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, 10 Landsat scenes were ingested by the USGS Hazard Data Distribution System to provide data for the following Charter activation(s):
+ Earthquake and landslide in Nepal and India
+ Flood in Chile
Details from the USGS Hazard Data Distribution System’s RSS feed:
On 2015-05-14 08:48:42, 4 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201504_Earthquake_NPL
On 2015-05-12 07:19:12, 2 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201503_Flood_CHL
On 2015-05-11 07:43:46, 4 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201504_Earthquake_NPL
Landsat data ingested by HDDS for non-charter activations:
On 2015-05-26 05:42:58, 2 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201409_Volcano_Kilauea_HI
On 2015-05-26 05:38:35, 2 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201409_Volcano_Kilauea_HI
On 2015-05-26 05:16:55, 2 LANDSAT-7 scenes were ingested for event: 201409_Volcano_Kilauea_HI
On 2015-05-18 07:59:14, 1 LANDSAT-8 scene was ingested for event: 201409_Volcano_Kilauea_HI
On 2015-05-15 12:43:55, 2 LANDSAT-7 scenes were ingested for event: 201409_Volcano_Kilauea_HI
On 2015-05-15 12:21:16, 1 LANDSAT-8 scene was ingested for event: 201409_Volcano_Kilauea_HI
On 2015-05-14 08:37:06, 2 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201409_Volcano_Kilauea_HI
On 2015-05-14 08:37:06, 2 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201409_Volcano_Kilauea_HI
On 2015-05-13 16:03:31, 5 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201505_Flood_TX
On 2015-05-13 07:08:37, 2 LANDSAT-7 scenes were ingested for event: 201501_Volcano_Soputan_IDN
On 2015-05-12 10:27:40, 1 LANDSAT-8 scene was ingested for event: 201505_Tornado_Midwest_US
On 2015-05-12 07:34:45, 1 LANDSAT-8 scene was ingested for event: 201502_Storm_GA
On 2015-05-12 07:33:01, 2 LANDSAT-7 scenes were ingested for event: 201502_Storm_GA
On 2015-05-12 06:53:08, 1 LANDSAT-8 scene was ingested for event: 201311_Volcano_Indonesia
On 2015-05-11 20:45:28, 1 LANDSAT-8 scene was ingested for event: 201505_Tornado_Midwest_US
On 2015-05-11 18:29:02, 1 LANDSAT-8 scene was ingested for event: 201505_Tornado_Midwest_US
On 2015-05-11 07:49:09, 2 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201409_Volcano_Kilauea_HI
On 2015-05-11 07:49:09, 2 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201409_Volcano_Kilauea_HI
On 2015-05-07 05:00:16, 2 LANDSAT-8 scenes were ingested for event: 201409_Volcano_Kilauea_HI
On 2015-05-07 04:58:10, 2 LANDSAT-7 scenes were ingested for event: 201409_Volcano_Kilauea_HI