Disaster countermeasure experiments using WINDS and the response of 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes

Based on the lessons learned from the Great East Japan Earthquake, the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology has developed a mobile vehicle earth station for Wideband InterNetworking engineering test and Demonstration Satellite (WINDS) by which the emergency response organization itself can collect and transmit the latest damage situation in real-time while moving. Furthermore, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) has carried out disaster countermeasure experiments, such as providing added functions, necessary for disaster countermeasures for the mobile vehicle station while acquiring emergency response agencies' cooperation, such as municipalities and fire departments. When the Kumamoto earthquakes occurred in 2016, NICT dispatched the mobile vehicle station to Takamori Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, built an emergency network, and provided an Internet satellite line using WINDS through the Kashima Space Technology Center. This chapter will introduce the mobile vehicle earth station for WINDS, which we have developed aiming for disaster countermeasures after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the content of disaster countermeasure experiments, and the emergency network building and operation for the Kumamoto earthquakes in 2016.