India to share disaster management support system with APAC

Bangalore, Nov 22 (UNI) Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman G Madhavan Nair today said India will play a major role in sharing its successful experience in establishing satellite-based disaster management support system with APAC countries as part of 'Sentinel Asia' programme.

Delivering the keynote address at the 14th session of the Asia Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF-14), which began at the ISRO headquarters here, he said India, which had developed advanced space technology in disaster management, would be playing a vital role in providing appropriate inputs and near real time data for countries in the region.

''Recently we have made operational a disaster management support system in India, which helps to handle natural disasters like flood, cyclone, drought, landslide and earthquakes using GIS system. This system derives number of inputs from the satellite imageries and aerial surveillance as well as ground truths,'' he said.

He appreciated the Sentinel Asia, a disaster management support system in APAC region, an initiative taken by Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

''I interacted with JAXA President Keiji Tachikawa. There is urgent need for having constellation of microwave imaging satellites, which can see through the clouds also, to have more number of earth observation systems in the context of global warming,'' he said.

Japanese Vice-Minister for Science and Technology Yoshitsugu Harada said Sentinel Asia relied on observation data from its ALOS satellite and was now ready to gather data from additional satellites launched by India, Thailand and South Korea.

The three-day APRSAF-14, 'Space for Human Empowerment' is being attended by top officials of 18 countries in APAC region.

Working on group sessions had been drafted to discuss earth observation, communication satellite applications, space education and awareness and space environment utilisation.

UNI