Firstlook

DigitalGlobe’s FirstLook is an online subscription service for emergency management that provides fast web-based access to pre- and post-event imagery of world disasters required for efficient emergency planning, risk assessment, monitoring of staging areas and crisis response, damage assessment, and recovery.

FirstLook operators never stop monitoring of the globe and immediately after a disaster has occurred DigitalGlobe places a high priority tasking order. Natural disasters, man-made disasters, political unrest, and human interest take precedence in image collection scenarios. The area remains under monitoring for 1-2 days after the event took place. 12 hours after the collection has been completed the images of the area become available online providing the essential information for future planning.

Event types included in FirsLook monitoring system:

1. Disaster events;
• Geological disasters (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, avalanches, limnic eruptions);
• Hydrological disasters (floods, tsunamis);

• Meteorological disasters (hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, droughts, hail storms);

• Wildfires.

2. Man-made events
• Terrorist events (bombings, biological, chemical, nuclear events);
• Large scale accidents (planes, train, industrial, oil spills).
3. Political unrest 
• Military operations (non-US/allied);
• Government protests;
• Military coups;
• Demonstrations, protests, rallies;
• Displaced refugees, mass exodus.
4. Human interests
•  Sporting events (World Cup, Olympics);
• Large world festivals.