BAE Systems’ Rob Stout describes how a team of analysts detected the level of destruction caused by the tsunami in Banda Aceh using BAE Systems’ SOCET GXP software. When a devastating tsunami hit Bandah Aceh, Indonesia, and the surrounding area a few years ago, the destruction was unprecedented. Eyewitnesses compared the disaster to that of Hiroshima, Japan, after it was hit by an atomic bomb during World War II.
As featured in Contigency Today, January 2009
When a devastating tsunami hit Bandah Aceh, Indonesia, and the surrounding area a few years ago, the destruction was unprecedented. Eyewitnesses compared the disaster to that of Hiroshima, Japan, after it was hit by an atomic bomb during World War II.
The Pacific Air Command Air Force Operations Support Center and the Hickam Air Force Base air operations center in Hawaii were contacted to staff around-the-clock emergency recovery operations. Before relief efforts could begin, the damage had to be assessed. A team of analysts detected the level of destruction in Banda Aceh by observing views using BAE Systems’ SOCET GXP software, along with commercial satellite imagery.
Several images depicting the Bandah Aceh coastline and inland areas were loaded into the SOCET GXP software The data derived from these images was used to identify changes in terrain and landscape, with exact geographic coordinates, so the team could focus its recovery efforts.
SOCET GXP is a geospatial-intelligence tool that is used for image exploitation and features identification. It enables analysts to scan large images to extract layers of data for change detection and before-and-after site comparisons. The information is used to coordinate operational missions and to designate transportation and evacuation routes, helicopter landings, and troop maneuvers.