Space for Living Safely
Space technologies often seem far removed from our daily lives, distant and distantly relevant. So too do the troubles of the third world, and natural disasters. We don't see them every day, and as the old adage says: "Out of sight, out of mind." And when we do think of space, the question is often raised whether investments in astronautics and space technology are worth their price. Might not those dollars be better spent on addressing the problems faced by the peoples of the third world? Should we not spend that money on solving problems here, on Earth, before venturing beyond?But space technology is very close to the heart of the challenges faced by our global society. Two days ago, the Caribbean country of Haiti was struck by a severe earthquake, which destroyed much of the key infrastructure, flattened much of the capital city, and left tens of thousands of people homeless and without access to basic services. While the global community raced to respond to the impending humanitarian disaster, efforts to address the immediate problems faced by the people of Haiti were slowed by severed communications networks, blocked roads, and a damaged airport. With the country's government estimating the number of dead at 100,000, and estimates of the displaced and injured ranging to 3 million, the event represents a tragedy of immense and still-uncertain proportions.
Sailing free and untouched nearly 800 km above the destruction, the Canadian Space Agency's RADARSAT-2 Earth-observing satellite took this image of the area surrounding the city of Port-au-Prince:
RADARSAT-2 orbits in a near-polar plane, giving it a view of nearly the entire surface of the earth every 3 days or less (for northern regions like Canada, this period falls to 1-2 days, or even less). The CSA activated the satellite's imaging of Haiti under a global agreement called the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters. The image above was taken at 05:47 AM on 14 January 2010 -- less than 37 hours after the earthquake struck, while events on the ground in Haiti were still urgent and unfolding. Within a few hours it had been received, precessed, and distributed. This image was joined by a suite of others, from satellites operated by the world's space agencies.
These images will be used by the organizations which co-ordinate and plan the disaster response to better understand the situation at hand. Comparisons can be made to past imagery to see changes in geography &mdash areas of landslides or surface movement. Fires, smoke, flooding, destroyed settlements, and other important features can be identified from these orbital photographs readily, even when bad weather or ruined airports and roads make ground- and air-based reconnaissance impossible. This information can be used to plan the type, distribution, and scheduling of the disaster response, helping limited resources to be used faster and more effectively. This, in turn, can save lives and hasten the recovery of the population and the public institutions.
Space technology is not a frill; it's not an unnecessary indulgence of a government that could better spend its dollars elsewhere. Lives are saved, lives are made safer, by timely and reliable information about the events which affect us, wherever we reside on this active, living planet. In times of disaster especially, international co-operation is aided by images from spacecraft which, though nationally-operated, circle the entire globe without respect to boundaries. Telecommunications satellites like Anik F2 allow information to reach victims of the disaster, the world outside, relief co-ordinators, and government agencies even when terrestrial systems are destroyed or overloaded. Earth-observing satellites like SMOS allow us to better understand the systems that drive our home planet, and to track its history and monitor its evoloution to better understands its changes and the context of events. Information from these missions helps us monitor our resources &mdash from water to fields to forests &mdash and plan our use of them to better protect them and the people who depend on them, both in the developing world and the developed. New initiatives and international collaboration &mdash projects like GMES &mdash will allow comprehensive and timely monitoring of our home planet, to make the contributions of space technology even more significant and robust.
Space technology is a key tool for the growth, safety, and efficiency of our modern society, and it is essential to our safety in our times of greatest need. Be it through managing resources, responding to disasters, or connecting communities, space technology helps us to live our lives and build our societies; even when it seems distant and invisible. The more we understand our planet, the better we can live on it, and satellites can help us do that like no other technology can.
Posted 14 January 02010
