Effective emergency response by combining social and other media with satellite surveillance

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Satellite imagery is an extremely useful source of data for emergencies and potential emergencies. It provides large scale surveillance of conditions, but now at spatial resolutions down to 0.5m. There are some 140 earth observing satellites in orbit, representing a huge virtual constellation of surveillance capability, expected to double in the current decade. However, in many cases these data are not being used effectively for emergency response because of a reactive approach in the industry to image acquisition. We propose to develop and define a pro-active approach to the tasking of satellite imagery in emergency response by the monitoring and interrogation of social media feeds as well as alerts from relevant organisations, so that the data can be rapidly accessed and exploited by emergency responders. The outcome of this proposed project will be a defined capability to optimise the use of satellite surveillance in a range of emergency situations. The market for this is considerable and currently under-served by satellites for a number of reasons which we intend to address technically and commercially.