Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria: how satellites can help rescuers respond quickly

Two earthquakes, the first with a magnitude of 7.8 and the second with a magnitude of 7.5, shook Syria and Turkey on Monday, February 6. This is a great human catastrophe on both sides of the border. The number of victims is increasing every hour.

Important information can be obtained from space to guide relief efforts and humanitarian aid to supply water and food, information that is not available from earth, especially during disasters.

Satellite data allows you to display the condition of roads, bridges, buildings, and also – and this is very important – to identify population groups that are trying to avoid the consequences of possible aftershocks by gathering in stadiums or other open areas.

international effort

In order to quickly direct the gaze of satellites to the affected areas, the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) requested the activation of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters at 07:04 local time. The United Nations did this for Syria via Unitar at 11:29 local time.

Meanwhile, the most suitable radar and optical satellites of eleven space agencies were programmed. In the case of France, the Spot, Pléaides and Pléiades Neo (medium, high and very high resolution) optical satellites will provide the first images tomorrow as they pass through the area.

Radar-equipped satellites will complement optical satellites as they also operate at night and through clouds and can display landslides and even very small changes in altitude.

Every year, millions of people around the world suffer from natural disasters, both natural (cyclones, tornadoes, typhoons, earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, floods, forest fires, etc.) and man-made (oil spills, industrial explosions). …). Unfortunately, the intensity and frequency of these events are increasing with climate change, leaving more and more casualties and damage in their wake.

anatomy of a disaster

According to the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, a disaster is defined as a large-scale, sudden, single and uncontrollable event resulting in loss of life or damage to property and the environment and requiring urgent action to collect and provide data.

The charter was created by the French National Center for Space Research (CNES) and the European Space Agency in 1999, soon joined by the Canadian Space Agency. Today, 17 space agencies are joining forces to provide free satellite imagery of the affected areas as soon as possible. Since 2000, the Charter has been activated 797 times in more than 154 countries. It has since been supplemented by similar initiatives such as the Copernicus Emergency and Sentinel Asia.

Almost three-quarters of the Charter’s alerts are related to hydrometeorological events: storms, hurricanes and, above all, floods, which account for half of the alerts. In these unforeseen crisis situations, when land is damaged or flooded and roads are impassable, ground resources are not always able to analyze the scale of the disaster and organize the best rescue and humanitarian assistance. Capturing the situation from space at very high resolution, the satellites quickly provide important information.

In some cases, the Card cannot be activated. Either because the event is beyond its scope (wars and armed conflicts), or because spatial images are sometimes of little interest (heat-waves, epidemics), or because phenomena develop slowly (droughts), which is incompatible with the concept of urgency. which is the basis of his mission.

Satellite data before world crises

Once a disaster occurs, the satellites are programmed to acquire images of the affected areas in a very short time. More than sixty satellites, optical or radar, can be mobilized at any time.

Depending on the type of disaster, different satellites are activated based on predetermined crisis scenarios. Among them: TerraSAR-X / Tandem-X, QuickBird-2, Radarsat, Landsat-7/8, SPOT, Pleiades and Sentinel-2.

Optical images are similar to photographs from space, but radar images, for example, are more difficult to interpret for the uninitiated. For this reason, after a disaster, satellite information is processed to make it understandable and add value. For example, it translates into impact or change maps for rescuers, flood warning maps for the public, and mapping of burned or flooded areas with damage assessments for decision makers.

Cooperation between field users and satellite operators is essential. Advances have been made through innovations in Earth observation technologies, especially through optical resolutions: from 50 to 20 meters, and now up to 30 centimeters, and 3D data processing software, as well as through the development of digital tools that allow data to be linked. received from the satellite and received on the spot.

In addition, local needs have contributed to the development of the Charter’s intervention processes in terms of timelines for implementation and quality of results.

Reconstruction after disasters

Of course, emergency management is necessary, but it is important that all affected countries think about recovery and about the future. Indeed, in the “cycle of risk”, after a catastrophe and a humanitarian emergency, the return to normality will be a time of recovery, resilience, prevention and prevention.

Disasters cannot be predicted, but we can better prepare for them, especially in countries where natural disasters recur. Some strategies for doing this are anti-seismic structures, moving communities to safe places, raising awareness of survival techniques, and creating safe meeting places, among others.

After major disasters, such as in Haiti in 2021 or after the explosion in Beirut in 2019, various initiatives called reconstruction observatories have been launched. most affected areas (buildings, roads, agriculture, forests, etc.), monitor reconstruction planning, reduce risks and control changes within 3-4 years.

Emily Bronner, CNES Representative at the Executive Secretariat of the International Charter for Space Flight and Emergency Disasters, National Space Research Center (CNES)

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.

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