On February 6, 2023, an earthquake with a magnitude of over 7 on the Richter scale (hereinafter referred to as the "Turkey earthquake") struck southeastern Turkey and Syria, causing severe damage in the surrounding areas. JAXA carried out emergency observations using the Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 (ALOS-2) "DAICHI-2" at the request of Sentinel Asia (an international cooperation project to contribute to natural disaster management using space technology) and others. OHKI Masato and YANAGIYA Kazuki talked about the circumstances at that time.

“Emergency observations during the Turkey earthquake were made on seven occasions from February 8, mainly near the vicinity of the Turkey-Syria border at the epicenter of the earthquake. While a quick response was required in this situation, it is also necessary to pay close attention to the accuracy of the data. We carefully removed noise (errors caused by atmospheric conditions and other factors), for example, and made the necessary corrections before releasing the data to the public,” recalled YANAGIYA. He went on to note that the data was analyzed by Sentinel Asia, the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, the California Institute of Technology, NASA, and other organizations, and the results were then published.

“The results of these analyses have been provided to Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency and Japan's Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction. We hope that the results will continue to be analyzed by domestic and international research institutes to help elucidate the mechanisms of the Turkey earthquake and evaluate seismic activity,” said OHKI.

Observational data on the Turkey earthquake from DAICHI-2 and analysis examples are published on JAXA's Earth observation satellite data site "Earth-graphy".

“DAICHI-2 data is also used to monitor volcanic activity, landslides, floods, and other disasters besides earthquakes. We would like to accumulate more data and provide more information to broaden the scope of its use so that the data can be utilized in a variety of situations in the future.”

For more information on the emergency observations made during the Turkey earthquake, click here: