Using NASA`s “Black Marble” data, we analyzed the change in night light across the border of Turkey and Syria, as well as surrounding areas that were severely affected by the earthquake. As expected, night lights generally decreased after the earthquake due to power outages. This is most prominently seen along the Northern coast of Turkey, as well as across the Turkey-Syria border in the middle of the maps. However, a factor to consider is that there generally is not much night light in Syria due to the ongoing civil war, so it is slightly difficult to detect any drastic changes before and after the earthquake. This is one limitation to this study, but night light differences are still relatively visible sparsely across Turkey.
[Below] are the Landsat images of Aleppo, Syria pictured in the visible (true color) band combination. Before the earthquake, urban infrastructure is clearly defined across the map, in which roads and buildings are clearer to differentiate from one another. If we were to zoom in closer, the shadows of tall buildings are also visible, which indicates that these structures are still stable and intact. To the contrary, the image of the city post-earthquake is relatively less defined due to collapsed buildings and all-around rubble. Boxed in red are areas where these differences are most noticeable. The `after` photo is also lighter in color, which indicates destruction. We know this because of the Spectral Profile compiled by ENVI; surface reflectance increased from peaks of 0.12 to 0.2 following the earthquake, which tells us that lighter areas mean more damage.
Below are before and after images on west coast of Turkey. These are images taken above Iskenderun, Turkey. Similarly to Aleppo, the `before` image is clearly defined in terms of where buildings, roads, etc are located. The `after` image is less clear and more gray all-around, meaning extensive damage across the entire region due to the earthquake. Moving a few miles North in the small city of Karayilan, earthquake damage is also visible along industrial piers. Lastly, another noticeable difference is along the Turkish coast in Samandag. Given the region experienced heavy snow and rainfall around the same time as the earthquake, it is likely that debris and sediment runoff was carried into the ocean.
