Emergency Response

In order to support NOAA's homeland security and emergency response requirements, the National Geodetic Survey Remote Sensing Division (NGS/RSD) has the capability to acquire and rapidly disseminate a variety of spatially-referenced datasets to federal, state, and local government agencies, as well as the general public. Remote sensing technologies used for these projects have included lidar, high-resolution digital cameras, a film-based RC-30 aerial camera system, and hyperspectral imagers. Examples of rapid response initiatives include acquiring high resolution images with the Emerge/Applanix Digital Sensor System (DSS).

In our largest response effort, NOAA collected over 8,000 aerial images of the hardest hit areas in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina made landfall. These images were made available to emergency personnel and the public on the NOAA/NGS web site . Several commercial vendors have incorporated the aerial imagery into web-based map servers, allowing for searches based on street addresses, city names, and points of interest.

NOAA plans to acquire remotely sensed data in the future to support the agency's homeland security and emergency response requirements. This includes providing tools, technology, and expertise in a timely and efficient manner during an emergency response effort. The data will be disseminated to facilitate support efforts such as:

• Aiding emergency managers to develop recovery strategies.

• Damage assessment through comparison of before and after imagery.

• Rebuilding of damaged properties.

• Allowing those displaced to see images of their homes and neighborhoods.

Imagery collected to support emergency response can be downloaded from NOAA's Emergency Response Imagery Website.