Why space matters–especially when it’s close to home

DigitalGlobe decided to release this blog entry earlier today.  The flooding here in Colorado happened on a scale that couldn’t have been predicted.  It impacted Longmont, Colorado, where DigitalGlobe has it’s space operations center, pretty badly as well as a lot of other communities along the Front Range.  USA Today has a good collection of photos here (scroll to the bottom of the article) of the amazing devastation that hit us.

DigitalGlobe still kept operations going in spite of the flooding and possible local attenuation issues (there was A LOT of moisture in the air).  One of the good things about having ground stations spread around the world is you’ll get the data down eventually.  And they used their power for good in this case–at least according to their own blog entry–by providing updated imagery of the hardest-hit areas.  Read their post for details.