Due to the floods in the south of our country, the Crisis Information Center of the Space Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences has launched a special satellite monitoring of threatened areas. The advanced system allows detecting places where floods appear. This is a joint project with the start-up Iceye. The company is behind the largest civilian constellation of Earth observation radar satellites. Every few hours, data and reports are provided to the State Fire Service, crisis management centers and the Meteorological Modeling Center of the IMWM-PIB.
As explained by Dr. Jakub Ryzenko, Head of the CBK PAN Crisis Information Center, initially the biggest and most important challenge was to quickly find a way to effectively circulate information. “In the early hours, we didn’t know exactly what kind of data and analysis would be possible. No one has ever worked like this before, but fortunately everything worked out,” he emphasizes.
Satellite monitoring of flood situations. Allows detection of locations where water has overflowed riverbeds
The first to appear are so-called fast data that allow us to understand the situation at a glance. – A little later, data that can be analyzed in GIS systems, i.e. spatial information. But now the most important thing is for the eyes of satellites to see where the most important things are happening. Thanks to this, we have the opportunity to provide information that really helps the emergency services to function. This is our role now, explains Ryzenko.
The flood situation led to the decision to launch the Civil Security Centre on a pilot basis. This is a project being developed in Poland within the framework of the activities of the European Space Agency (ESA). Initially, testing of this satellite information provision system for crisis management was scheduled to begin in the spring of next year. However, as reported by CBK PAN, due to the difficult situation, “these solutions were launched in experimental mode”. The institution states that the system already provides information that is used operationally.
