The National Space Organization (NSPO) from National Applied Research Laboratories, Geographic Information Center from National Taiwan Normal University, Disaster Prevention Research Center from National Cheng Kung University and Center for Space and Remote Sensing Research from National Central University have conducted a joined research following the recent massive earth quake in South-East Asia. The analysis was performed using images collected and captured over the earthquake-hit area by the FORMOSAT-2 satellite during the period from December 28 th , 2004 to January 2 nd , 2005. Today the above mentioned institutes released the final report for the current stage of analysis.

Over the past few days, images were collected over areas such as Phuket and Ranong in Thailand, Banda Aceh in Indonesia, Andaman Islands and Nicobar Islands in India, and Maldives. Upon completion of satellite images downloading, the National Space Organization immediately commenced to process and interpret the data with the Geographic Information Center from National Taiwan Normal University, Disaster Prevention Research Center from National Cheng Kung University and Center for Space and Remote Sensing Research from National Central University. These institutions also proactively distributed the latest analytical reports to the countries affected by the earth quake through diplomatic channels, media, and internet as part of the international rescue efforts.

The NSPO also established a temporary website ( http://www.nspo.org.tw/tsunami_images/ ) for all rescue forces to download. As of today, various rescue teams and organizations from more than sixty countries have downloaded and utilized the images offered on this website. Due to the fact that some of the existing maps are no longer accurate after the earthquake, the Singaporean rescue team has decided to carry out the relief effort in the Nicobar Islands using the images captured by FORMOSAT-2 .