Goddard Project

Satellite information enables public officials to track and evaluate agricultural conditions, map and develop natural resources, manage scarce water supplies, study population growth and migration patterns, monitor fish movements and biodiversity, and forecast disaster outbreaks.

In developing nations, social progress is dependent upon satellite applications in health care, education and disaster management. Tracking black fly larvae along the Volta River, for example, satellite data was an important factor in the successful World Health Organization initiative to eliminate River Blindness in West Africa.

Doctors Without Borders uses satellite imagery to calculate the number of refugees needing assistance when it cannot obtain official counts, as it did in the case of Somali refugees in Kenya.