** December 2022 News from Sentinel Asia Project Office **- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *Topics:
1. [News] Emergency Observation of Disasters
2. [Interview] Dr. Lal Samarakoon, PhD; Former Director of GIC-AIT; former co-chair ofSentinel Asia Steering Committee
3. [Report] Sentinel Asia Annual Report 2021 has been published!
4. How to Send an Emergency Observation Request
5. Using the Sentinel Asia Operation System, OPTEMIS- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *1. [News] Emergency Observation of Disasters (as of 26 December)(1) Volcano eruption in Indonesia on 04 December, 2022 (GLIDE Number VO-2022-000373IDN)
Semeru Volcano on Java Island, Indonesia, erupted on 4 December. ReliefWeb reported that
more than 2,000 people were displaced to shelters.
(https://reliefweb.int/disaster/vo-2022-000373-idn)
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) made an Emergency Observation Request(EOR) to Sentinel Asia on 5 December, 2022. This EOR was escalated to the International
Disasters Charter. The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) assumed the role of ProjectManager for this Charter activation. Among Data Provider Nodes (DPNs), the Centre for
Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing (CRISP), the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology
Development Agency (GISTDA), the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and the National Applied Research Laboratories(NARL) provided data. Among Data Analysis Nodes (DANs), the Mohammed Bin RashidSpace Centre (MBRSC) provided its Value-Added Products (VAPs). Information on the latest
response by Sentinel Asia is available at the link below.
https://sentinel-asia.org/EO/2022/article20221204ID.html

Post-disaster satellite image (TELEOS-1) provided by CRISP

Post-disaster satellite image (THEOS-1) provided by GISTDA

Post-disaster satellite image (Cartosat-3) provided by ISRO

Post-disaster satellite image (ALOS-2) provided by JAXA

Post-disaster satellite image (FORMOSAT-5) provided by NARL

Value-Added Product by MBRSC

- * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *2. [Interview] Dr. Lal Samarakoon, PhD; Former Director of GIC-AIT; former co-chair of Sentinel
Asia Steering Committee
Lal Samarakoon, PhD; Former Director of GIC-AIT; former co-chair of Sentinel Asia Steering
Committee

Dr. Lal Samarakoon was the first director of the Geoinformatics Center (GIC) of the Asian Instituteof Technology (AIT), concurrently holding a position as a Visiting Scientist of JAXA seconded to
AIT. He started his space technology career in early 1990 after completing his graduate studies inJapan. He has worked for Japanese industry before leading GIC for about 15 years. He has contributed
to Sentinel Asia from the very beginning and was instrumental in establishing GIC as the firstPrincipal Data Analysis Node (PDAN) of SA. He was one of the co-chairs of the SA Steering
Committee since its inception in 2017 until 2022.

Sentinel Asia Secretariat:
First, the Sentinel Asia (SA) secretariat would like to express its appreciation for your work as a
Co-chair of the Sentinel Asia Steering Committee (SC). AIT participated in Sentinel Asia from thevery beginning and has contributed to today’s success of SA. With that, could you tell us the story of
AIT’s participation in SA, as a former director of GIC-AIT?
Dr. Lal Samarakoon:
First of all, let me thank you for giving me this opportunity to discuss my experience of working for
SA in the past 15 years. To answer your question, let me give you a background on how GIC-AIT
joined SA to work together to improve the SA system.
The idea of the SA was initially proposed at the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum(APRSAF) in November 2004 following multiple discussions. I was lucky to be involved in those
discussions as one of the pioneer members, as I was a Visiting Scientist of JAXA since 2003. At thesame time, I was the director of GIC-AIT established in 2003 combining the GIS Application
Center (GAC) and the Asian Center for Research on Remote Sensing (ACRoRS) established by
Prof. Shunji Murai and Dr. Kiyoshi Honda, respectively.
The idea of the SA was later approved to be promptly implemented as a pilot project at APRSAF-12

held in Kitakyushu, Japan, in October 2005. My major role as JAXA Visiting Scientist based at
GIC-AIT was the promotion of the use of satellite data and capacity building in the Asia-Pacific. I
was positioned in an advantageous place at GIC to use the GIC-AIT network to reach various
institutes in the region for networking to promote SA activities. Whenever I had a chance toparticipate in regional meetings such as the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for
Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), or
during a country visit for research or training activities, I always publicized SA and discussed thebenefits of being a user/partner of SA.
After a couple of years of good work, I managed to establish GIC-AIT as the first PDAN of SA.
GIC has been given this credential after producing a considerable number of Value Added Products(VAPs), demonstrating the expertise of data analysis in the region and contributing to capacity
building. Since then, I believe that GIC is doing a great job supporting the region making timely
VAP products and sharing these products with respective user agencies. I am happy for leading GIC
as the first PDAN of SA since the early stages of SA and thankful to the staff for their excellent
work for the region.

Secretariat:
As we said, we are grateful for your co-chairship at SC. Is there anything that you found impressiveat SC?
Dr. Samarakoon:
The SC of the SA is a great idea to enhance the system, to improve its efficiency, to adjust for user
and provider needs, and to provide a stage for brainstorming. All the SC members seem to be happy
about the discussions and progress of activities; however, I believe that we had more room toimprove and that there are still areas to do better in. The idea of an SC, an independent gathering
where a few volunteers can sit and chat about ways to improve the system, was brought up during
APRSAF meetings and was eventually endorsed at APRSAF 21 in 2014.
The first SC meeting was held in Bangkok in early 2017, hosted by the Geo-Informatics and SpaceTechnology Development Agency (GISTDA), where we started to talk and brainstorm about SA’s
strategic plan. The ideas that came up during the meeting were documented and I made the firstdraft of the strategic plan under five thematic areas for consideration at the Joint Project Team
Meeting of SA. This provided a platform to share the requirements of SA and share them with theexpertise of participating agencies. I believe that SC members who took the leading role did a goodjob providing essential technical and procedural guidance to improve SA data distribution and VAP
creation systems. I am happy to be one of the co-chairs of the SC from its beginning until the 2022
meeting in Bangkok. I enjoyed working with co-chair Mr. Koji Suzuki of Asian Disaster Reduction
Center (ADRC) and all the SC members and am thankful for their positive contribution. Having
said that, I should also note here that the strategic plan we designed in 2017 needs revisions to adopt
new technologies as well as new development in IT technology to strengthen SA.

Secretariat:
Did you have any policy or strategy in supporting SA’s operation through your co-chairship?

Dr. Samarakoon:
I was one of the co-chairs since the beginning of SC in 2015. With my experience working with
JAXA, other space agencies in Asia, disaster risk reduction (DRR) agencies, and internationalorganizations, it was easy for me to reach out to many experts and DRR- and space-related leadersin the region. One of the discussions and the concerns at the SC was how to get all the participants
motivated. I always wanted everyone’s participation and collaboration to strengthen the SA. I
wanted to be independent while chairing SC meetings so that I would be able to discuss and observe
all the discussions from the perspective of other members and partners. I appointed a staff member
to represent GIC at SC meetings, as I didn’t want to take the floor as the director of GIC. That
helped me to be the co-chair even after I left GIC, I believe. So, my strategy as the co-chair was tobe proactive, collaborative, and independent.

Secretariat:
During your time at GIC and after that, GIC continues to provide VAPs. Are there any Emergency
Observation Requests (EORs) that stand out, and why?
Dr. Samarakoon:
When addressing emergency response, we tried our best to communicate with local agencies formany reasons. One of the main reasons is to determine local agency requirements, what information
they would like to have extracted, at what scale, etc.
One interesting case that I can remember was from Myanmar. From the Department of Meteorology
and Hydrology (DMH) of Myanmar, a request was submitted to SA to find the reason for a sudden
water level increase in a northern city. DMH suspected several possible reasons such as sudden andintensive precipitation in the river basin, excessive snowmelt, burst or breach of a lake, etc. We
collected various data including GSMaP, ALOS, etc. and provided DMH various VAPs based on
those satellite data. Observation on time series GSMaP showed high-intensity rainfall over the basin
and we were happy to provide very good satellite-based products to identify the reason for DMH
with evidence. On the other hand, we realized that requirements can be better addressed by
combining various observations.
Another interesting case was in Sri Lanka where we could mobilize the local Disaster Management
Center (DMC) to visit a few places and check data during flood map creation. We worked closelywith a survey group to compare mapping results and then extrapolate them over a large area in
Colombo. In this activity, DMC noticed that Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data showed apromising application in flood mapping; particularly in rainy conditions, there are some concerns
regarding urban mapping due to the double bounce scatter of radar. Both these cases involved
dealing with the crisis as well as developing technological know-how because it was possible to get
local agency participation. So, how to get local agencies involved in the VAP creation and sharing
process will always be an interesting issue.

Secretariat:
Since the launch of SA, the SA satellite fleet keeps growing. Are there any satellites or data that

stand out, and why?
Dr. Samarakoon:
Although for the last few years I do not work directly with satellite data, from my experiences withseveral flood disasters in the region where we usually have prevailing cloud cover on rainy days,
SAR data are more significant than optical data. I don’t think it would be good idea to compare
agencies that provide satellite data to SA, but I could say that the SAR data of JAXA has many
advantages over other optical data in flood inundation mapping or flood dynamics monitoring aswell as following the recovery. It would be great if SA-SC could start a discussion on NASA-ISROSAR mission (NISAR) under the SA program for emergency response.

Secretariat:
We suppose that a certain level of skills is necessary for making VAPs and capacity building isimportant to keep such engineers. Could we have your opinion on such capacity building?
Dr. Lal Samarakoon:
Typically, we used to teach the principles of remote sensing, sensors, interaction with theatmosphere, energy reactions, etc. while discussing how we could interpret satellite data to groundobjects through hands-on training. In today’s IT world and given the solution-oriented nature of
problem-solving strategies, I believe that typical capacity building may not be necessary.
Nowadays, the trend is to create solution-oriented systems and tools that people can access over theinternet and cloud systems without any requirements, or with limited knowledge of remote sensing
systems. Therefore, guidance and demonstrations on how to use these cloud-based facilities are
currently in need to use satellite data more efficiently and in a timelier manner. Developing sometools based on the needs of end users is something that we need to invest time and effort in. I would
prefer research by institutes like AIT, the University of Tokyo, and Yamaguchi University withvarious types of data and come up with solution and tools for end users to use as they wish. Sometools like SAR-Flood, Optical-Flood, Flood-Changes would be ideal for end users to use with SA
data over a cloud-based system.

Secretariat:
Cooperation with other countries and other institutions is indispensable to delivering the VAPs toaffected areas in a timely manner. Could we have your opinion on maintaining and developing suchcooperation?
Dr. Lal Samarakoon:
This is always a challenge. How to bring end-use agencies on board and maintain goodcollaboration is a topic to continue at SC. SA PDANs and some DANs are working tirelessly to
produce VAPs in time and provide them to relevant agencies in a timely manner but always somequestions remain regarding the timing of the products, product requirements, product accuracy, etc.
Therefore, it is necessary to have end-user agency collaborations within the SA system to make thebest use of VAP products.

Although such collaborations are happening in some countries, still we have to make efforts tobring onboard several DRR agencies in the region to better prepare the VAPs for emergency disaster
response programs. In this regard, I believe that having collaborators such as ADRC serves toimprove and establish a closer relationship with DRR agencies to promote the use of VAPs and findways to deliver VAPs to the most appropriate user during a given disaster.

Secretariat:
Recently, the number of organizations, from both the public and private sectors, in the field of
disaster management is growing, with part of them relating to the Disasters Charter. From aviewpoint of disseminating information to affected areas smoothly, what kind of relations should SA
have with these organizations?
Dr. Samarakoon:
Let me start the answer by discussing the public sector. SA has been primarily dealing with public
sector agencies in the region, as they have national mandates and obligations to provide assistanceduring disaster and recovery.
However, reaching out to the end user and DRR agencies is not always an easy task, as we have tofollow the national direction of a given country to reach them. Therefore, it is necessary to
determine and prepare a structural strategy to reach out to national DRRs in each country.
On that matter, I can remember that we carried out a few successful national-level meetings inIndonesia, Vietnam, and Myanmar during 2014–2015 in which we tried to connect national DRR
agencies with space agencies to establish connections based on each country’s structure and set the
ground for SA activities and support. During those meetings, the value of SA, accessing VAPs,
creating VAPs, and using VAPs within their local GIS systems were demonstrated. Those meetings
were quite successful in expanding the local network and reaching out to end users. It would be niceif this effort can be further explored.
The private sector does not have any obligation to help in a disaster situation, but they may like tojoin the system if they can identify direct or indirect benefits. This would be quite true in disaster
preparedness activities, as various private sector DRR models can be linked with satellite data for
2D mapping, large-area estimations, verification, visualization, etc. It is good to see them joining
even SC.

Secretariat:
Climate change is a part of the causes of the current growth of natural disasters. What should SA doabout this?
Dr. Lal Samarakoon:
It is documented and many researchers have demonstrated that climate change would be one of thereasons for an increase in natural disasters. Addressing climate change, observing climate change
indicators, or being involved in climate change action plans are beyond the scope of SA. The SA
was launched to support disaster risk management where possible. Whether it is due to climatechange or not, the task of SA remains unchanged.

If the disaster and hazard frequency increases, the pressure on the system will increase. Handling of
EORs, data acquisition, and sharing will require more resources. Therefore, it is more important tohave an automated system for the acquisition of data, processing, and distribution that canaccommodate the increasing number of requests in a timely manner.
I have some concerns about the data providers. JAXA is very active but data coming from otherregional agencies are somewhat limited. There is a need to renew existing data providers’relationships by getting them more committed to providing data, at least for emergency response.
Collaboration support could be further enhanced by proactive bilateral discussions rather thanleaving open invitations to data providers.

Secretariat:
As the last question, we would like to have your advice on what is necessary for the implementationof SA Step 3 and the further progress of Sentinel Asia.
Dr. Samarakoon:
I know well that SA is moving toward extending the target to cover the total disaster cycle, that is,
to support the region with emergency response as well as preparedness and recovery.
Despite discussing this in several SC meetings, I have not seen any tangible effort fromparticipating agencies to materialize this. It is not that they are not supportive to the idea, but there
could be many limitations in data provision.
I believe that this is not an easy task to achieve. Will it be possible to obtain satellite data to acquire
information on the preparedness or recovery phase? Which space agency is ready to provide
tailored and timely satellite data to address these needs? We know there are some satellite data with
an open data policy. In the time to come, some satellites will be launched with an open data policy.
Though these data are freely accessible, no satellite data service supports particular pre-disaster or
post-disaster activities. Those free data systems are not tailor-made to address given hazards andpredict disasters. Such a system will not come to exist, as data needs are very diverse, limiting theserving capacity of satellite programs. But I suggest trying it with data other than earth observation
data; GSMaP and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) would be worth to try. These twosystems combined with earth observation have shown many potential applications that could help in
disaster preparedness and recovery stages.

- * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *3. [Report] Sentinel Asia Annual Report 2021 has been published!
Sentinel Asia’s activity report for 2021 has been published. The report features, among others, (i) adetailed review on EORs conducted in 2021 including good practices; (ii) external relations such as
news, publications, and reports on conferences; and (iii) an analytical survey of Sentinel Asia’s
operations.
In 2021, like 2020, Sentinel Asia’s annual general meeting “Joint Project Team Meeting (JPTM)” wasforced to be called off due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, this Annual Report provided

JPT members with an alternative opportunity to report their Sentinel Asia-related activities, which
would have been provided as part of the JPTM. In response to the invitation by the Sentinel Asia
secretariat team, 20 JPT members contributed their activity reports, which are printed in the Appendix
section of the Annual Report.
The Annual Report is available on the Sentinel Asia webpage atasia.org/reports/Reports/SA_Annual_Report_2021.pdf

https://sentinel-- * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *4. How to send an Emergency Observation Request
JPT member organizations are entitled to send an Emergency Observation Request (EOR) for
disasters in the Asia-Pacific region. Please refer to https://sentinel-asia.org/elearning/Emergency_Observation_Request.html.
EOR Order Desk:
Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC)
HP: http://www.adrc.asia/
E-mail: sarequest@adrc.asia
FAX: +81-78-262-5546,
TEL: +81-78-262-5540- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *- * - * - * - * - * - *5. Using Sentinel Asia Operation System, OPTEMIS
Sentinel Asia launched a new operation system, OPTEMIS. Please refer to the website on how tocreateanaccount
for
OPTEMIS.
https://sentinel-asia.org/elearning/Emergency_Observation_Request.html+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+=
Copyright 2022 the Sentinel Asia Secretariat
Sentinel Asia Project OfficeSatellite Applications and Operations Center (SAOC)
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
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E-mail: Z-SENTINEL.ASIA@ml.jaxa.jp
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FAX: +81-3-5777-1580