Japan successfully launched a new mapping satellite yesterday that will be used to survey damage from natural disasters and changes affecting rainforests.
The Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 (ALOS-2) will be able to see scars left by catastrophes such as Japan's 2011 tsunami as well as monitor progress made in reconstruction, officials from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.
"The satellite was successfully put in orbit," said an official from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, whose H-IIA rocket was used in the launch from a space centre on the southern island of Tanegashima.
The satellite will provide valuable data for Japan, which sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and experiences 20 per cent of all major earthquakes.
Memories are still fresh of the deadly 9.0-magnitude earthquake in March 2011 that unleashed a tsunami that devastated the northern Pacific coast, killing more than 18,000 people and triggering the Fukushima nuclear crisis.
The island nation is also routinely hit by typhoons while scientists say Mount Fuji could erupt at any time.