The event is organized by the European Space Agency (ESA) in association with the German space agency (DLR), the French space agency (CNES), the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) and their partner DMCii.

The fifth issue of the International Charter Newsletter is now available to download.

Steven Hosford, CNES Board member, presented the Charter to the 72 participating member states, with some recent examples of activation results.

The fourth issue of the International Charter Newsletter is now available to download.

The 5th Joint Project Team Meeting for Sentinel Asia STEP-2 (JPTM2012) was held from 14th to 16th November 2012 in Daejeon, Korea co-organised by Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

The European Space Solutions Conference in London connected businesses and public sector users of space data with the software and technologies that enable their work. Eleven different sessions covered a variety of critical sectors, including emergency services and disaster recovery.

Paul Counet, Head of Strategy and International Relations at The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), presented EUMETSAT's new membership of the Charter at the 40th Plenary Session of Coordination Group on Meteorological Satellites hold in Lugano, Switzerland last month. The aim was to raise the awareness of the Charter among the meteorological satellite community.

The Pléiades 1B satellite was successfully launched by Soyuz rocket from French Guiana on December 2 and has joined its twin satellite, Pléiades-1A, in orbit at an altitude of 694 km. Pléiades 1B has already delivered its first images. This new satellite will provide imagery for the International Charter in the near future.

The 11th Annual Report of the Charter (English only) is now available.

Steven Hosford, the current Chair of the International Charter Board on behalf of CNES, presented Universal Access to the GEO Plenary on Thursday 22nd November.

The third issue of the International Charter Newsletter is now available.

Building on a decade of success in making satellite data available to users for disaster response, the International Charter is now opening its doors even wider.

Extreme weather such as hurricanes, floods and even excessive heat or cold claims lives every year. The European body that monitors weather and climate from space has now joined international partners to help prepare for disasters.

The second issue of the International Charter Newsletter is now available.

A new Twitter account has been created for International Charter Space and Major Disasters, enabling you to follow the latest Charter Activations, news and product updates on the website.

The first issue of the International Charter Newsletter is now available. 

The 10th Annual Report of the Charter (English only) is available.

The 10th Annual Appendix Report (English only) is available.

The French space agency (CNES) has developed a geographic tool for the Charter in order to display footprints and characteristics of satellite data provided in the frame of each activation. The purpose of the tool is to describe earth observation (EO) data used in the framework of Charter activations to help users identify and possibly order them; it does not provide the image files.

The video, realised to celebrate 10 years of the Charter activities, aims to emphasise the achievements, development and effectiveness of the Charter, as well as the human network that underpins it.

South Korea's space agency has joined its international counterparts in putting satellite data at the disposal of rescue authorities following major disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis.

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), under the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, formally became the newest member of the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters' on 7 July.

PAIGH Crisis Support Workshop and International Charter Project Manager Training Class to be held on 13 June 2011, in Panama City, Panama.

Due to maintenance, the Earthnet, GSCDA and Disaster Charter websites will be unavailable on Wednesday 18 May for approximately one hour.

The 9th Annual Report of the Charter (English only) is available here.

Material assembled by dot2dot in the framework of the ESA originated GMES RESPOND project led by Infoterra Limited

The 8th Annual Report of the Charter (English only) is available here.

The 7th Annual Report of the Charter (English only) is available here.

A major 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on 12 January, causing major casualties and damage. The quake was followed by several aftershocks with magnitudes over 5.0.

The International Charter “Space and Major Disasters” established in October 2000, provides a unified system of space data acquisition and delivery to those affected by natural and man made disasters through Authorized Users. Presently, ten agencies viz., European Space Agency (ESA); Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), France; Canadian Space Agency (CSA); Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO); National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), USA; Argentina's Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE); Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA); United States Geological Survey (USGS); DMC International Imaging (DMC), England and China National Space Administration (CNSA) are members of the Charter. Each member agency has committed resources, in terms of satellite data and its analysis, to support the assessment of the impact of disasters on human life and property.

The Charter is a global disaster response system dedicated to delivering satellite data through an established and organised user base, the so-called Authorized Users (AUs). The AUs are mainly disaster management centres in Europe such as national Civil Protection agencies, the Monitoring Information Centre of the European Commission at the Directorate of the Environment or similar entities ...

The main objective of the Charter is to provide remote sensing data in major catastrophes in order to help mitigating the effects of disasters on human life and property ...

Exceptional acquisitions by Charter members to supply imagery in support of Myanmar relief operations: USGS and ESA have doubled their efforts to aid in evaluating of the disaster and get data into the hands of rescue teams in Myanmar.

Today the first phase of redesign activities on the Disasters Charter website has been completed. Graphical Design, Usability and Accessibility have been revised, resulting in a number of improvements for the benefit of the user ...

Courtesy of Spot Image: view all Charter events on Google Earth.

The 6th Annual Report of the Charter (English only) is available here.

Read More

Read More

For people caught in the throes of natural or technological disasters, rapid and accurate assessments of conditions on the ground are critical to saving lives and protecting property. Making such assessments just got easier ...

The 5th Annual Report of the Charter (English only) is available here.

The conference was organized by the Cities on Volcanoes Commission of the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) and was the fourth in this series of conferences. The purpose of these conferences is to bring together volcanologists,....

In London on Tuesday, the British National Space Centre (BNSC) formally became a Partner Agency of the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters' on behalf of the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) Consortium ...

Read More

The International Charter on "Space and Major Disasters", a cooperation initiative created between the European Space Agency (ESA), the National Center on Space Studies of France (CNES) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), will celebrate its 5th year with a special session of the charter organised by ISRO during October 4-5, 2005, at Bangalore ...

The IGARSS symposium is an annual event organized by the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society. This year's symposium coincided with the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Society, and carried the theme "Harmony between Man & Nature". The return of IGARSS to Asia, after Tokyo and Singapore, saw the majority attendance from the Far-Eastern nations of China, Japan and Korea ...

The 4th Annual Report of the Charter (English only) is available here.

The Charter is activated for the EURATECH 2005 readiness exercise. Satellite imagery produced by the Charter and provided to rescue teams for the exercise can also be accessed at the Charter EURATECH download page.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) joins the International Disaster Charter.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was welcomed today as the newest member of the International Charter "Space and Major Disasters," which establishes a global network of international space partners in disaster management. The Charter is a joint effort to put space technology at the service of rescue authorities in the event of a major disaster ...

As the oil tanker Prestige was floundering off the coast of Spain, the Canadian satellite RADARSAT-1 was dispatched, under the International Charter Space and Major Disasters, to acquire images in support of relief efforts being undertaken ...

For the Charter to work effectively and to achieve its goal a good working relationship with a strong Services Sector is required ...

Colloquium at UNESCO, Paris On 18 June, during a colloquium at UNESCO, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA), represented by its Director, Mr Sergio Camacho, announced that the United Nations intends to remain a "cooperating body" supporting the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters ...

The 3rd Annual Report of the Charter (English only) is available here

The 2nd Annual Report of the Charter (English only) is available here

The 1st Annual Report of the Charter (English only) is available here

As part of the efforts dispatched to assist rescue teams dealing with the most severe disasters, space agency members of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters have launched today an innovative Website at the Charter Evaluation Workshop in Paris ...

The Charter participated and presented at various events, view article for more information  ...

Canada, April 8, 2002 - Images captured by various satellites above Afghanistan are helping international relief efforts following last week's earthquakes in the Hindu Kush Mountains in the northern region of the country ...

This workshop, held at the Paris headquarters of the French space agency (CNES) on January 15 and 16, 2002, reviewed the achievements of the Charter during the first fourteen months of its active existence ...

As part of the efforts dispatched to assist rescue teams dealing with the most severe floods that Eastern Siberia has seen in a century, Canadian Space Agency's RADARSAT-1 has joined forces with other Earth observation satellites to capture images of the Lena River ...

Responding quickly to support rescue efforts converging on El Salvador, member space agencies of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters have dispatched their Earth observation satellites to capture images of the devastation caused by last Saturday's earthquake ...

Starting November 1, countries mobilizing rescue and relief efforts to deal with natural or technological disasters can dial a dedicated telephone number to quickly access the space resources of the Canadian Space Agency(CSA), the French Space Agency (CNES) and the European Space Agency (ESA) ...

Building on a commitment made at the third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (Unispace III), yesterday, Mac Evans, President of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) joined Antonio Rodotà, Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Gérard Brachet, Director General of the French Space Agency (CNES) in the signing of the Charter on Disaster Management at the ESA Headquarters in Paris ...