The eye of the storm

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans detailed satellite imaging, operated by a Surrey company, has been pivotal in co-ordinating the relief effort.

Aid from around the world has poured into the American southern states since the devastating arrival of Hurricane Katrina. But amid the food, clothing and medicine can be found one commodity the US, of all nations, might be expected to need no help in providing: advanced satellite imaging technology.

In fact, a small disaster-response satellite network operated from the UK has been a welcome component of the relief effort since its earliest stages.

Collating detailed data about the damage wrought on New Orleans by Katrina is of paramount importance for the emergency services and aid agencies in co-ordinating their work. As part of this information gathering, a UK satellite operator has joined NASA and the international effort by employing its constellation of hi-tech satellites.

After the hurricane struck the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) was asked to acquire images of New Orleans to send to the US Geological Survey. The DMC is an international consortium led by the UK’s Surrey Satellites, a spin-out from Surrey University. It consists of a network of five small satellites and ground stations specifically designed to act as a disaster-response system. Each 80kg satellite can give high-resolution images over a 384,000km2 swathe of land, and zoom down to a 32m2 area. It is the DMC’s wide-area coverage that makes it so important in large-scale disaster relief.