Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
Image Collected March 18, 2011|
These are natural color, high-resolution DigitalGlobe satellite images featuring the aftermath of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami that struck Japan's coast on March 11, 2011. |
DigitalGlobe's Response |
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We put our constellation of three satellites to work collecting imagery as soon as we heard of the disaster. Starting Saturday, March 12 (Friday evening March 11 US time) we focused on collecting imagery of the entire impact zone, covering 48,000 square kilometers in a single day. DigitalGlobe has the largest image library in the world, with historical pictures showing the state of the area before the incident. With them we could clearly see the initial impact of the earthquake and the tsunami across the entire country. Since then we have used the power of our constellation to amass updated imagery of the stricken region, including 300,000 square kilometers to date. Working every day, our satellites have witnessed the explosions and failures at nuclear facilities (including incredible images taken one minute before and three minutes after the explosion at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Facility, Unit #3), documented the state of the country’s highways, and assessed damage at the main ports and refineries. Our images and analysis are available to customers online within three hours of collection every day, representing a near real-time cycle from collection to processing to analysis. |
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View more images on DigitalGlobe's Flickr Gallery.
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About DigitalGlobe Sample Imagery
For years, people around the world have turned to DigitalGlobe for high-resolution satellite imagery depicting newsworthy world events and locations of interest. DigitalGlobe’s imagery shows the Earth in stunning detail and clarity.
DigitalGlobe is making available for free a selection of satellite images that demonstrate the impressive technology of our satellites, as well as the natural beauty of the Earth. These images may be downloaded free of charge.
The imagery above was selected from the DigitalGlobe Image Library. It has been resampled and compressed into JPEG format for on-screen viewing and has been manually color-corrected for maximum visual appeal. This imagery should not be stretched beyond its current size. It has been rescaled in most cases to show an area of interest, and thus does not represent the full resolution of the original image.