Cyclone Nargis and Myanmar floods seen from space Envisat
captured Cyclone Nargis making its way across the Bay of Bengal
just south of Myanmar on 1 May 2008. The cyclone hit the coastal
region and ripped through the heart of Myanmar on Saturday,
devastating the country. On 4 May, the United Nations Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) asked the
International Charter on 'Space and Major Disasters' for
support. The initiative, referred to as ‘The Charter’, was
founded in October 2000 by ESA, the French space agency (CNES)
and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). It is aimed at providing
satellite data free of charge to those affected by disasters
anywhere in the world. With inundated areas typically visible
from space, Earth Observation (EO) is increasingly being used
for flood response and mitigation. One of the biggest problems
during flooding emergencies is obtaining an overall view of the
phenomenon, with a clear idea of the extent of the flooded area.
The series of Envisat radar images h