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By Virgil Labrador Managing Editor, Satnews
Los Angeles, CA, Jan. 18/Satnews Daily/ — Support is pouring in from various quarters of the satellite industry for the relief efforts of the Tsunami disaster in South Asia which has claimed over 150,000 lives. Various satellite companies have been donating services and equipment to areas struck by the disaster as well as participated in relief efforts.
The devasting tsunami last December 26, 2004 has also highlighted the need for an early warning system that could have prevented the disaster. Satellite technology can play an important part in disaster-prevention. If an early-warning system was in place before the tsunami struck, thousands of lives may have been saved.
The U.S. government announced plans to implement a $37.5 million Tsunami alert system through a system of bouys worldwide relayed by satellites. The system would be able to alert government agencies within minutes and even seconds of a Tsunami formation. The system will augment warning systems currently in place and will be fully operational by mid-2007.
One of the top priorities in the tsunami-stricken areas was to restore communications facilities. The Indian Minister for Communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran, has directed telecommunication provider BSNL to install Inmarsat satellite phone links on a top priority basis in the Indian islands of Andaman and Nicobar. Transponder capacity on Insat 3E was also reserved to facilitate communication links.
Telecoms Sans Frontières (TSF), an Inmarsat-sponsored humanitarian aid organization, had satellite connections set up in Sri Lanka, northern Sumatra and the islands of the Andaman sea hard-hit by the disaster. The World Communication Center provided free Iridium satellite phones to relief organizations providing aid to the locations devastated by the disaster.
Satellite imaging companies such as Space Imaging Inc., Digital Globe and MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) have made available their satellite images to help direct relief efforts and assess damage. Remote sensing satellites such as IRS-1C and 1D, Oceansat-1 and Resourcesat are being used to assess damage.
Satellite service providers like Telenor Satellite Services have pitched in the relief efforts. Telenor teamed with Global Relief Technologies LLC (GRT) of Portsmouth, NH, and the International Medical Corps (IMC) to provide an integrated support system for immediate collection and dissemination of in-the-field data and information.
Global Relief Technologies' provides an end-to-end solution combining handheld PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) survey applications for field workers, GIS mapping imagery and near real-time GPS tracking with a web-based information management center, or VNOC (Virtual Network Operations Center) for data hosting, analysis and reporting. The data are transmitted to and from the PDA via mobile satellite terminals using Telenor services.
IMC, a global humanitarian relief agency headquartered in Los Angeles, has deployed a team of health care workers to Aceh, Indonesia. The team is equipped with mobile satellite terminals from Telenor and PDA's with the necessary communications software package from GRT in order to quickly coordinate relief and recovery operations.
Houston-based service provider CapRock Communications set-up a teleport in Jakarta, Indonesia, making telemedicine and communications possible for doctors, nurses and many other important medical personnel working around the clock in that region.
Satellite companies also provided support to the all-star telethon and concert dubbed “Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope” held by the US broadcasting company NBC last Jan. 15. PanAmSat donated transponder capacity to the broadcast and XM Satellite Radio broadcasted the commercial-free event in to its national satellite radio network. Telecommunications company, SBC, underwrote the event and provided some infrastructure support including live video feeds.
Satellite phone operator Iridium donated $500,000 worth of equipment and airtime to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
In a letter distributed to the media, satellite communications pioneer, Arthur C. Clarke, who lives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, one of the countries hardest hit by the Tsunami, mentioned that he was alright and appealed for support to the tsunami-stricken areas. Clarke, an avid diver, had a diving station in Hikkaduwa and a holiday bungalow in Kahawa - both destroyed by the tsunami. Most of the diving equipment and boats were destroyed and some of his diving staff are unaccounted for as a result of the disaster.
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Satellite
Industry Pitches in Tsunami Relief Efforts
