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First activation of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters in 2017

The International Charter on Space and Major Disasters has been activated for the first time this year, as a result of fires in Argentina. Fires started in late December 2016 and in only two weeks destroyed millions of hectares of forest in the area of the Buenos Aires Province, in the southern part of the Rio Negro Province and in the central part of La Pampa.

The International Charter was activated on 5 January by the Ministry of Defense of Argentina (SIFEM - Secretaría Nacional de Protección Civil de Argentina). As a part of the activation, satellite imagery was acquired from a Chinese satellite Gaofen-1 which provides data with a spatial resolution of 2 meters for the panchromatic images and 8 meters for multi-spectral images. Based on them, the CONAE (Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales – National Space Activities Commission) prepared satellite maps, which show the location of active fires and the extent of burned areas.

By using satellite imagery, it is possible to monitor the spread of active fires, estimate the overall area affected by fires and the size of the losses. It is estimated that fires can kill about 80% of the wildlife species in the La Pampa area.

The satellite maps prepared for the above activation can be found on the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters website at:
https://disasterscharter.org/web/guest/activations/-/article/fire-in-argentina-call-597-