Global

The world leading insurance and reinsurance provider Swiss Re recently partnered with the commercial synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite operator ICEYE to improve flood modelling and support disaster response efforts around the world.

A flood is a broad term that refers to “the overflow of water from a stream channel into normally dry land in the floodplain (riverine flooding), higher-than–normal levels along the coast and in lakes or reservoirs (coastal flooding) as well as ponding of water at or near the point where the rain fell (flash floods)“. Floods can pose a severe risk to natural environments, communities and their assets, agricultural areas, infrastructure and they are one of the most frequent and destructive natural hazards in the... read more

The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to improve its capabilities to track the effects of wildfires. For this purpose, ESA recently offered a contract to the IT and business consulting firm CGI in order to create a new mapping service for wildfires. This mapping service will blend Earth observation (EO) and Artificial intelligence (AI) data to improve wildfire risk management globally.

A wildfire refers to “any uncontrolled and non-prescribed combustion or burning of plants in a natural setting such as a forest, grassland, brush land or tundra, which consumes the natural fuels and spreads based on environmental conditions”. Wildfires can pose a risk to natural environments and human life in conditions of dry weather and strong winds. In this regard, EO data has the potential to provide important information on wildfires that can be used in all phases of the disaster management cycle. More information on wildfires... read more

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... read more

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 to... read more

Most of the volcanic activities are rapidly evolving phenomena, and thus, hard for volcanologists and disaster management agencies to monitor and predict. In the last four decades, however, due to the proliferation of new and innovative instruments and techniques, scientists have made progress in forecasting the timing of many volcanic eruptions. New studies have shown that combining ground-based information, satellite data, and AI technologies facilitates consistent and long-term monitoring of volcanoes, allowing researchers to have a comprehensive overview of volcanic systems. Understanding volcanic behavior can help to track unrest-warning signs, to forecast volcano eruptions and possible related landslides and tsunamis, and consequently to activate emergency plans in a timely manner.

Volcanologists are now using new tools and techniques, such as space-borne and AI technologies, to track volcanic activities. Satellites can offer better prospects for... read more

A recent study has produced a 20-year time series of primary production by marine phytoplankton, one of the largest fluxes of carbon on our planet. Studying phytoplankton primary production is important because it provides useful information about ocean biology, climate, and global carbon cycle. Observing primary production over long-time scales or quantifying its small variations can help the scientific community to determine carbon dioxide concentrations, as well as the effect of climate variability on these processes. The study uses in -situ measurements and satellite data from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Climate Change Initiative,

The study assesses global annual phytoplankton primary productivity between 1998 and 2018 and aims at identifying its long-term patterns and its variability with seasons and locations. It uses a global database of in situ measurements of photosynthesis versus irradiance (P-I) parameters and a 20-year record of climate... read more

The Group of Earth Observations (GEO) and the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) have opened a call for expression of interest for the “Earth Observation Toolkit for Sustainable Cities and Communities” programme. This programme aims to support UN Member States in sustainable urban development by creating a customizable and continually updated toolkit that will integrate Earth observation and geospatial data with national statistics, socioeconomic information and other data. Through this project, GEO and UN-Habitat are looking to define needs and data, and provide practical guidance to support urban monitoring, reporting and development at the city, national, regional, and global levels.

The programme will complement the efforts of countries to monitor, report and drive progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11, which aims at “making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”, and... read more

The European Space Agency (ESA), in coordination with the European Commission, is launching a special edition of the Custom Script Contest, focused on the support of space assets during the COVID-19 crisis, managed by Euro Data Cube group. The contest is looking for remote sensing experts, machine learning scientists and interested public to make proposals on how satellite data can help with observation of changes in economic operators, changes in human activity distribution and changes in agriculture activity, among other applications. The aim of the contest is to help mitigate the COVID-19 situation in the upcoming months.

Participants can produce scripts using data from various sources, such as the European Sentinel satellites, Airbus and Planet data, as well as data from Pleiades and PlanetScope. Different tools can be used, including EO Browser, Sentinel Hub and xcube services, eo-learn, and Jupyter Notebooks.

Participants can... read more

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), after months of careful testing, has started to operationally assimilate data from the European Space Agency's Aeolus satellite in its daily weather forecasts. Aeolus measurements have been considered ready for operational use as early as 14 months after the satellite launch, which is unusual for data collected from a new type of satellite. Aelous provides accurate and near-real time measurements that can improve weather forecasting and contribute to better preparedness for possible hazards.

The Aeolus satellite is the first of its kind as it is able to calculate atmospheric winds in cloud-free areas or winds throughout vertical wind columns. To date, satellites could estimate winds only from the movements of clouds, leaving gaps in observations where there are no clouds. Aeolus can improve weather forecasts, especially in the tropics, in the southern... read more

Sentinel Hub’s Earth Observation (EO) browser is hosting its second round of contests for custom scripts to better visualize and analyze the Earth’s surface. EO Browser, developed by Sinergise in close cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA), brings together petabytes of data from many satellite platforms - from ESA’s Copernicus programme to NASA’s Landsat missions.

The competition is open from 15 October 2019 to 15 January 2020, and calls for submissions of JavaScript scripts, which can be input into EO Browser's “create custom rendering” visualization tool. This script must be designed to work with one of the eight satellite platforms available on EO browser.

The last Sentinel Hub Custom Script Contest was won by a script for best visualizing deep moist convection, an atmospheric condition associated with tornadoes, hurricanes, and cyclones. This disaster management... read more

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) - the world's largest humanitarian organization - released a report estimating the growth of humanitarian need if current human activities continue. Published this month, "The Cost of Doing Nothing" paints a bleak picture of global need for humanitarian assistance doubling to 200 million. The price tag, the report projects, could come to $20 billion annually. 

The report is a collaboration between IFRC and leading environmental scientists and economists and takes into account global growth rates, inequality, demographics and climate. The IFRC cautions that inaction now will result in the need for a massive increase in humanitarian aid to combat climate-related disasters and their socioeconomic impact. Key findings of the report show that current human activities will lead to escalating suffering and ballooning costs. The report also warns that its dire findings are likely... read more

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. In that way, health workers will be able to better reach households and relief workers to better distribute aid. 

For its population density maps, Facebook used a combination of machine learning techniques, high resolution satellite imagery and population data; no Facebook data was used nor did the census and satellite data used contain any personal data. The satellite maps used were created using DigitalGlobe's commercially available satellite from the same type... read more