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| News
2008 |
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14/05/2008
Sichuan: China asks Italian satellites for help
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COSMO-SkyMed, the Italian Earth Observation satellite system, is coming to the aid of the regions in China hit by the devastating earthquake of 12 May.
On 13 May, on the request of the Chinese government, the ASI satellites took the first two radar pictures of the region around the city of Guan Xian, one of the closest to the earthquake’s epicentre, showing, as it did with the disaster in Myanmar, its extraordinarily quick time response in the event of a crisis. Furthermore, owing to the particular weather conditions with heavy cloud cover and precipitation, only the radar of Italian satellites continued to operate.
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The images were taken yesterday and processed
at ASI’s COSMO-SkyMed Data Acquisition Centre
in Matera, managed by Telespazio,
whose staff worked late into the night to
ensure the data could be provided in a timely
manner. In the top left corner of the image,
it is possible to spot out a dam, and this
will be constantly monitored over the next
few days to avoid the risk that the city
will be flooded by the water contained in
the reservoir above.
COSMO-SkyMed will continue to supply new images of Sichuan to the Chinese government, Italy’s Civil Protection Department (which is organising an Italian aid mission in the region) and various humanitarian organisations managing aid. The COSMO radar pictures are used to survey any damage to buildings and metallic structures, such as dams and bridges.
COSMO-SkyMed is the Earth Observation satellite system of the Italian Space Agency and the Ministry of Defense. Telespazio manages the ground segment (control of satellites in orbit and data processing). The satellites are built by Thales Alenia Space Italia. At full capacity, the system will consist of a constellation of four satellites, of which the first two are currently in orbit.
Comunicato stampa ASI
High
res. image (12,7 MB)
Low
res. image (1 MB)
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