China activates an international charter started in 1999 to aggregate global space data from satellites in an effort to locate Malaysian Airlines' flight MH370. March 12, 2014 2:42 PM PDT An Indonesian Air Force military surveillance aircraft searches the Malacca Strait for Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. (Credit: Indonesian Air) As the latest piece of technology to be enlisted in the search for missing Malaysian flight MH370, satellites have the eyes of the world watching them as they watch us. On Monday, a crowdsourcing platform called Tomnod, along with parent company DigitalGlobe, launched a crowdsourcing campaign to enlist the help of citizens in scouring satellite images to search for the plane that disappeared on March 7. Most recently, China activated the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters to join the hunt. The goal of the charter is to enlist space data from all member organizations to provide assistance in the case of a "natural or technological disaster." The charter describes such a disaster as "a situation of great distress involving loss of human life or large-scale damage to property, caused by a natural phenomenon, such as a cyclone, tornado, earthquake, volcanic eruption, flood or forest fire, or by a technological accident, such as pollution by hydrocarbons, toxic or radioactive substances." Now that the charter has been activated, according to Phys.org, space scientists around the planet will determine which satellites can be best used to provide data of the search zone and will then send requests to the operators of those satellites to take pictures of that region as they fly over. The hope is that one of those images will pick up something that can direct search and recovery efforts. The International Charter on Space and Major Disasters was most recently activated on February 13 to help with monitoring the Mount Kelud volcano explosion on the Indonesian island of Java. Prior to that it's been used to monitor flooding, forest fires, snowfalls, cyclones, and other damaging events around the world. It was also used to assist in recovery efforts from earthquakes, including the one that rocked Japan in March 2011 and caused a devastating tsunami and the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear plant. The charter has been activated 400 times in its history, according to Phys.org, but Tuesday represents the first time it was called into service to look for a missing aircraft. The charter, which began after Vienna's Unispace III conference in 1999, now consists of 15 member organizations from around the world including European Space Agency, The Russian Federation Space Agency, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute and China's National Space Administration. The US member organizations include the United States Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. After the charter has been activated, data typically starts coming in within 24 hours, according to the report in Phys.org.
China activates an international charter started in 1999 to aggregate global space data from satellites in an effort to locate Malaysian Airlines' flight MH370.
An Indonesian Air Force military surveillance aircraft searches the Malacca Strait for Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.
(Credit: Indonesian Air)
As the latest piece of technology to be enlisted in the search for missing Malaysian flight MH370, satellites have the eyes of the world watching them as they watch us.
On Monday, a crowdsourcing platform called Tomnod, along with parent company DigitalGlobe, launched a crowdsourcing campaign to enlist the help of citizens in scouring satellite images to search for the plane that disappeared on March 7.
Most recently, China activated the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters to join the hunt. The goal of the charter is to enlist space data from all member organizations to provide assistance in the case of a "natural or technological disaster." The charter describes such a disaster as "a situation of great distress involving loss of human life or large-scale damage to property, caused by a natural phenomenon, such as a cyclone, tornado, earthquake, volcanic eruption, flood or forest fire, or by a technological accident, such as pollution by hydrocarbons, toxic or radioactive substances."
Now that the charter has been activated, according to Phys.org, space scientists around the planet will determine which satellites can be best used to provide data of the search zone and will then send requests to the operators of those satellites to take pictures of that region as they fly over. The hope is that one of those images will pick up something that can direct search and recovery efforts.
The International Charter on Space and Major Disasters was most recently activated on February 13 to help with monitoring the Mount Kelud volcano explosion on the Indonesian island of Java. Prior to that it's been used to monitor flooding, forest fires, snowfalls, cyclones, and other damaging events around the world. It was also used to assist in recovery efforts from earthquakes, including the one that rocked Japan in March 2011 and caused a devastating tsunami and the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear plant. The charter has been activated 400 times in its history, according to Phys.org, but Tuesday represents the first time it was called into service to look for a missing aircraft.
The charter, which began after Vienna's Unispace III conference in 1999, now consists of 15 member organizations from around the world including European Space Agency, The Russian Federation Space Agency, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute and China's National Space Administration. The US member organizations include the United States Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. After the charter has been activated, data typically starts coming in within 24 hours, according to the report in Phys.org.
