Satellites Show how Earth Moved during Italy Quake | ESA Portal

By Editor, ESA Portal, Posted 04/20/09

Link: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM4PJ9NJTF_index_0.html

"Studying satellite radar data from ESA’s Envisat and the Italian Space Agency’s COSMO-SkyMed, scientists have begun analysing the movement of Earth during and after the 6.3 earthquake that shook the medieval town of L’Aquila in central Italy on 6 April 2009. They are using a technique known as SAR Interferometry (InSAR), a sophisticated version of 'spot the difference'. InSAR involves combining two or more radar images of the same ground location in such a way that very precise measurements – down to a scale of a few millimetres – can be made of any ground motion taking place between image acquisitions. By using available 3D ground displacements from five GPS location sites around the affected area, they were able to confirm the preliminary results obtained with Envisat data," The increasingly sophisticated analysis of actual earth movements may well develop into commercial applications in the near future, including prediction of danger zones to be avoided.