GeoEye Responds: Haiti Relief Efforts
When a crisis on the scale of the Haitian earthquake occurs, we are all moved to help. GeoEye has done just that, by providing its satellite imagery of the devastation in Port-au-Prince for free to relief agencies, governments and the media.
As soon as the news broke that there was a major earthquake in Haiti, GeoEye mission planners directed the GeoEye-1 satellite to collect color, high-resolution imagery over Port-au-Prince. On January 13, beginning at 10:27 a.m. EST, from 423 miles in space, GeoEye-1 collected almost 3,000 square kilometers of imagery. On January 16, GeoEye-1 was again in an orbit over Haiti, and it collected stereo imagery over Port-au-Prince. “Stereo imagery” means the satellite collected imagery of the Haitian capital from two different angles on the same orbital pass, so 3-D perspectives of the terrain can be developed.
In the aftermath of this catastrophic earthquake, we hope that GeoEye’s “before-and-after” imagery will give viewers an instant visual understanding of the extent of the destruction and reinforce Haiti’s need for the world’s help to survive this crisis.
Einar Bjorgo, the director of Rapid Mapping and Applications at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, is quoted as saying, “The availability of commercial U.S. very-high-resolution imagery is absolutely fantastic and an enormous asset to the U.N.’s operational work. Thank you all for contributing to that effort.”
We are proud and honored that emergency first responders and the geospatial community are using our imagery as a base map to produce multiple-layer relief maps to assist with damage assessment, route planning and other crucial aspects of relief efforts. In collaboration with Google, GeoEye has provided almost 3,000 square kilometers of imagery, accessible at http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/geoeye.html. This site is for professional geospatial users, since specialized software is needed to work with the 80 gigabytes of imagery.
GeoEye and its employees are also making a difference through charitable giving. The Company is matching 100 percent of all individual employee contributions to seven major relief agencies.
GeoEye and its employees are pleased that our technology can be helpful during this devastating crisis.