# In Desperate Need Of **very** Recent Satellite Imagery



## newreel

hello,

this might be WAY off the beaten path for this forum, but i'm really hoping someone can help.

i have a good friend who spends a great deal of time doing humanitarian work in the interior of nicaragua. he just returned back from a 3-week stint yesterday morning. he got a call later that day telling him that he needs to return right away because of the hurricane that just blew through there, leaving no less than 2 feet of water in most of the small villages. 

he has been asked to bring thousands of feet of plastic sheeting (among other things), so they can build temporary shelters for the thousands of people who have become displaced by this latest tragedy. the problem is, in order to construct temporary shelters with plastic, there must first be SOME structures still standing, to tie the plastic to. the word is that the whole area has been completely dessimated, there is very little detail coming out of the area, and they have NO way of knowing WHICH villages need the most help. 

normally it's a 36-hour journey by car from the nearest airport to the deep interior of the country (where he works, and where most of the "major" humanitarian agencies ignore - in other words, where the need is greatest) so to be able to know ahead of time where they need to go first, rather than just blindly going from village to village, would likely save many lives.

since these areas have no electricity, plumbing, running water or telephones, he feels that the best way for them to tell who needs help the most is to view the entire area with satellite imagery. but as i explained to him, the vast majority of the satellite imagery available to the public is NOT very current, and is certainly not current to within a couple of days.

NEVERTHELESS i told him that i would put the word out to a couple of forums on the off chance that anyone knows where this guy could get a hold of very, very recent satelite imagery of that area. he is willing to pay whatever it costs, as long as it's current.

please let me know if you can help. the need is great and very immediate.

-newreel


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## V0lt

I don't know of any free images, but I wonder if it would be cost-effective to charter a local pilot to do a fly-over of the affected areas? That'll give you an even better idea of the situation, especially considering that usually only governments have access to recent satellite imagery.


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## TheMatt

*Re: Reported Post by Done_Fishin*

A satellite phone would also probably come in handy for your agency if you don't already have one. Using that in combination with a chartered prop plane you could easily and quickly survey the affected areas and relay the most needy areas back to your home base. GPS would also come in handy when navigating back to villages surveyed by the plane.


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## newreel

okay, i'll pass along your suggestions.

thank you.


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## speedster123

inquire here also
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/


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## Jay12

Hey yea its so bad out there. i hope the people are all safe an rescued with good food an all. I feel bad for em. :frown: Im not sure how satellite imagery is guna help u though cos it hardly bes daily updated or recent n it hardly will be at the required detail level. Defo no way as in detail as google earth or virtual earth type of apps it be's higher up an less zoomed in like this for nicaragua http://209.15.138.224/inmonica/nicaraguax.htm According to wot I was told by someone who knows this stuff they only update them when theres a concentrated governmental effort going on in news an all an so the science labs work to provide recent imagery otherwise the imagery stays old like from 2006 an early 2007 for now. i've seen my uncle to this work day n night, he does this kinda work too and i know some bits. You got many firms like this one http://www.mapmart.com/ that and more commercialized firms that will charge you for latest aerial photography so that'll be a good deal too depending on their charges an if you wanna pay. :grin: 
It'll be better if you call up the various imagery centres as well as email them an ask about latest imagery (which they usually have but unpublished online) an have someone keepin contact with the people helping out there to report to them the latest updates an news breaking across various online Nicaraguan papers an news agencies based there. That way they can focus an be more informed but not waste time on info finding.
Check out these sites an inquire here for latest imagery as well:
http://geology.com/world/nicaragua-satellite-image.shtml
http://www.nasa.gov/lb/mission_pages/hurricanes/news/index.html
http://nix.nasa.gov/
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/
They seem tied to NASA but they are mostly independent gatherers with different content available an sampling points.


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