Several hours before Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in the Philippines on Nov. 7, DigitalGlobe activated FirstLook, an online service that provides satellite imagery of large scale disasters. Their satellites collected more than 7,300 square miles of imagery in the areas hardest hit by the typhoon — one of the strongest storms to ever make landfall.
DigitalGlobe has also made a plea for volunteers to help map the devastation. Through a crowdsourcing campaign on their Tomnod website, users are able to identify regions and landmarks affected. The data collected will be used by emergency management, first responders and commercial clients to assess and deploy personnel.
The satellite images above were first taken on Feb 23, 2012 and again on Nov. 10, 2013, after Haiyan wiped out Tacloban, one of the first islands in the direct path of the ferocious tropical storm. Click on the images to view them larger.
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