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NASA share the damage proxy map and the data by sharing pictures of damage turkey

The magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 earthquakes that hit southern Turkey and western Syria on February 6, 2023 caused widespread destruction in both countries.

The initial earthquake originated from a fault 18 kilometers (11 mi) below the earth’s surface. The shallow depth meant that the earthquake produced strong tremors that affected areas hundreds of kilometers from the epicenter. The first earthquake was followed about nine hours later by a magnitude 7.5 event, as well as hundreds of smaller tremors.

As news of the event spread, scientists from space agencies around the world—including NASA—began to process and analyze satellite data relevant to the event.

“These were very large and powerful earthquakes that ripped up to the surface in a long series of fault segments,” said Eric Fielding, a geophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “This caused extremely strong tremors over a very large area, affecting many towns and villages full of people. The duration and magnitude of the 7.8 earthquake was similar to the 1906 earthquake that destroyed San Francisco.

The preliminary damage proxy map above shows parts of the cities of Türkoğlu, Kahramanmaraş and Nurdaği. Dark red pixels represent areas that are likely to experience severe damage to buildings, homes and infrastructure or changes to the landscape, while orange and yellow areas are moderately or partially damaged. Each pixel measures about 30 meters in diameter (about the size of a baseball field).

The map is derived from data collected by PALSAR-2 on the Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 (ALOS-2) on February 8, 2023. The satellite carries synthetic aperture radar, a sensor that sends pulses of microwaves toward the Earth’s surface and listens for the reflections of those waves to he mapped the landscape, including the buildings.

By comparing the February 8 data with observations made by the same satellite before the earthquake (April 7, 2021 and April 6, 2022), scientists tracked changes and began to identify damaged areas. ALOS-2 data was provided by Sentinel Asia and analyzed by the Earth Observatory of Singapore – Remote Sensing Lab in collaboration with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech.

“The map covers only the central part of the affected area due to the narrow, 70-kilometer band of fine-beam ALOS-2 data used, but includes the epicenters of both the 7.8 mainshock and the 7.5 aftershock. ” said Fielding. “Note that the time intervals between ALOS-2 acquisitions are up to a year apart, so the accuracy of the proxy damage map may be lower in vegetation areas such as mountains due to seasonal variations.” Some of the areas marked as damaged in vegetation may not be damaged and some areas showing no damage in vegetation may be damaged.

Members of NASA’s Earth Science Applied Sciences Disaster Program Area, as well as their national and international collaborators, share the damage proxy map and the data used to create it with organizations such as the U.S. Department of State, California. Seismic Safety Commission, Miyamoto Global Disaster Relief and the World Bank. The team also participates in ongoing coordination calls hosted by the US Agency for International Development to assess the needs of stakeholders in the region and provide scientific expertise to support risk assessments and recovery efforts.

“We are monitoring this event closely,” said Shanna McClain, program manager. “In addition to mapping damage caused by satellites as much as possible, we use satellites to monitor increased risks of landslides, power outages and weather that could pose challenges to response efforts.” As new data becomes available, the team on its mapping portal publishes near-real-time earthquake-related imagery and data products.

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