The United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER) is conducting an institutional Strengthening Mission (ISM) to Ghana from 15 to 19 October. The mission is carried out in cooperation with the Ghana National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) and upon the invitation of the Government of Ghana.

Disasters cause tremendous loss of lives and assets around the world. Over the last twenty years, more than 1.35 million people have died, while over 4 billion have been displaced, left homeless, injured or in need of emergency assistance as a result of disasters according to a new report by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED).

The Argentina National Space Activities Commission (CONAE) launched a new Earth observation satellite that will support disaster management efforts. SAOCOM 1A is the first of a constellation of two radar satellites.

A drought/dzud monitoring system known as “DroughtWatch-Mongolia” has been officially handed over to Mongolia on 17 September by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth (RADI) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

DroughtWatch-Mongolia is a system based on satellite data which aims to provide real-time drought monitoring for disaster prevention and mitigation departments in Mongolia.

The International Charter “Space and Major Disasters” and the Copernicus Emergency Management Service Mapping have been activated on 29 September after a 7.5 magnitude earthquake in the central Indonesian Island of Sulawesi.

At least 844 people have been killed and 64,000 displaced according to reports.

The cities of Palu and Donggala are the worst affected areas by the earthquake and a tsunami with waves as high as six metres.