MOSCOW, February 12 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s space agency said Wednesday that it has supplied fresh satellite images to assist Britain and India cope with unfolding natural disasters blighting the two nations.
The Resurs-P satellite launched by Russia last summer on Thursday photographed areas along the southern coast of England, which is currently battling floods caused by torrential downpours that began in January.
Roscosmos said that it has forwarded over 6,000 square kilometers (2,300 square miles) of images taken by the satellite to the British government and will continue monitoring the area until the end of next week.
The Indian government declared a state of emergency on January 31 after the outbreak of uncontrolled forest fires near the country’s northeastern border with Burma.
Roscosmos, in collaboration with Russian Space Systems, last week tasked the Kanopus-V and Resurs-P satellites with photographing the affected area and immediately forwarded the images to the country, the space agency said.
The satellite imagery has been provided under the auspices of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, which Roscosmos joined in August.
The charter organizes earth-observing satellites of member organizations to take pictures of disaster-stricken areas and provides them free of charge to response and relief agencies.
More than 400 requests have been filed under the charter since it became operational in 2000, according to the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters.