Purdue University lends satellite idea to Egypt for disaster sensing

By William Atkins
Thursday, 15 January 2009 02:22

Science - Climate

The Purdue Terrestrial Observatory will be used as a model for the Kamal Ewida Earth Observatory in Egypt, which will provide real-time, early-warning meteorological and environmental data on natural and human-made disasters such as epidemics, famines, flooding, earthquakes, and terrorism.


The January 13, 2009 Purdue University article Purdue Terrestrial Observatory central to NATA-funded international tracking project states, “NATO is funding the project through its Science for Peace and Security program, which creates partnerships among alliance countries and Eastern European or so-called Mediterranean Dialogue nations-a forum of cooperation between seven countries centered in North Africa.”

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is providing approximately $78,000 in 2009 for the development of the Kamal Ewida Earth Observatory (KEEO). Over the following three years, NATO will provide an additional $315,000.

Magdy Abdel Wahab, who is the chair of the Meteorology and Astronomy Department at Cairo University, will be the partner-country director for the KEEO.

Gilbert Rochon, who is the associate vice president for collaborative research in the Information Technology Department at Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana), will be the NATO-country project director for KEEO.

The model from Purdue University (what is called the Purdue Terrestrial Observatory, which is part of its Rosen Center for Advanced Computing) is being used for the KEEO because of its long history of identifying and tracking natural and human-caused disasters by “collecting, archiving and interpreting high-resolution satellite and other remotely sensed data.”

The KEEO program will be able to assess vulnerability to such disasters and assist the country in post-disaster reconstruction.

The PTO uses people from twenty departments within the Schools of Agriculture, Science, Engineering, and Technology at Purdue University. The Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP) coordinates the system.

Page two discusses the Purdue University Purdue Terretrial Observatory program.