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Emergency observation in case of major disasters in the Asia-
Pacific region has been carried out by JAXA’s Advanced Land
Observing Satellite (ALOS). The Indian Space Research Organization
(ISRO) has agreed to provide Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS)
imagery to Sentinel Asia. The Geo-Informatics and Space Technology
Development Agency (GISTDA) has also planned to provide imagery
from the Thailand Earth Observation System (THEOS), which is
scheduled to launch late in 2007.
At the time of writing, emergency observations by ALOS have been
activated and images from the onboard sensors have been provided
through the website in the context of Sentinel Asia’s emergency
observation activities.
Records of the recent activations are as follows:
February 2007
– PALSAR (Phased Array type L-band Synthetic
Aperture Radar) images were provided for the flood in Jakarta
March 2007
– AVNIR-2 (Advanced Visible and Near Infrared
Radiometer type-2) images were provided for the earthquake in West
Sumatra, Indonesia. The International Disaster Charter was also acti-
vated in this time
April 2007
–AVNIR-2 and PALSAR images were provided for the earth-
quake in the Solomon Islands. The International Disaster Charter was
also activated in this time
May 2007
– AVNIR-2 images were provided for blizzards in Nepal
June 2007
– PALSAR images were provided for flooding and landslide
in Bangladesh, and for flooding in Pakistan. The International
Disaster Charter was also activated in this time
July 2007
– AVNIR-2 and PALSAR images were provided for earth-
quake and landslide in Tajikistan. PALSAR images were also provided
for floods in Indonesia and Bangladesh.
September 2007
– AVNIR-2 and PALSAR images were provided for
the earthquake in Indonesia.
Through operations since October 2006, a good human network
has been built between the space community and the disaster reduc-
tion community. At the same time, some issues need to be worked
on with greater attention, for example narrowband areas in Asia,
which make it difficult to see information via the Internet.
Future plans
Sentinel Asia Step 2, which will begin in 2008, is currently being
studied by JPT. The concept of Sentinel Asia Step 2 is as follows:
• To promote the use of disaster-related information obtained by
space, remote sensing technology and ICT
• To expand users in cooperation with international organisation
represented by UNESCAP
• To utilize every possible means for information transmission, taking
into consideration different Internet environments in Asia besides
websites – for example, e-mail, fax and communication satellites
such as the Wideband Internetworking engineering test and
Demonstration Satellite (WINDS), which will be launched early in
2008 by JAXA.
The plan and concept of Sentinel Asia Step 2 proposed by the JPT will
be discussed in the forthcoming APRSAF-14 in November 2007.
User expansion
The Sentinel Asia Step 1 system has already been established, and
services have been opened. However, lessons were learned in the
first stage regarding utilization from the users’ point of view. It was
found that the system was open to any people in the
region, but that it had been utilized only among the
limited user communities that were close to the regional
space agencies or disaster related organizations partic-
ipating in the project. Of course, there are technical
reasons for this, such as the difficulty of downloading
satellite imagery in a narrowband Internet environment.
However, the largest issue is how to establish links to
end users such as regional local government and non-
governmental organizations, which are expected to act
as core organizations in an actual disaster situation. Step
1 has seen Sentinel Asia contributing, to some extent,
to activities in the event of real disasters. However, for
Step 2 it is necessary to increase use of the system, and
to encourage the development of regional user commu-
nities, for example using UN human networks such as
UNESCAP, in order to expand Sentinel Asia.
APRSAF has a lot of experience and expertise in
system development, while international organizations
have broad, strong connections with various communi-
ties in the Asia-Pacific region. Some of them will be
potential end users of Sentinel Asia.
It is also important to consider how Sentinel Asia
can be enhanced for regional communities, and to
design a new model of international cooperation
between space agency communities and international
organizations such as UNESCAP. Looking around other
areas of the world, many similar initiatives or cooper-
ative relationships such as UNSPIDER have been
conducted and are progressing. If Sentinel Asia
achieves successful growth, it is willing to provide its
model on the basis of international cooperation, and
to extend its lessons and experience worldwide, for
example to expand to Africa or South America.
Cooperation between JAXA and UNESCAP is key to
this, as these organizations are engines for the expan-
sion of Sentinel Asia activities.
Contribution to GEOSS
The Sentinel Asia initiative contributes to the Global Earth
Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) task on wildfire
warning, and also potentially to the GEONETCast project.
This kind of approach could be extended to a worldwide
initiative such as ‘Sentinel Earth’, to include Africa and the
Amazon under the overall GEOSS initiative.
A new model of international cooperation is needed between
space agency communities and international organizations,
in order to expand Sentinel Asia activities. JAXA is at the
forefront of such cooperaive efforts
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