Károly Róbert College tasked Envirosense, Hungary, to acquire the first hyperspectral and Lidar imagery of the disaster area. First ever “red mud” hyperspectralimages in remote sensing history enable to access the area of contamination with toxic spill in Hungary.
SPECIM´s AisaEAGLE hyperspectral system from the College has been chosen to providethe complete coverage of the territory with orthorectified imagery at 1m pixel resolution,taken over the period from 10-12th October, 2010.
The ability to acquire more than 100square kilometers of images daily with the know-how of Envirosense Hungary allows theauthorities to meet their needs in just a few hours, after the image acquisition, processing anddelivery of the data. Hyperspectral images of the disaster area will help determining the actualsize and concentration of the pollution and to control the mud distribution, their effects inplant and water systems.
Toxic wastes from the aluminum refinery “Ajkai Timfoldgyar Zrt” got into the river systemof Hungary after a reservoir burst its banks releasing a flood of some 1.1 million cubic metersof toxic residues on 4th October. Kolontar, the village nearest the reservoir, was immediatelyengulfed by a torrent of red sludge. On the next day, on 5th October, the Hungariangovernment declared a state of emergency in three regions, impacted by the toxic wastes spill:Veszprem, Vas and Gyor-Moson-Sopron. Hungarian authorities addressed to the EuropeanCommittee on October 7 to activate the mechanism of civil protection.
Envirosense offered the in-flight operation, post-processing, field sampling and classificationfree of charge.
www.specim.fi.
