Good news, thanks to the support of the National Center for Geo-Spatial Information (CNIGS - Haiti) and the National Center for Space Studies (CNES, France) Haiti has finalized the process of accession as authorized user of the "Disasters Charter". From now on in the event of a disaster, the Directorate of Civil Protection (DPC) will be able to activate the World Charter and obtain the support of 17 space agencies, which will make available to Haiti their satellite resources to transmit images of the areas concerned and to support relief teams in Haiti.

Let's recall that the Charter is a worldwide collaboration, through which satellite data are made available for the benefit of disaster management. By combining Earth observation assets from different space agencies, the Charter allows resources and expertise to be coordinated for rapid response to major disaster situations; thereby helping civil protection authorities and the international humanitarian community.

This unique initiative is able to mobilise agencies around the world and benefit from their know-how and their satellites through a single access point that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and at no cost to the user.

In addition to the space agencies that form the Charter, national and regional disaster monitoring organisations also support the Charter's efforts as co-operating bodies. Members and co-operating bodies join an international initiative to provide support to those in need following major disasters, and benefit from the wide distribution of data that the Charter offers.

Organisations that wish to co-operate with the Charter in this way must be approved by the Board, and may be granted exceptional requests for data from Charter satellites.

The satellite data obtained by the Charter offers invaluable aid to the end-users - typically disaster relief organisations. Following a successful activation of the Charter, they may receive satellite data of affected areas within a matter of hours or days; depending on the type of the disaster and available satellite resources.

The data is delivered on an ongoing basis throughout the duration of the Charter activation and provides valuable information about a disaster that is not possible to obtain on the ground.

See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24444-haiti-technology-the-country-to-the-space-time.html

HL/ HaitiLibre