How Satellite Monitoring Can Help Protect Refugees

Payne Institute Communications Associate Elsa Barron, Earth Observation Group Director Christopher Elvidge, Researcher Feng Chi, Hsu, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how we are crafting one response to the plights of refugees worldwide through a satellite monitoring technology called Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Lumen Watch. The technology is a prototype developed by the Earth Observation Group in order to monitor changes in nighttime light radiance in geographic locations of interest. Currently, the software monitors the light radiance of two refugee settlements: the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, and Al-Jufaynah Camp in Marib City, Yemen, which hosts thousands of people who have been internally displaced by the civil war.  January 4, 2022.