US EditionAI and satellites help aid workers respond to Myanmar earthquake damage
- Following a 7.7 magnitude earthquake on Monday, March 31, 2025, in Mandalay, Myanmar, a satellite captured images of the devastated city just after sunrise on Saturday to aid relief organizations.
- The earthquake, which occurred on Friday, prompted a mission to capture images for damage assessment, utilizing artificial intelligence technology to determine where help was most needed.
- Planet Labs, with its 15 satellites, captured aerial pictures after initial cloud cover cleared, sending the images to Microsoft's AI for Good Lab for analysis, leveraging their prior experience with AI-assisted damage assessment in events like the 2023 Libya flooding and Los Angeles wildfires.
- Microsoft's AI analysis revealed 515 buildings in Mandalay sustained 80% to 100% damage; however, chief data scientist Juan Lavista Ferres noted the limitations of the technology, stating, "There's no way to see through clouds with this technology" and emphasized that "The Earth is too different, the natural disasters are too different and the imagery we get from satellites is just too different to work in every situation."
- Microsoft shared the AI analysis, customized for Mandalay, with aid groups like the Red Cross as a preliminary guide, stressing the need for on-the-ground verification, but highlighting that "This is critical information for teams on the ground" to pinpoint specific locations of damage.
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56 Articles
ISRO Satellite Images Show Damage After Earthquake Rattled Myanmar
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has released satellite images of the widespread damages caused by the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck Myanmar and rattled neighbouring countries on Friday. Using its most sophisticated Earth imaging satellite, the Cartosat-3, which can help with images at a resolution of less than 50 centimetres, the ISRO has managed to capture photos from a 500 kilometre altitude above the earth. The images sh…
Mandalay and its pagodas, the deceptive beauty of the ancient Burmese capital
Built at the behest of a prophecy, but on an earthquake fault. A financial and economic center, today in the city the Han Chinese make up more than half of the inhabitants and control a large part of the economy
Microsoft's AI-assisted damage assessment is playing a pivotal role in the aftermath of the Myanmar earthquake
Just after sunrise on Saturday, a satellite set its long-range camera on the city of Mandalay in Myanmar, not far from the epicenter of Friday’s 7.7 magnitude earthquake that devastated the Southeast Asian country's second-largest city. The mission was to capture images that, combined with artificial intelligence technology, could help relief organizations quickly assess how many buildings had collapsed or were heavily damaged and where helpers …
The Conversation
Alaska BeaconUS earthquake safety relies on federal employees’ expertise
The 6.9 magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake near San Francisco in 1989 caused about $6.8 billion in damage and 63 deaths. J.K. Nakata/U.S. Geological SurveyEarthquakes and the damage they cause are apolitical. Collectively, we either prepare for future earthquakes or the population eventually pays the price. The earthquakes that struck Myanmar on March 28, 2025, collapsing buildings and causing over 2,000 deaths, were a sobering reminder of the ris…
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