With 83 percent lights out, most of Syria's cities fall into darkness. Analysis of satellite images show that 4 years of conflict has plunged Syria in a severe humanitarian crisis. The country is entering the “Dark Age”, while its people are experiencing untold misery.
A remote sensing research conducted by a research team led by Li Xi from the State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sense of Wuhan University has attracted great interest from the international media.
In a press conference on March 11th, 2015, Li Xi released his research conclusions: nighttime satellite images of Syria show that 83 percent of the country's lights have gone out as a consequence of the four years of devastating conflict, with a staggering 97 percent of the light loss in the Syrian city of Aleppo, exposing the severe humanitarian crisis in this country. The nighttime light loss caused by the Syrian conflict is similar to that triggered by the Rwandan genocide, but by comparison, the pain of the Syrian people suffer extends for a longer period of time. Li appealed to the international community to deliver more help to the Syrian people.
According to statistics, over 100 international media and organization reported the research discoveries.
New York Times wrote, “the analysis on the Syrian Satellite images show that the country is 83% darker than before the conflict, which is one of the main reasons for large number of displaced people”.
According to Washington Post, "Satellite imagery is the most objective source of data showing the devastation occurred in Syria on a national scale," said Xi Li, the leading researcher on the project. "Syria is entering the dark ages," warns Miliband, a former British foreign secretary.
Interestingly, while most media are more focused on the research discoveries, Phillipa Garson, a well-known independent journalist based in New York wrote an article The Technology Behind the Research on Syrian Light Loss to further explore the remote sensing mechanics and stories after her exclusive interview with Li Xi. Her article was well-received by the readers.
The research was initiated in 2014 and led to a paper co-authered by academician Li Deren and Li Xi, and published on International Journal of Remote Sensing. In February, 2015, the NGO “Crisis Action” sent an e-mail to the research team of Wuhan University in the hope of getting their support, which Li Deren readily accepted and put Li Xi in charge of analyzing the remote sensing data and producing a research report.
(Rewritten by Xueshuang Liu, edited by Diana & Sijia Hu)
