Using Night Lights from Space to Assess Areas Impacted by the 2023 Turkey Earthquake

The 6 February 2023 earthquakes that hit south-eastern Turkey were amongst the deadliest in past century. Here, we report ability to map and quantify areas impacted by these using changes nighttime lights, as mapped NASA’s VIIRS/DNB sensor. We show correspondence between 7.8 magnitude earthquake areas, located cities towns, mostly along fault line, where macroseismic intensity values higher than 7. verified darkening of night lights recorded VIIRS new SDGSAT-1 Glimmer multispectral sensor, well comparing with reports on damaged buildings. rapidly from space is key importance for prioritizing directing emergency rescue services globally.