Japan Earthquake and Tsunami: a view from satellite data

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1 Università degli studi di Roma Tor Vergata Corso di Telerilevamento e Cartografia Anno accademico 2012/2013 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami: a view from satellite data Dr. Matteo Picchiani picchiani@disp.uniroma2.it 04/06/2012

2 An earthquake of magnitude 8.9 hit north-east Japan followed by a series of powerful aftershocks and Tsunamis. The epicentre of the earthquake is located 400 km away from the capital Tokyo at a depth of 32 km. The earthquake occurred at 14:46 local time (05:46 GMT) on March 11. The areas most affected are the prefectures of Miyagi, Fukushima, and Iwate. The town of Sendai was severely affected and a tsunami of more than 10 m height hit the coastline. Massive surges of debris-filled water sweeped away buildings, cars and ships and were reaching far inland. Fires occurred in several cities, and nuclear power plants, refineries, airports, and parts of the transport networks were shut down.

3 Geodetic and Seismological data Aftershock zone seen with IRIS's earthquake browser.

6 Fault slip model projected onto the surface with topography and aftershocks. Waveform modelling by Gavin Hayes of the USGS.

7 Fault slip model projected onto the surface with plate boundaries and aftershocks. GPS and Waveform modelling by Shengji Wei (Caltech), Anthony Sladen (Geoazur) and the ARIA group (Caltech-JPL)).

8 Satellite data The event's effects were register from the different sensors working at several wavelength (from VIS to Radar microwaves) on space borne satellite DLR has created many detailed maps of the tsunami damage. Interactive link: map

13 The NASA disaster. has been developed several images of the Japanese Acquired February 26, 2011 The low resolution data from MODIS on the Terra satellite has captured an excellent image of the flooding. The area of flooding is so large it is many pixels for MODIS, which has at best 250 m resolution.

14 acquired March 12, 2011

15 With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. On March 14, 2011, the ASTER instrument captured an image of the northeastern Japan coastal cities of Ofunato and Kesennuma, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) northeast of Sendai. This region was significantly affected by the tsunami that followed the March 11, 2011, magnitude 9.0 earthquake centered offshore about 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of Sendai.

17 This before-and-after image pair reveals changes to the landscape that are likely due to the effects of the tsunami. The new image is on the left. The image on the right was acquired in August Areas covered by vegetation are shown in red, while cities and unvegetated areas are shown in shades of blue-gray. When compared closely, vegetation is no longer present in many coastal areas in the new image, particularly around Kesennuma, a city of about 73,000. The population of Ofunato is about 42,000. These changes are most likely due to the effects of the tsunami. The images are located at 39.4 degrees north latitude, degrees east longitude, and cover an area of 28 by 46 kilometers (17 by 27 miles).

18 acquired January 16, 2011

19 acquired March 14, 2011 In the March image, water has spilled over the banks both north and south of the river. Although agricultural fields appear to have escaped the flooding farther inland (image left), some fields closer to the ocean have seemingly disappeared into the sea. North of the Kitakami, floodwaters extend far enough inland to create what looks like a parallel river. Near the coast, only the rugged peaks rising above the floodplains have escaped inundation.

20 acquired August 8, 2008

21 acquired March 14, 2011 Water is dark blue in this false-color image. Plant-covered land is red, exposed earth is tan, and the city is silver. Standing water is most evident in the flat, open places that were once fields. The most extensive flooding is around the Matsushima Air Base in the lower left corner of the image. According to news reports, several airplanes were damaged in the tsunami. The neighborhoods immediately around the airstrip are also flooded.

22 MISR Images Tsunami Inundation Along Japan's Eastern Coast The extent of inundation is revealed in this image pair from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft. From top to bottom, each image extends from just north of the Abukuma River (which is about 21 kilometers, or 13 miles, south of Sendai) to south of the town of Minamisoma (population 71,000, located in Japan's Fukushima Prefecture about 70 kilometers, or 44 miles, south of Sendai), and covers an area of 78 kilometers (48 miles) by 104 kilometers (65 miles). Flooding extending more than 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) inland from the eastern shoreline is visible in the post-earthquake image. The white sand beaches visible in the pre-earthquake view are now covered by water and can no longer be seen. Among the locations where severe flooding is visible is the area around Matsukawa-ura Bay, located just north and east of the image center. These unique images enhance the presence of water in two ways. First, their nearinfrared observations cause vegetated areas to appear red, which contrasts strongly with water. Second, by combining nadir (vertical-viewing) imagery with observations acquired at a view angle of 26 degrees, reflected sunglint enhances the brightness of water, which is shown in shades of blue. This use of observations at different view angles causes a stereoscopic effect, where elevated clouds have a yellow tinge at their top edges and blue tinge at their bottom edges.

24 NASA Radar Image Shows Topography of Sendai, Japan Region The topography of the earthquake and tsunami-stricken city of Sendai, Japan, is revealed in this radar image from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck offshore about 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of Sendai, the capital city of Japan's Miyagi Prefecture, generating a tsunami that devastated the low-lying coastal city of about 1 million residents. This image combines a radar image acquired in February 2000 during the SRTM mission, and color-coding by topographic height using data from the same mission. Dark green colors indicate low elevations, rising through yellow and tan, to white at the highest elevations.

26 DigitalGlobe s constellation imaged the effects of the earthquake and the Tsunami, given Panchromatic and VIS data

After the earthquake of 11 March, SPOT 5 was tasked by the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters to cover the coast that took the full force of the subsequent tsunami.

37 After the earthquake of 11 March, SPOT 5 was tasked by the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters to cover the coast that took the full force of the subsequent tsunami. A first strip of 4 scenes was acquired on 12 March to map the city of Sendai and the Fukushima n 1 and n 2 nuclear power stations. A second strip was acquired on 13 March to monitor the situation on Japan s northern coast.

38 Two explosions damaged reactors n 1 and n 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station 225 km north of Tokyo. On 12 March, the population was evacuated from inside a radius of 20 km around the plant, one of the world s 25 largest nuclear power stations. Its sister plant Fukushima Daini is 12 km further south.

Figure Pre- and post-disaster satellite topographical maps

Figure Pre- and post-disaster satellite topographical maps 2.1.3 Image analysis by JAXA JAXA conducted ongoing emergency observations using Daichi in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake, releasing reporting of its analysis of eastern Japan and Hokkaido