Sunday, May 3, 2015

Sentinel-1 Interferometric Radar Image shows Nepal earthquake slip

Combining two Sentinel-1A radar scans from 17 and 29 April 2015, this interferogram shows changes on the ground that occurred during the 25 April earthquake that struck Nepal. An overall area of 120x100 km has moved – half of that uplifted and the other half, north of Kathmandu subsided. Vertical accuracy is a few cm. Credit: Copernicus data (2015)/ESA/Norut/PPO.labs/COMET–ESA SEOM INSARAP study
Nepal earthquake on the radar / Sentinel-1 / Copernicus / Observing the Earth / Our Activities / ESA

Nepal earthquake on the radar
On 25 April, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, claiming over 5000 lives and affecting millions of people. Satellite images are being used to support emergency aid organisations, while geo-scientists are using satellite measurements to analyse the effects of the earthquake on the land.
Radar imagery from the Sentinel-1A satellite shows that the maximum land deformation is only 17 km from Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, which explains the extremely high damage experienced in this area.
By combining Sentinel-1A imagery acquired before and after the quake, changes on the ground that occurred between the two acquisition dates lead to rainbow-coloured interference patterns in the combined image, known as an 'interferogram', enabling scientists to quantify the ground movement.
Sentinel-1A's swath width of 250 km over land surfaces has allowed for an unprecedented area size to be analysed from a single scan. The entire area will be covered under the same geometry every 12 days, allowing for the wider region to be regularly monitored and fully analysed for land deformation with the powerful 'interferometry' technique.
Products ensuring a full coverage of the affected area prior to the earthquake were available to all scientists under the Copernicus free and open data policy, and will continue to be available.

ESA SEOM InSARap Project :: Versus Page\
On the 25th of April 2015, an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 occurred in Nepal as the result of thrust faulting on, or near, the main frontal thrust between the sub-ducting India plate and the overriding Eurasia plate to the north. Please check the USGS web page for the latest official information.
This section of the insarap.org page is meant to be a collection of Sentinel-1 related interferometric information, results & visualizations for the research community.

NASA's ARIA Project Provides New Look at Earth Surface Deformation from Nepal Quake | SpaceRef - Your Space Reference

1 comment:

Samuel said...

Please see "Could Gravitational Waves Detected by LIGO Be Used to Predict Earthquakes?" at
http://www.certifiedchinesetranslation.com/earthquake/

It could be very interesting for earthquake prediction.