The International Charter is a system that supplies free satellite imagery to emergency responders anywhere in the world.
The Charter concept is this: a single phone number is made available to authorized parties providing 24/7 contact to a person who can activate the charter. Once activated, a project manager takes charge. The project manager knows what satellite resources are available, how to task them to collect data, and how to quickly analyze the collected data to create impact maps for first responders. These maps, provided to responders for free, often show where the damage is and where crisis victims are, allowing responders to plan and execute relief support.
You can think of the Charter as a one-stop-shop for impact maps—an essential resource, since in many cases satellite data are the only practical method to assess current ground conditions after a disaster.
This month, 74 Landsat scenes were ingested by the USGS Hazard Data Distribution System to provide data for Charter activations:
+ Hurricane Matthew (U.S., Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti)
+ Flood in Australia
+ Flood in U.S.
The USGS HDDS also provided 10 Landsat scenes for:
+ Kilauea volcano in Hawaii
+ Fire in the U.S.
+ Volcano in Ecuador
Details from the USGS Hazard Data Distribution System’s RSS feed for Charter activations:
On 2016-10-03 09:28:22, 5 LANDSAT-7 scenes were ingested for event: 201609_Flood_AUS
On 2016-10-03 09:38:42, 1 LANDSAT-8 scene was ingested for event: 201609_Flood_AUS
On 2016-10-03 10:00:47, 1 LANDSAT-8 scene was ingested for event: 201609_Flood_AUS
On 2016-10-03 10:54:59, 2 LANDSAT-7 scenes were ingested for event: 201609_Flood_US
On 2016-10-04 10:15:23, 2 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201609_Flood_US
On 2016-10-04 10:35:50, 1 LANDSAT-8 scene was ingested for event: 201610_Hurricane_Matthew
On 2016-10-04 11:36:32, 11 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201610_Hurricane_Matthew_US
On 2016-10-04 12:22:16, 2 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201610_Hurricane_Matthew
On 2016-10-05 08:49:32, 3 LANDSAT-7 scenes were ingested for event: 201609_Flood_US
On 2016-10-05 14:07:20, 9 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201610_Hurricane_Matthew
On 2016-10-06 09:33:18, 2 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201609_Flood_US
On 2016-10-06 09:54:07, 14 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201610_Hurricane_Matthew
On 2016-10-06 09:54:33, 10 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201610_Hurricane_Matthew_US
On 2016-10-31 13:53:31, 7 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201610_Hurricane_Matthew
On 2016-10-31 14:24:45, 4 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201610_Hurricane_Matthew_US
Landsat data ingested by HDDS for non-charter activations:
On 2016-10-03 10:39:54, 2 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201409_Volcano_Kilauea_HI
On 2016-10-03 11:04:25, 1 LANDSAT-7 scene was ingested for event: 201609_Fire_US
On 2016-10-04 10:26:46, 1 LANDSAT-8 scene was ingested for event: 201609_Fire_US
On 2016-10-17 09:39:49, 2 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201409_Volcano_Kilauea_HI
On 2016-10-17 09:48:59, 2 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201409_Volcano_Kilauea_HI
On 2016-10-31 08:57:10, 1 LANDSAT-8 scene was ingested for event: 201507_Volcano_Cotopaxi_ECU
On 2016-10-31 09:12:18, 1 LANDSAT-7 scene was ingested for event: 201409_Volcano_Kilauea_HI