After the earthquake of 11 March, SPOT 5 was tasked by the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters to cover the coast that took the full force of the subsequent tsunami.

A first strip of 4 scenes was acquired on 12 March to map the city of Sendai and the Fukushima n° 1 and n° 2 nuclear power stations.

A second strip was acquired on 13 March to monitor the situation on Japan’s northern coast.

Two explosions damaged reactors n° 1 and n° 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station 225 km north of Tokyo.

On 12 March, the population was evacuated from inside a radius of 20 km around the plant, one of the world’s 25 largest nuclear power stations. Its sister plant Fukushima Daini is 12 km further south.