International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXII, Part 6. Bandung-lndonesia 1999 
109 
MILESTONES OF EARTH MONITORING AND DISASTER WARNING 
WORKING GROUP OF APAN ON REAL TIME ASIA PACIFIC 
DISASTER AND FOOD SECURITY NETWORKING 
Haruhiro Fujita and Christopher D. Elvidge 
Shikoku National Agricultural Experiment National Oceanic and 
Station Ministry of Agriculture, Atmospheric Administration 
Forestry and Fisheries. 1-3-1 Senyu, National Geophysical Data Center, 
Zentsuji, Kagawa, Japan 765-8508 325 Broadway Boulder, CO 80303 
fujitah@skk.affrc.go.jp cde@ngdc.noaa.gov 
ABSTRACT 
Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) was founded in June 1997, as an international consortium to aim at research development 
in computer networking, engineering and applications.lTJIn July 1998, the initiatives on Asia Pacific networking of earth observation 
and disaster related warning, focusing on monitoring rainfall and biomass burning using TRMM and DMSP, was proposed and Earth 
Monitoring and Disaster Warning Working Group was established formally within APAN. 
The WG has paid much user oriented efforts through the repeated missions to South East Asian countries with the APAN networking 
scientists representing each country. 
The milestones in forming Earth Monitoring National Working Group in Indonesia, Malaysia have been achieved in September 
1998, January respectively. 
The WG also bond ties with major space agencies, NASA, NASDA, ESA and NOAA for real time satellite data transfer and 
processing through APAN and collaborations were presented at IWS99/APAN, February 1999. The new era is open to the WG as 
nominated a contact point on “food security applications” at the Network Sub-group of GOIN99, which jointly works with 
Committee of Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS). 
ABOUT APAN 
Asia Pacific Advance Network (APAN) is an international 
consortium of member research network consortium, institutes, 
national bodies, international bodies and individuals. APAN 
was established on 3 June 1997 to provide a high performance 
network environment for research and technology development 
as an international test bed. The primary members, the network 
consortium and owners of Asia Pacific regions, with the liaison 
members in USA and Canada are shown in Table 1. 
The activities of APAN are mainly driven by voluntary 
contribution and efforts of scientists of member institutes, with 
the robust international collaborations. 
Network resources within APAN is shown in “APAN Link 
Information”, where the broadest bandwidth is found in the 
TransPAC between IMNet (Japan) and HPIIS (USA). 
It is also noted that the communications with South East Asian 
countries are made by the satellite systems such as AIII. 
“APAN network topology” shows the geological network. 
Table 1. Primary Members and Liaison Members 
Australia 
ACSys 
Japan 
APAN-JP Consortium 
APII/CRL 
IMNet/STA 
MAFFIN/MAFF 
RWCP/ETL 
SINET/NACSIS 
WIDE/AI3 
Korea 
APAN-KR Consortium 
APII/MIC 
KT 
Pubnet/NCA 
Singapore 
SINGAREN(SREN) 
USA 
Indiana University (vBNS) 
AT&T 
Canada 
CANARIE(CA*net2)