Thaindian News

Washington, Mar 25 (ANI): Researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, are currently processing satellite images of areas in Japan that were recently affected in a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami.

At the request of Japan, they have created before-and-after images that can be printed on large sheets of paper.

The team has uploaded 30 megabyte PDFs of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant and the cities of Hachinohe and Kesennuma to the U.S. Geological Survey’s website for charter members and Japanese emergency responders to access.

“Once we upload it, it’s out of our hands. If you have the electronic version, you can make measurements on it. The assumption is they want the big format so they can print it out, roll it up and take it into the field,” said David Messinger, associate research professor and director of the Digital Imaging Remote Sensing Laboratory in RIT’s Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science.

The Japanese relief workers had requested high-resolution images of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

The RIT team processed imagery looking down into the reactors and the containment shells on March 12, the day after the earthquake and tsunami hit and prior to the explosions at the plant.

High-resolution image-maps from March 18 show extensive damage and a smouldering reactor.

“We were tasked with the nuke plant Friday [March 18] morning and we uploaded it about 6 that night,” said Don McKeown, researcher in the Carlson Center for Imaging Science.

The RIT researchers are mapping the area around the power plant as well, processing imagery from a broader view of the terrain used as farmland.

“We have a large image of Fukushima. We’re committed to making a big map of this area. This is a very agricultural region and there are restrictions about food coming out of the area,” said McKeown. (ANI)