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March 13, 2011
NASA's Earth Observatory team has published enhanced satellite images comparing before and after shots of the northeastern Japanese city of Sendai after a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami struck the coast, pointing out areas hit by flooding.
"Both images were made with infrared and visible light, a combination that increases the contrast between muddy water and land," according to Holli Biebeek of NASA's Earth Observatory website.
In the image, water looks black or dark blue. (See images below). One image from March 12, 2011 at 10:30 a.m. is compared with another from February 26, 2011.
Image above: A March 12, 2011 image from the Modis instrument aboard NASA’s Terra satellite shows the Sendai area in Japan on March 12, 2011 at 10:30 a.m., a day after a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami struck the coastal city. (Credit: NASA).
The center of the March 12 photo shows a thin green line representing the Sendai coastline. The darker areas extend several kilometers to the west.
The center of the February 26 photo shows a solid coastline. Both images identify Sendai and the areas of flooding.
Image above: A February 26, 2011 image from the Modis instrument aboard NASA’s Terra satellite shows the Sendai area in Japan, weeks before a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami struck the coastal city. (Credit: NASA).
The image identifies the northern direction and shows a 10km scale line on the bottom left hand corner.
In the images, plant-covered land is green. Snow covered land is pale blue. Clouds are white and pale blue. Paved surfaces are brown.
The images come from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard the NASA's Terra satellite.
Image above: Satellite image by GoolgleEarth, we see very clearly the enormous chasm between the two continental plates which departure of the earthquake (the region where there is the orange symbols).
NASA Shows Topography of Tsunami-Damaged Japan City
The extent of inundation from the destructive and deadly tsunami triggered by the March 11, 2011, magnitude 8.9 earthquake centered off Japan's northeastern coast about 130 kilometers (82 miles) east of the city of Sendai is revealed in this before-and-after image pair from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft.
The image comparison is online at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13913 . For optimum viewing, click the link to open the full-resolution TIFF image.
Image above: Coastal flooding from the March 11, 2011 tsunami triggered by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake off Japan's northeast coast can be seen in this before/after image pair from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / LaRC / JPL .
The new image, shown on the right, was acquired at 10:30 a.m. local time (01:30 UTC) on March 12, 2011. For comparison, shown on the left is a MISR image from about 10 years ago, on March 16, 2001, acquired under nearly identical illumination conditions. 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.
From top to bottom, each image extends from just north of the Abukuma River (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). The images cover an area of 78 kilometers (48 miles) by 104 kilometers (65 miles).
These unique images enhance the presence of water in two ways. First, their near-infrared observations cause vegetated areas to appear red, which contrasts strongly with the blue shades of the 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 different view-angle observations causes a stereoscopic effect, where elevated clouds have a yellow tinge at their top edges and blue tinge at their bottom edges.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., built MISR and manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. More information about MISR is online at: http://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov/
Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA / Orbiter.ch.
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