Assessing changes in nighttime lighting in the aftermath of the TurkeySyria earthquake using SDGSAT-1 satellite data

Images of nighttime light in the Turkey-Syria earthquake study area from the SDGSAT-1 satellite

On February 6, 2023, a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 MW struck southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria. The epicenter of the earthquake was in Gaziantep, Turkey. The earthquake was followed by a devastating aftershock 9 h later, which registered a magnitude of 7.5 MW and which had an epicenter located 100 km farther north in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Thousands of subsequent tremors and aftershocks since the initial earthquake have further exacerbated the impacts on lives and infrastructure, resulting in more than 50,000 deaths and damage to hundreds of thousands of buildings in the region.