Cyclone Relief Efforts Get High-Tech Help
In Rural Areas, Satellites Play Key Role Getting Aid to Those in Need
Bromley added, "The broader issue is how big was this [cyclone], who did it hit? Your standard weather satellite would show cloud formation, where this thing went and who it might have affected."
Higher resolution images show, in detail, areas that were underwater after the cyclone, he said.
Bromley has been watching satellite images of Myanmar for a while. Last year, he published a paper comparing satellite images with reports of genocide, made by international human rights groups.
Direct Relief International, a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based medical relief organization, used satellite images from the U.N., the Navy and Google Earth, according to agency spokesman Jim Prosser.
"We're using satellite imagery to map out affected areas ... so we know how to effectively funnel material and financial aid to those affected," Prosser said. "Also, we're looking at displaced people, so we're able to be flexible to changes in population."
Although the group uses satellite imagery regularly, last month Google approached Direct Relief International to participate in a program designed to allow nonprofits to take advantage of Google Earth.
The group's online map of Myanmar shows that the coastal areas and much of the capital of Yangon are flooded. The group plans to ship medicine to the country on a Thai Airways flight on Friday.
DigitalGlobe, a six-year-old company that owns the satellite that supports the maps on Google Earth, regularly works with nonprofits during natural disasters.
"Once an event like this happens, we look at when our satellites will be passing over the region," said DigitalGlobe spokesman Chuck Herring. "We do a lot of work, understanding as best we can from people on the ground, where the hardest hit areas have been," to know what images to capture.
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