Remote sensing satellites, aircraft join Gansu earthquake rescue

China has swiftly deployed high-tech measures, including satellites and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), for emergency rescue after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake jolted Jishishan County in northwest China's Gansu Province at midnight on Monday.

The Land Satellite Remote Sensing Application Center of the Ministry of Natural Resources launched emergency earthquake monitoring after the earthquake.

The center immediately collected and sorted remote sensing images taken by the country's high-resolution Gaofen-2 and Ziyuan-3 satellites before the earthquake and sent pre-disaster data to the rescue frontlines in Gansu and the neighboring Qinghai Province to help with the relief efforts.

China Center for Resources Satellite of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation deployed four satellites to monitor the situation in the earthquake-hit areas.

It has completed the mapping of the affected areas based on the 2-meter-resolution image data obtained by the Gaofen-1B satellite, which covers areas including the county seat of Jishishan, Dahejia Town, Liuji Township and Liugou Township.

Disaster situations, such as landslides, barrier lakes and building collapses, can be monitored through the high-resolution remote sensing images.

Clearer images with submeter-level resolution will be obtained by the center to support relevant departments in analyzing post-disaster rescue.

Aerial rescue support

A Y-20 large transport plane of the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) Western Theater Command took off at around 9:50 a.m. Bejing Time on Tuesday, sending rescue work teams to the frontlines. It arrived in Lanzhou City in about an hour.

China's independently developed Y-20 is the country's largest military transport aircraft in service. It is mainly used in strategic and tactical military transportation, airborne operations, equipment and material airdropping, and non-war military operations.

The domestically developed Wing Loong-2H UAV has also joined the emergency rescue work.

It departed from southwest China's Sichuan Province at noon on Tuesday and rushed to the earthquake-hit areas to carry out emergency relief missions.

The UAV will conduct tasks including airborne emergency communications support and disaster monitoring, providing strong support for the rescue work.