ImageCat Investigates Tsunami Damage

ImageCat (CA, USA) is using QuickBird satellite imagery to assess damage resulting from the massive Indian Ocean tsunami. In January, ImageCat and the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER) travelled to Phuket, Thailand with engineers from Japan's Chiba University and Bangkok's Asian Institute of Technology to document and analyse the tsunami damages. The team deployed ImageCat's custom-built Visualizing Impacts of Earthquakes with Satellites (VIEWS), a portable notebook-based reconnaissance system that links high-resolution imagery, digital photographs and digital video footage to a real-time GPS feed. VIEWS is operated with a digital video recorder and digital camera from either a moving vehicle or on-foot, and produces a permanent visual record of damage. A field-report detailing ImageCat's findings is located at https://mceer.buffalo.edu/research/tsunami/page1.asp.