After the severe earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’ was activated on the morning of the 11 March 2011. All participating institutions were asked to provide satellite imagery of the affected area. The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is responding through its Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (Zentrum für Satellitengestützte Kriseninformation; ZKI), based at its site in Oberpfaffenhofen.