NATURAL DISASTER SERVICES:
FIRES
The Real-time fire Monitoring System is continuously fed with new satellite acquisitions every 5 minutes from the MSG SEVIRI (EUMETSAT) satellite. The system incorporates a fully automatic processing chain, integrating efficient algorithms for image processing and classification, and producing maps of active fires. Several enhancement queries are invoked to improve the quality of the initial satellite observations, towards detecting fires with enhanced reliability and estimating its evolution in time. Moreover, the system accounts for the wind direction, the ground morphology characteristics, the elevation zones, as well as the fuel characteristics of the affected areas, to downscale the initial observation of MSG SEVIRI sensor, from 3.5km spatial resolution to 500 meter resolution. The resulted maps are ingested to the web server, where they are merged with ancillary geo-spatial layers like Google Earth, Corine CLC, toponyms, etc. The system provides real time observations and status of active fires, as well as offers capabilities for retrieving past fire events for re-analysis and study. The system is used by the Fire Brigades Authority of Greece, the Directorate General of Forest Protection of the Min. of Environment, several institutional users and private entities all over Greece, the Local Authorities, the national Forestry services, etc.
FLOODS
BEYOND’s FLOODS OBSERVATORY for Greece & South-Eastern Europe registers major flood events and publishes the flood mapping results produced following the processing and photo-interpretation of satellite optical and radar images.
ATMOSPHERIC
The ground-sector lidar developments enforce ground-based monitoring activities in the Mediterranean, a geographical area of great importance in terms of aerosol and cloud properties. Atmospheric models provide forecasting services related to natural environmental disasters such as smoke dispersion associated with forest fires, volcanic ash advection and desert dust outbreaks.
