Facebook has published new population density maps covering most of the African continent and countries of the Asia-Pacific region in June 2019. Using artificial intelligence (AI), these maps help organizations to respond to natural disasters, and scientists to assess the impact of climate change and urbanization on people’s lives. As soon as almost the entire world population is covered by the project, population distribution in remote areas will be better determinable by humanitarian agencies.
Satellite technology helps to monitor drought in Kenya providing detailed information about the strength, location, spatial extent and duration of the drought.
Chinese and Brazilian officials have announced their intention to deepen their cooperation in satellite development and applications. The space-based collaboration between both nations has already been fruitful in various fields, including remote sensing and Earth observation.
The government of the state of Andhra Pradesh in South India announced its considerations of employing satellite technology to provide rural areas with broadband services, including computer networks, television and internet access.
The Director-general of the Malaysian National Space Agency (Angkasa), Dr Noordin Ahmad, highlighted the importance of satellite technology in the pre- and post-disaster management phases, as well as during the occurrence of an emergency.
In an interview for the Sun, referring to the National Security Council of the Prime Minister Department, Ahmad stated: "We have engaged them on how best to use and promote the use of satellite technology in mitigating disaster. One way will be to use satellite images in the pre- and post disaster process".
Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California created a new seafloor map based on satellite data that discloses previously unaccessible features on global earthquakes, spreading ridges and faults.
The new instrument explores the deep oceans' structure and ongoing geophysical processes by capturing gravity measurements of the seafloor, which are derived from altimery data recorded from ESA's CryoSat-2 and NASA's Jason-1 satellites. The authors state that "the map provides a new window into the tectonics of the deep oceans".
The first documents for Europe’s MetOp Second Generation (MetOp SG) weather satellite mission were signed on 20 May 2014 by representatives from ESA and Airbus Defence and Space at the Berlin Air Show.
This brochure gives an overview of the UN-SPIDER programme and the relevance of our work. It highlights various examples of space-based applications in emergency response and disaster risk reduction. The brochure also presents the different areas of work of the programme: knowledge management, technical advisory support, and partnerships.
British and Chinese satellite imaging and tracking technology will be deployed to Nigeria to help Nigerian authorities to support them in the search of the abducted Nigerian school girls.
"President Goodluck Jonathan Wednesday requested and received a commitment from Britain to deploy its intelligence gathering resources in support of Nigeria’s security agencies currently engaged in the search and rescue operation," presidential spokesman Reuben Abati said in a statement.
During the new Iranian calendar year which started on March 21, the Islamic Republic of Iran plans to launch seven satellites into space, Hamid Fezeli, Head of the Iran Space Agency (ISA) said. ISA is also host of one of UN-SPIDER's Regional Support Offices.
The Nahid, a satellite which is designed by experts at the research centre of ISA with the cooperation of the scientists from Amirkabir University of Technology, is one of the satellites that is scheduled to be launched among the seven.
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