Satellites Help Aid Workers Plan Pakistan Flood Relief

by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer

Date: 03 September 2010 Time: 01:06 PM ET

Satellites are helping aid workers plan relief for flood-ravaged Pakistan by providing high-resolution maps of the destruction so rescue crews can reach the homeless, displaced and sick.

The new maps will help aid workers bearing medicine, food and clean water to find their way to the afflicted as quickly as possible, European Space Agency officials said in a statement. [Satellite Map of Pakistan Flooding]

The flooding began in late July, when torrential monsoon rains soaked much of Pakistan. More than a month later, an estimated 1,600 people are dead, 6 million left homeless and 20 percent of the country remains underwater.

In these conditions, many more people could die of disease or starvation, ESA officials said. The United Nations has warned that up to 3.5 million children in Pakistan could be at serious risk, officials added.

Clean water is especially important to stave off water-borne diseases, ESA officials said.

"Water is a scarce commodity in this devastated region, which is the key for the survival and the well-being of millions of children," said ESA astronaut Frank De Winne, who serves as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for his native country of Belgium.

Eyes in the sky

A variety of satellites from several countries have been observing Pakistan from space since the flooding began, helping authorities create up-to-date maps.

Several NASA satellites tracked the origins of the flooding in Pakistan in late July, when nearly 16 inches (40 cm) of rain fell on the country during a two-day storm on July 28-29. Before-and-after views of Pakistan's southern region and Indus river clearly show severe flooding in images from NASA's CloudSat and Aqua satellites.

Many of these satellites are working via the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters.

The charter is a partnership of various national space agencies and research organizations, including the European and Japanese space agencies and the U.S. Geological Survey. The charter is typically activated in the wake of natural disasters, directing space-based resources to help out those on the ground.

Satellite maps created by the charter are often based on radar imagery, such as that acquired by the ESA satellite Envisat. Since radar can see through clouds and darkness, it provides a round-the-clock view of conditions on the ground. But charter maps incorporate optical images as well. Both Envisat and the French Spot 5 satellite have provided photos of Pakistan's floods.

Another organization, Global Monitoring for Environment and Security, is also turning satellite data into maps. GMES is run by the European Commission, and it provides support services in the wake of many different natural disasters.

NASA is also doing its part to help map out the Pakistan floods. The agency's Terra, CloudSat and Aqua satellites continue to observe the inundated region to help authorities get a handle on the devastation.

A history of helping out

Pressing satellites into service in the wake of natural disasters didn't start with the Pakistan floods; satellites have a long history of helping out.

When the 7.0-magnitude Haitian earthquake struck this past January, killing more than 200,000 people, satellites mapped out the damage and helped direct aid workers to the hardest-hit areas. NASA satellites pitched in, as did craft run by ESA, the French Space Agency, Japan, China and other countries, many of their efforts coordinated via the charter.

Similarly, many different satellites imaged the aftermath of the devastating Boxing Day tsunami of 2004, an earthquake-triggered disaster that killed more than 200,000 people throughout South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Satellite images, many provided by NASA, also returned helpful great views of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill this spring and summer.