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Following the massive earthquakes that struck southern Turkey and western Syria on February 6, killing thousands, NASA announced on Saturday that it is working to share aerial views and data from space to aid relief and recovery workers, as well as to improve its ability to model and predict such events.
A team of scientists from the Earth Observatory of Singapore and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California used images collected before and after the earthquake to create a damage proxy map for Turkey.
These maps compare radar images from before and after a specific event to show how the landscape has changed.
“NASA’s hearts and minds are with those impacted by the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
“NASA is our eyes in the sky, and our teams of experts are working hard to provide valuable information from our Earth-observing fleet to first responders on the ground,” he added.
One of NASA’s key capabilities is an expertise with synthetic aperture radar, or SAR.
Viewing Earth in all weather conditions, day or night, SAR is used to measure how the ground moves and built landscape changes after this type of event.
“We don’t know everyone who is using this information or how, but we are fortunate to have heard back from a few groups. For instance, the World Central Kitchen – which is providing food to those who’ve been displaced – have let us know they make use of it,” said Lori Schultz, NASA’s disaster coordinator for this earthquake.
In addition to assessing damage, NASA scientists use space- and ground-based observations to improve the agency’s understanding of related events that follow the initial natural disaster.
While not yet in use, NASA scientists hope to add a new tool to assess the quake’s aftermath.
EMIT, or Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation, was launched to the International Space Station in July 2022.
It can assess methane emissions as part of its observations of the composition of material in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Measurements of increased or new emissions while passing over the earthquake site could point to events that would not otherwise be visible from space.
On Saturday, search and rescue efforts continued for the sixth day in a row to find more survivors, bringing the total number of people killed in the devastating earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6 to at least 23,831.
Source:IANS
