UNOSAT VO20220115TON: Damage Assessment for Nomuka Island, Tonga After 2022 Eruption

18 January 2022 satellite imagery analysis of Nomuka Island, Tonga, following the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcanic eruption. The United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) identified 260 structures, with 52 damaged/destroyed, 13 potentially flooded, and almost all covered with ash. This is a preliminary analysis from a Pleiades image acquired on 18 January 2022, 10:45 local time.

Use Cases

• Mapping structural damage and destruction based on satellite-identified building assessments.
• Analyzing ash coverage extent and its potential impact on infrastructure and recovery.
• Identifying flooded areas for post-disaster relief and reconstruction planning.
• Training or validating machine learning models for automated disaster damage detection from satellite imagery.

Strengths

• Analysis is based on high-resolution Pleiades satellite imagery from a specific date and time (18 January 2022, 10:45 local time).
• Provides specific counts of structures (260 total), damaged/destroyed structures (52), and potentially flooded structures (13).
• Dataset is produced by the authoritative United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT).

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The analysis is preliminary and has not been validated by ground feedback.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT)

Collection Method

Analysis of a Pleiades satellite image.

Time Range

18 January 2022

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-03 10:45:39.589036; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Nomuka Island, Mu'omu'a district, Ha'apai division, Tonga