27 Apr 2015
UNOSAT and NASA immediately requested help from the Italian OT system, which has already provided archive data sets and is currently acquiring new data over the areas affected
The COSMO-SkyMed system has been rapidly activated to guarantee the support needed by the populations and governments in the countries affected by the devastating earthquake (of a magnitude of 7.9) that hit Nepal and some neighbouring countries on Saturday 25 April, causing thousands of victims. After the first tremor, recorded onSaturday 25, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) recorded another 45 tremors over 4.5 on the Richter scale, and a further 15 over 6.5.
The Mission has made its entire data archive available to the international institutions. New data acquisition is also taking place over the geographical areas hit, allowing for the detailed analysis needed to assess the damage.
UNOSAT (United Nations Operational Satellite Applications Programme) and NASA asked to use the interferometric series in the COSMO-SkyMed archive just hours after the earthquake. In particular, the US space agency asked for 330 archive images, which were immediately provided as part of ASI-NASAcooperation activities.
The high number of images of the city of Kathmandu and the surrounding geographical areas of interest were available in the COSMO-SkyMed archive thanks to a specific "Background Mission" project run by ASI together with commercial providere-GEOS. The project was designed to keep a periodically updated interferometric data archive on high risk national and international geographic areas (and detailed metropolitan areas), for use when managing earthquakes, volcanic activityand other seismic events. Just like in Nepal.
At the moment, there are more than 4000 confirmed victims, but this number is likely to be updated hour by hour. Amongst these are four missing Italian speleologists from the Alpine rescue team, who were visiting Lang tang, one of the villages destroyed by the earthquake, to explore a system of canyons. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced with extensive destruction of buildings and historic monuments both in the capital and the nearby cities of Patan (Laitpur) andBhaktapur. The seismic wave also reached at least three States in north-eastern India (Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh), Tibet and Bangladesh, as well as causing huge avalanches around Everest, crushing several climbing expeditions, causing many victims and stranding - according to estimates - around 200 people.