4:30 PM - 4:45 PM
[MIS05-17] Cloud monitoring by the Philippines' first microsatellite DIWATA-1
Keywords:Microsatellite, Disaster monitoring
The Philippines' first microsatellite, DIWATA-1, is a 50-kg-class earth observation microsatellite, funded by Philippines' Department of Science and Technology (DOST), built by scientists and engineers from the Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) of the DOST, the University of the Philippines-Diliman (UPD), Tohoku University (TU) and Hokkaido University (HU). The main objective of DIWATA-1 is to assist in disaster monitoring and natural resource management, specifically in the areas of agriculture, fisheries and forest protection. For that purpose, DIWATA-1 has four different optical sensors for earth observation. By using these sensors, the earth observation data can be acquired with several ground sampling distances (GSDs) from 3m with a field of view (FOV) of 2 km x 1.5 km to 185 m with a FOV of 40 km x 20 km at an altitude of 400km.
To date, it is well known that the Philippines is one of the most vulnerable countries to natural disasters. In a year, on average, there are about 18-19 typhoons that enter the Philippine area of responsibility. Predicting areas that would experience heavy rainfall will give local governments more time to evacuate affected residents. However, there have been few attempts made to perform this early prediction using satellite remote sensing data. In this paper, we focus on cloud monitoring using images obtained by DIWATA-1. Cloud activity is highly correlated with intense rainfall or thunderstorms. New application using DIWATA-1's cloud monitoring could be one of the powerful approach to catch the precursor of such natural disasters.
To date, it is well known that the Philippines is one of the most vulnerable countries to natural disasters. In a year, on average, there are about 18-19 typhoons that enter the Philippine area of responsibility. Predicting areas that would experience heavy rainfall will give local governments more time to evacuate affected residents. However, there have been few attempts made to perform this early prediction using satellite remote sensing data. In this paper, we focus on cloud monitoring using images obtained by DIWATA-1. Cloud activity is highly correlated with intense rainfall or thunderstorms. New application using DIWATA-1's cloud monitoring could be one of the powerful approach to catch the precursor of such natural disasters.