A UK-led international consortium that uses satellite imagery to provide disaster mitigation celebrates its ten year anniversary this week as its members meet in London to plan for the coming decade.
The Disaster Monitoring Constellation is a unique international partnership formed by national governments and organisations that recognised the need for coordinated satellite imaging campaigns to assess and mitigate natural disasters with more up to date and timely information a decade ago. The five consortium members each own an independent satellite, but pool their resources to gather and distribute up to date images of disaster stricken areas anywhere in the world.
By working together, the multi-satellite constellation provided the unique capability to acquire satellite images of anywhere on Earth at least once a day. This makes it possible to provide recent high quality images of the effected area within the critical days following a disaster, improving the accuracy of maps and emergency response plans that are made.
DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) was set up to coordinate disaster response and to distribute images. In partnership with the former British National Space Centre (BNSC) and the Constellation members, DMCii uses the commercial exploitation of the satellite images to fund coordination of the Constellation for humanitarian use during natural disasters.
Published by: EARSC
Full text: http://www.earsc.eu/news/uk-celebrates-a-decade-of-disaster-monitoring-from-space
