690km and will carry a L-Band synthetic aperture radar (SAR). With a wavelength of approximately 23cm, an…

The Disasters programme unit at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently joined a newly launched online platform aimed at placing anticipatory action on the humanitarian agenda. NASA’s involvement in the Anticipation Hub and the subsequent incorporation of Earth observation (EO) tools, serves to improve the capabilities of anticipatory action globally and demonstrates the potential of utilizing satellite-driven data for anticipatory action in disaster management.

Anticipatory action in the humanitarian context describes disaster mitigation activities based on in-depth forecast information and risk analysis. This approach has gained traction amongst the humanitarian community in recent years as it is viewed as a more efficient and affordable alternative…

A new report outlines the impact of Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) data on various policy areas. The 2020 edition of the “Atlas of the Human Planet”, recently published and launched virtually by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission as a deliverable to the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Human Planet Initiative, explores the impact of GHSL data on various policy areas, including disaster risk management.

GHSL data refers to “global spatial information, evidence-based analytics and knowledge describing the human presence on the planet”. This data relies on spatial information from Landsat 8, Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2. It is mainly cost-free and…

The European Space Agency (ESA) wants to further develop the understanding of our planet. For this purpose, ESA chose three concepts in 2018 to compete for the next Earth Explorer mission. The decision was made last week to move on to the next development stage with Harmony, one of the three concepts. Harmony would provide new and important information on the Earth’s systems for scientific research and disaster risk management.

The objective of Earth Explorer missions is to “focus on the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere and Earth's interior with an overall emphasis on learning more about the interactions between these systems and the impact that human…

The use of multi-risk information systems is crucial in confronting the increasing risks posed by natural hazards. In some cases, risk is increasing due to inadequate land-use norms or regulations that allow for the construction of infrastructure in areas exposed to such natural hazards. In other cases, vulnerability increases due to lack of awareness or extreme poverty.  The need to address risks from the point of view of multiple hazards is necessary to contribute to sustainable development and has been incorporated as an essential element of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.  For this purpose, the RIESGOS 2.0 project was launched in March 2021. Under the coordination of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the project builds on the accomplishments of its predecessor - RIESGOS - as a multi-risk information system that models and simulates natural…

A strong earthquake of 6.2 M hit the Western part of Sulawesi on the early morning of 15 of January. The epicenter of the quake was six km northeast of the city of Majene, at a depth of 10 km. According to media reports, at least 78 people were killed, 820 injured and 15,000 displaced. 

To support emergeny response efforts, UN-SPIDER has requested the activation of the International Charter Space and Major Disasters on behalf of the Indonesian Disaster Management Agency (BNPB).