Heavy rains have caused major rivers in the Sucre/San Marcos region in Colombia to burst their banks, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless. DMCii was activated via the International Charter: Space and Major Disasters to acquire images of the area giving rescue workers and officials a better estimate of the full impact of the flooding.

The image above was provided to Augustin Codazzi Geographic Institute (IGAC) which coordinates Earth observation imagery with Colombian organisations involved in disaster response such as IDEAM, COCLCIENCIAS.

The extreme weather further caused a hillside to collapse near the Colombian city of Medellin and according to BBC reports yesterday, 24 bodies were recovered with more than 100 people missing and feared dead. Several hundred people, including Red Cross rescue workers, soldiers and police, are digging through the deep mud in an effort to find survivors. More than 20 sniffer dogs have also been brought in.


View Larger Map The area seen from Google maps

The extreme weather is attributed to the La Nina climatic phenomenon, which is caused by water currents that are colder than usual along the Pacific coast. According to the Washington Post, Colombia's government says 1.6 million people have either lost their homes or had homes suffer partial damage. About 70 percent to 80 percent live in inundated flood plains and have not abandoned them "because they don't want to leave their homes and belongings for fear of losing everything," Luz Amanda Pulido, Colombia's national disaster management office, said.

DMCii regularly responds to disasters throughout the world, providing up to date imagery to help authorities and relief agencies to plan disaster relief efforts.

DMCii is playing an important role in the continuing disaster relief operations in flood-affected areas of Pakistan. DMCii satellite images are providing detailed snapshots of the flooded areas that show the current extent of the flooding at present compared to the initial impact that was widely reported in the media in August.

As reported by the BBC only yesterday, the floods in Pakistan are far from over. The image to the left shows the widespread flooding on August 16th. The image to the right was taken just yesterday (October 6th) and reveals the vast areas still submerged.

Following a request from the European Space Agency (ESA) via the International Charter : Space and Major Disasters, the UK-DMC2 satellite acquired the above 22m resolution image.

The Pakistan floods began in July following heavy monsoon rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan regions of Pakistan. By United Nation estimates, over 21 million people have been affected by the flooding that at one point covered about one-fifth of Pakistan's total land area. Satellite images play a major part in estimating the extent of the disaster and aiding in the planning of relief efforts.

DMCii regularly responds to disasters throughout the world, providing up to date imagery to help authorities and relief agencies to plan disaster relief efforts.

Visit www.dec.org.uk/donate_now/ for more details on how to contribute to the disaster relief.

SSTL is a proud sponsor of the 61st International Astronautical Congress (IAC) 2010 that takes place in next week Prague (27th September – 1st October).

Founded by Sir Martin Sweeting, the British small satellite pioneer will celebrate its 25 year heritage of launching unparalleled value satellite missions and unveil new Earth observation capabilities for the first time at the exhibition. SSTL will also actively participate in the conference programme, presenting seven technical papers on diverse subjects ranging from space navigation and optical payloads to small satellite design and operation.

Visit SSTL on stand A5 to explore new Earth Observation capabilities for very high-resolution imaging, daily global imaging systems and new models for capacity leasing. Exhibits will also explain how SSTL’s EO capabilities are changing the way private companies and governments procure and utilise geospatial information to manage the world’s resources and security.

In celebration of its 25th anniversary, SSTL will put its unique heritage of cost effective value engineering on display - from its academic roots and exciting recent advances to its roadmap for future developments.

The IAC is the most established space conference in the space industry’s calendar, bringing together space experts from around the world for debate and discussion. SSTL’s Zeger de Groot will present a paper on in-orbit results from the high capacity 22m UK-DMC2 satellite and Joost Elstak will present a paper entitled “A million square kilometre satellite for Kazakhstan”. Martin Unwin and Mike Cutter will present papers on the SQR-ReSI instrument that uses GNSS signals for remote sensing and Phil Davies will present papers “Maximising re-use through a modular range of small satellite platforms” and “Rapid development of navigation payloads for Galileo Full Operational Capability”.

Visit www.sstl.co.uk/iac2010 for details.

SSTL’s satellite imaging subsidiary DMCii has used its UK-DMC2 satellite to monitor the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico.

Satellite imagery is being supplied to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), and the US Geological Survey (USGS) following an activation of the International Charter : Space and Major Disasters.

UK-DMC2 and its five siblings in the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) of satellites are able to provide daily imaging of the oil slick if required, detecting changes in the spill and tracking changes in direction. Current reports indicate that the oil click is moving towards the Florida coastline, having already reached land and affected Louisiana fisheries.

The DMC satellites use specially designed SSTL imaging payloads to image the Earth at resolutions between 4m and 32m across an ultra-wide 600km-plus swath (width).

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