Satellite remote sensing imagery for tsunami relief operation and damage assessment

Abstract

The 26 December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami has caused devastated destructions to many coastal areas fronting the Indian Ocean. The ground station at CRISP has received satellite imagery of the tsunami affected areas shortly after the event. Many of these images were placed on a dedicated web site for free access. Many of the images are in full resolution, JPEG compressed for ease of transmission over the internet. These images can be used by those involved in relief operations and for quick damage assessment. These images have been widely reproduced and distributed by the media and on the internet. Most importantly, same day delivery of the images acquired by CRISP has helped the Singapore relief team in their planning and execution of their relief and rescure effort, especially in the worst affected areas of Banda Aceh and Meulaboh. Damage mapping and assessment has also been carried out using the pre-and post-Tsunami images acquired by the high resolution SPOT5 and IKONOS satellites. Land uplifting and subsidence on the Andaman islands due to the earthquake have also been estimated. In this paper, we describe our efforts in image acquisition and the results of damage assessment.