Current, high resolution satellite imagery

[abencomo]

My apologies for the wide distribution, but I am hoping somebody on this list will be able to help or point the colleagues below in the right direction. Their friends are lost in the Himalayas and they are looking for a repository for of high resolution, recent satellite imagery to help with the rescue. They have been trying to contact commercial services like digitalglobe.com, terraserver.com, or geoeye.com; but with the weekend and all that may take a while.
Perhaps someone in this list can suggest something a little quicker - time is, obviously, of the essence here.

Thanks in advance!

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Some friends of Gabi's brother have been lost in the Himalayas in China.
The rescuers are having trouble locating them, and its feared that they
may have been covered by a recent avalanche.

We're writing on the off chance that NASA might have some satelite
imagery that might be helpful, and that you might be able to put us in
touch with someone who can get this imagery to the rescuers. We're
hoping that by comparing images of the area from before the climbers
lost contact and more recently, rescuers might find clues to where the
climbers might be.

Is there anyone at NASA who might be able to help?

Peak's name: Ren Zhong Feng, in China
29°17'36.91"N
101°54'15.74"E

The climbers were believed to be climbing on the North side.

They were last heard from on Oct 22 from around 5500 m height. They were
scheduled to return to base camp by Oct 31. Authorities believe that
there was a huge avalanche on the evening of Oct 22 or morning of 23 at
between 5300 and 5500 meters height.

Please let us know if there is anyone at NASA who might be able to
provide any helpful imagery or information.

Thank you!
Todd and Gabi

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Edward Balaban NASA Ames Research Center Intelligent Systems Division MS 269-3 Moffett Field, CA 94035 650-604-5655 (office) 650-604-4036 (fax) *****************************

Yes its terrible that this happened, but almost worse that we dont have more capability for this as a country and as a species. Sad.


Om