Microsoft combines satellite data and AI analytics to find victims of Myanmar's earthquake.
A satellite has been aiming its long-range camera at the city of Mandalay in Myanmar since the morning of March 29, not far from the epicenter of the 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck the city the day before. The satellite's mission is to capture images and use AI to help governments and relief organizations quickly assess critical information, such as how many buildings have collapsed or been damaged and where rescuers are most needed.
Microsoft is currently leading the charge, using satellites from Planet Labs. However, the effectiveness of this computer vision approach still depends on the weather. "The biggest challenge is clouds. There's no way to see through clouds with this technology," Juan Lavista Ferres, Microsoft's chief data scientist, told the AP.
The team had to wait for the cloud to move, which usually took several hours. At that point, another satellite from Planet Labs, based in San Francisco, would take an aerial image and send it to Microsoft's AI for Good Lab.
After the AI analysis was complete, Microsoft's system found that 515 buildings in Mandalay were 80-100% damaged and another 1,524 were 20-80% damaged, a number that showed the severity of the disaster. More importantly, the data helped pinpoint the exact location of the damage.
"This is useful information for search and rescue teams on the ground," said Lavista Ferres.
Microsoft said it was "only acting as a rough guide and would require on-the-ground verification to understand more." However, by sharing with relief groups like the Red Cross, the technology could help quickly assess the disaster.
Planet Labs says it currently has 15 satellites orbiting the Earth. Since the Myanmar earthquake, the system has captured images of more than 10 locations in Myanmar and Thailand and sent them to the AI for Good Lab.
Microsoft's lab has previously assessed damage from natural disasters using AI using satellite imagery, such as tracking the catastrophic floods in Libya in 2023 or the wildfires in Los Angeles earlier this year. However, according to Microsoft, instead of relying on a standard AI computer vision model, they had to build a custom version specifically for some severely affected cities, such as Mandalay.
"The Earth is so different. Natural disasters are so different. The imagery we get from satellites is so different that we can't respond to every situation," Ferres said. For example, while a fire spreads in a fairly predictable way, an earthquake would affect an entire city. Therefore, it is difficult to immediately know where to help first.
The AI for Good Lab system is also being used to protect endangered animals. Microsoft said it will equip solar-powered sensors and microphones to record animal sounds, then use AI to detect which species through their calls, thereby determining their location and direction of movement. Experts say this method is faster, cheaper and better in supporting biodiversity conservation. In addition to Planet Labs' satellites, Microsoft also uses its own satellite flying in low Earth orbit (LEO) called Sparrow.
A 7.7-magnitude earthquake occurred on March 28 in Myanmar, followed by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock a few minutes later, destroying many buildings, collapsing bridges and damaging roads in the country. The Myanmar military government's media agency on March 31 updated the death toll in the disaster to 2,056, about 3,900 people were injured and nearly 270 cases were missing.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the earthquake in Myanmar a national emergency of the highest level and is mobilizing $8 million to help prevent disease outbreaks over the next 30 days. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has also launched an appeal for more than $100 million to help quake victims.