News / Brèves Strategic Defence / Défense stratégique Back to previous selection / Retour à la sélection précédente RADARSAT 2 part of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters satellites activated to assist in the Philippines relief efforts 16 November 2013 (CRC)—The International Charter on Space and Major Disasters organization’s constellation of satellites was called upon to both monitor and assist in the relief efforts in the wake of the devastation caused by Haiyan Typhoon in the Philippines. The ICSMD was created in 2000 at the initiative of the Canada Space Agency (CSA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the French Space Agency (CNES). Since then another 12 space related agencies have joined the International Charter network. The International Charter aims at providing ’a unified system of space data acquisition and delivery to those affected by natural and man-made disasters’. The 2012 annual report of the Executive Secretariat of the ICSMD lists the constellation of 25 satellites equipped with radar and optical sensors (page 3 and 4 of the annual report) which are made available towards relief efforts worldwide. Canada has again been called upon to provide satellite imagery through the RADARSAT 2 as it previously did during typhoon Bopha which struck the southern Philippines last December. [GG]