DMCii, SSTL’s imaging subsidiary, has been responding to an International Charter: Space and Major Disasters emergency activation for the flooding of Mississippi river in Central Midwest USA. The current flooding is approaching records set 84 years ago and it’s the first time in 40 years the level of the Mississippi has forced the floodgates to be opened. The UK has just taken over the chairmanship of the International Charter, and we take a closer look at the emergencies around the world that DMCii is providing satellites images for right now.

Fed by rainwater and the spring thaw, the Mississippi river and its tributaries have caused massive flooding upstream, and officials have said the flooding in Louisiana is the worst since 1927. About 25,000 people and 11,000 buildings could be adversely affected and the disaster’s Project Manager in the USA is using data from Charter members, including DMCii, to assess the situation. The flooding in the Mississippi delta has required an extended imaging campaign as the floods develop.

The dry and unusually warm spring has brought wild fires to several parts of the UK and DMCii has recently been “called in” to image a fire that broke out at the Belmont moor in Lancashire. On the other side of the World Mexico has also recently experienced raging fires, causing an activation of the International Charter. DMCii responded by tasking UK-DMC2 to image the area. Wild fires are common in Mexico at this time of year, but high temperatures and strong winds have meant that the country has experienced the worst fire season in 30 years, with the northern part of the country hit especially hard.



DMCii operates the Disaster Monitoring Constellation, a currently five-strong commercial satellite constellation made available on behalf of the UK as part of the Charter satellite fleet. Emergency on-Call Officers (ECOs) make themselves ready on a rotation basis to respond to International disasters on a 24/7 basis and task the Charter’s combined satellites in the event of an activation.

DMCii also has a place on the International Charter’s Executive Secretariat, which implements the day-to-day operation of the Charter.

The Constellation recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary at a Consortium meeting in London, focusing on how the constellation can be developed in the future, which you could read about here on the Space blog.

The time has come for the UK to take up leadership of the International Charter: Space and Major Disasters for a second time. Each member space agency takes it in turn to lead the Charter for a six-month period, and from yesterday Wednesday 11 May, DMCii together with the UK Space Agency will host and chair meetings, develop operational protocols and solve any problems that arise.

The Charter is a unique cooperation between space agencies worldwide, coordinating the acquisition of satellite images over disaster-stricken regions as quickly as possible. These images used to create up to date disaster response maps that are delivered to the relevant civil protection authorities as soon as they come in to help guide response efforts and save lives.

Initiated by the European, French and Canadian space agencies (ESA, CNES, CSA), the Charter has been activated more than 300 times since it was declared formally operational in 2000, with activations currently averaging once per fortnight. This year’s disasters have triggered 10 activations to date, including flooding in Australia, Brazil and Namibia, landslides in Turkey, earthquakes in New Zealand and the tsunami in Japan.

Continue reading "UK takes over international disaster relief effort"

The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded SSTL with a Micro Heat Management System Study to identify innovative techniques to manage heat in nano/micro satellites (defined as having a volume smaller than 400×400×400 mm). The objective is to find recommendations on low cost heat management systems that can be used in a modular fashion.

NEOMEx is a programme for development of a new nano-satellite bus through the use of a system of microsystems such as the Micro Heat Management System. The aim of NEOMEx is to provide a low cost, low mass and readily adaptable spacecraft system as a solution to numerous mission types. An ESA study known as NanoSat is a potential mission concept example, as an application of a modular and configurable nano spacecraft.

Heat generated by all electronic devices and circuitry must be dispersed and ultimately radiated to Space in order to avoid overheating and to prevent premature failure in satellites and space systems. With heat management systems taking up volume, mass and power, there is a particular challenge in finding systems for dispersing heat in nano- and micro-satellites because their designs are dependent on using as little of these resources as possible. There is an increased interest in nano satellites from ESA and other organisations, as they offer more economical missions with ever increasing capabilities, making it even more important to find useful solutions with a small size in mind.

A lot of time, and therefore money, is usually spent designing thermal control systems that are used for just one particular satellite system. The SSTL led Heat Management System Study will for 15 months look at different innovative techniques to find the most effective design that can be reused repeatedly within ESA’s NEOMEx and similar programs.