Natural calamities come without warning and scientists have long tried to design potential indicators which could alert people before worst arrives. This helps people to take right safety actions as well as to remain mentally prepared. Another instrument on the line is new space "data highway, whose first part, EDRS-A node, was launched on Friday by Europe. This is capable of monitoring the natural disasters faster than ever before.

The European Data Relay Satellite (EDRS)-A, the data highway is worth 500 million euros ($545 million), was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on board a Proton rocket at 2220 GMT (4.20 am local time), it will use new laser-based communications technology to function. EDRS-A will orbit the earth at an altitude of around 36,000 kilometers (22,400 miles). This new instrument will transfer large amount of data in form of pictures and radar images from satellite to earth. The satellite will transmit data to and from Earth at a rate of 1.8 gigabits per second, which is about the data that could be printed in a 3-foot-long shelf of books.

The EDRS is a public-private partnership between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Airbus Defense and Space. The telecommunications satellite had been developed for 10 years and is designed to talk with other satellite through a narrow laser beam.

“The difficulty is basically that you have to hit another satellite with your laser beam over a distance of over 40,000km, which is akin to hitting a two-euro coin over the distance of the Atlantic”, ESA project manager Michael Witting told BBC News.

ESA officials could declare the success of the project once the satellite safely reaches orbit. The EDRS-A is expected to be in full service in the summer after many weeks of testing. Second part, EDRS-C, is scheduled to be launched in mid-2017.