National Cheng Kung University in Tainan City was one of the first to provide the world with satellite images of quake-devastated Sendai, Japan, using its Formosat-2 Automatic Image Processing System, according to NCKU.
“The rapid dissemination of information after disasters hit helps us understand the status of affected areas and provide other references that can help the government take further action,” Liu Cheng-chien, an earth sciences professor at NCKU, said March 17. “The system allowed us to do just that.”
According to Liu, the system enabled photos of post-disaster Sendai to be processed within two hours. So far, Liu and his team have produced photos of the Chiba refinery fire, Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force’s Matsushima Air Base and the Sendai Airport, for comparison with satellite pictures taken prior to the catastrophe.
In addition, world-renowned news agencies including L’Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press and Thomson Reuters, as well as the NASA Earth Observatory and Google Crisis Response Team, have requested access to the images, the professor said.
Launched by Taiwan in 2004, Formosat-2 takes satellite images of the earth’s terrestrial and marine environment for research purposes. It is the country’s first self-developed remote sensing satellite.
There have been more than 4,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands reported missing following the magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan March 11. (THN)
Write to Grace Kuo at morningk@mail.gio.gov.tw