Center for a New American Security

In Sentries in the Sky: Using Space Technologies for Disaster Response, CNAS Bacevich Fellow Will Rogers argues that U.S. policymakers can make better use of space technologies to improve disaster warning and response. As Japan’s March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident demonstrated, the magnitude of some crises can overwhelm even the most advanced ground-based disaster warning and response services. The United States should improve existing systems and invest in new ones so that U.S. space capabilities can both produce and relay data to first responders and others charged with protecting the nation.