Volcanoes and floods: How satellites monitor disasters

[BUENOS AIRES] In August 2007, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck the Peruvian coast, killing 519 people and destroying more than 58,000 houses. Then, recovery was based on what could be seen from the ground.

About a decade later, in early 2017, dozens of people were killed in El Niño flooding, but the circumstances were somewhat different.

到那时，可以提供来自飞机，无人机和卫星的远程图像。PERUSAT 1是2016年12月推出的第一个国家陆地观察卫星。

“我们追踪地方da的温度上升ngerous levels. We aim to develop a system to tell the population when some places are more risky than usual.”

Víctor Magaña, researcher, National Laboratory of Earth Observation, Mexico

“Although we were in a better situation, we had an additional problem,” remembers José Pasapera, technical director of space sciences and applications at Peru’s National Commission for Aerospace Research and Development (CONIDA). “We had the hardware but not processing capabilities; there were not human resources available nor a procedure guide.”

卫星越来越多地用于监测和管理洪水，地震，火灾甚至火山喷发，并且能够使该技术充分利用其利用。

卫星发展不仅有助于合作该地区的国家，以及具有更发达功能的地区，例如中国， 这欧洲联盟和美国。

空间合作

阿根廷将推出Saocom 1B（阿根廷微波观测卫星）完成了在该国设计和制造的两个地球观测卫星的“星座”。首先是Saocom 1A，自2016年以来一直在Polar Orbit。该发布计划于3月30日在美国举行，但一直在美国由于冠状病毒延迟travel restrictions.

Laura Frulla, Earth observation manager and principal researcher at SAOCOM, said the addition of the second satellite would complete the Italian-Argentinean system for emergencies (SIASGE). “The two SAOCOMs will join fourCosmo Skymed由意大利航天局开发的卫星以获取全局，”她告诉scidev.net。

共同努力的六个卫星可以进行地震危险分析，灾难监测和农业地图。

“Specifically, our mission was requested to detect minimum variations in the humidity of the soil, so agricultural producers have data for decision-making as well as hydrological emergencies,” Frulla said.

Data from SAOCOM images are being sent to the National Water Institute to detect how rain affects rivers. Combined with other data, it predicts the chances of flooding. “Our data is not definitive but another layer of information to take into account,” Frulla adds. The humidity maps have validation networks in the field, with 100 sensors in five key agricultural provinces.

利用数据的力量

对于没有自己卫星开发的国家，他们可以访问其他国家产生的图像。哥伦比亚就是这种情况，因为卡洛斯·安德烈斯·佛朗哥·普里托（CarlosAndrésFrancoPrieto）是研究与创新集团的协调员Geographic Institute Agustín Codazzi，解释scidev.net：“我们使用欧洲航天局的图像，分辨率为10米。”

“It is not optimum and can take a picture in the same place only every six days, but they are free for us. Obviously, when a disaster is happening, not having a constant flow of [images] is a real problem.”

他说，哥伦比亚正在考虑发射自己的卫星。“成本效益是好的，现在它并不像以前那样昂贵。在GDP方面，许多国家已经拥有了它，因此我们可以加入该俱乐部。” Prieto说。

And Mexico’s Earth observations system is powered mostly by United States-owned satellites, such as国家海洋和大气管理(NOAA) and the space agencyNASA。

The images are received by the国家实验室观察（LANOT成立于2018年在墨西哥国家自治大学），并专注于天气现象，洪水，火山和森林大火，每年都有数千人。

“The civil protection agencies have access to the images in order to monitor disasters in progress and the National Weather Service for foreseeing heavy rains or droughts,” Víctor Magaña, a LANOT researcher tellsscidev.net。

Pioneering space tech

墨西哥是一名先驱，目前处于测试模式的领域是对墨西哥城的热岛进行监测。

“我们追踪地方da的温度上升ngerous levels. We aim to develop a system to tell the population when some places are more risky than usual,” Magaña says.

研究人员希望避免随着温度升高以及与热有关的死亡而出现的数千例腹泻病例。

也许最大的地区是B卫星的球员razil, which has decades of Earth observation systems experience. Besides monitoring fires and weather, the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) has data on solar radiation, drought, forests and climate change.

巴西在1988年加入中国 - 巴西地球资源卫星计划（CBES）时提出了野心。从那时起，已经推出了六颗卫星，最新的卫星在12月。巴西的最新开发项目将是亚马逊1号，这是一条遥感卫星，每五天将每五天拍摄地球图像。它是巴西完全开发的第一个。

在紧急情况下，可以在三天内评估一个特定的地理点，INPE Multi Mission Platform的卫星计划协调员Adenilson Silva告诉scidev.net。

亚马逊1号计划于今年晚些时候推出。