Micah Farfour

Senior Remote Sensing Advisor

Biography

Micah Farfour is the Special Advisor for Remote Sensing in the Evidence Lab at Amnesty International.

Micah has been conducting open source investigations using satellite imagery and other data sources for over seven years, working closely with researchers and journalists to uncover evidence of human rights abuses across the globe. Some past projects include near real-time monitoring and documentation of village burnings in Myanmar, tracking Boko Haram and military activities in Nigeria, monitoring and analysing changes in North Korean gulags and supplying key evidence for an investigation into a Southeast Asian trafficking ring.

When not working, she is happily getting lost in the mountains or desert with her dog.

More from this author

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    Using VIIRS Fire Data for Human Rights Research

    One of the main remote sensing datasets used for human rights research is ‘fire data’. Fire data is an algorithm applied to measurements taken from space with environmental monitoring sensors aboard satellites. The algorithm uses those measurements to pinpoint thermal anomalies (also known as hotspots) or active fires on earth. The data was originally intended to track forest fires globally in near-real time but has also been used to monitor smoke related to health issues, observe security at oil pipelines, track fishing vessels, and verify human rights abuses, among other applications.…

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    Where to Access Satellite Imagery

    Satellite imagery has become a popular tool for research and investigations in more and more fields beyond remote sensing science. Investigators and journalists are using it to pinpoint the location of events to better illustrate what is happening in the world. People are constantly finding new applications for the hundreds of satellites documenting the earth…