Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR)

“Space for Humanitarian Aid” Challenge 2018

A natural disaster (e.g. a typhoon or an earthquake) has struck a remote area in Southeast Asia. Significant parts of infrastructure have been destroyed, including all terrestrial means of communication. Buildings have been destroyed and there are many casualties with even fatalities to be expected. All regular traffic in and out of the area has been interrupted and access roads are blocked for normal traffic.

An international HADR effort is being launched and relief forces are being sent to the area. They comprise not only military but also civil defence and security forces together with other civilian aid agencies such as the red cross/red crescent and other NGOs. Forces come from the affected nation itself, but are also being brought in from neighbouring countries. The relief effort is coordinated remotely from the HADR C2 centre at Changi, Singapore.

In order to provide situational awareness, i.e. to assess the severity of the damage caused, the relief forces have access to historical and current satellite optical imagery data at the C2 centre in Singapore. To improve the currency of the data, a latest generation Zephyr T high altitude pseudo satellite is stationed over the disaster area to provide up-to-date and permanent aerial imagery.

Another type of available data generated from satellites, is meteorological data that will provide accurate weather forecasts and warning of severe weather that could pose a threat to the relief forces as well as lead to an even worse disaster situation, such as in the case of a typhoon related event.