Typhoon in Philippines

The typhoon Haiyan is one of the most powerful storms ever recognized, and has caused devastating demolition in the Philippines. Officials estimate more than 10,000 people have died. Hundreds of thousands of people are displaced. The Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) tasked the Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) with the creation of satellite image based situation information. This mapping activity was performed in the context of the national service ZKI-DE which is operational since January 2013 and makes DLR products accessible for federal agencies in Germany through the German Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI). Furthermore, the German Joint Information and Situation Centre (GMLZ) activated the International Charter Space and Major Disasters which ensures that public and private operators of earth observation satellites provide fast and cost-free access to satellite images covering a disaster area. During this activation and in its role of a German Charter member, DLR acts as a satellite data provider for TerraSAR-X and RapidEye data.