About The Charter

Following the UNISPACE III conference held in Vienna, Austria in July 1999, the European and French space agencies (ESA and CNES) initiated the International Charter "Space and Major Disasters", with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) signing the Charter on 20 October 2000.

The following agencies subsequently joined the Charter as members:

September 2001
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)

July 2003
Argentine Space Agency (CONAE)

February 2005
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

2005
United States Geological Survey (USGS) as part of the U.S. team

November 2005
BNSC/DMCii

May 2007
China National Space Administration (CNSA).

The International Charter aims at providing a unified system of space data acquisition and delivery to those affected by natural or man-made disasters through Authorized Users. Each member agency has committed resources to support the provisions of the Charter and thus is helping to mitigate the effects of disasters on human life and property.

The International Charter was declared formally operational on November 1, 2000.

An Authorized User can call a single number to request the mobilization of the space and associated ground resources (RADARSAT, ERS, ENVISAT, SPOT, IRS, SAC-C, NOAA satellites, LANDSAT, ALOS, DMC satellites and others) of the member agencies to obtain data and information on a disaster occurrence.

A 24-hour on-duty operator receives the call, checks the identity of the requestor and verifies that the User Request form sent by the Authorized User is correctly filled up.

The operator passes the information to an Emergency On-Call Officer who analyzes the request and the scope of the disaster with the Authorized User, and prepares an archive and acquisition plan using available space resources.

Data acquisition and delivery takes place on an emergency basis, and a Project Manager, who is qualified in data ordering, handling and application, assists the user throughout the process.

Documents:

	Charter Pamphlet (pdf, 255 Mb)		Official Poster (pdf, 691 Kb)