Application of satellite SAR data to detect deformations of the Earth's crust after earthquakes

The data provided by satellite-based active radar instruments after appropriate thematic processing are transformed into information that reflects the amount of movements on the Earth's surface of the order of centimeters. Such information is of crucial importance for assessing the consequences of natural or anthropogenic disasters. Because earthquakes occur constantly and it is not possible to predict them any additional information about the scope of a particular seismic event is essential for local and national authorities who are responsible for mitigating the damages caused to the population, to the infrastructure and to the landscape following such events. This study presents the results obtained by jointly processing two sets of SAR data with other additional data to obtain two interferometric images that provide information on the deformation processes after a series of earthquakes that occurred on three different locations at the Balkan peninsula – one close to island of Kos and Bodrum town, the other close to the island of Zakynthos and the third on Ionian coast of Albania. The obtained maps reflecting the deformations of the Earth's crust after the mentioned events are based on data from the ascending and descending orbits of the satellite Sentinel-1 under Copernicus EU program, which were compared with in-situ data to increase the reliability of the drawn conclusions. The results of the all researched events included in this study proved to be reliable as they were compared with in-situ measurements. This finding suggest that on the basis of those results it would be possible to provide reliable information to the national authorities on the deformations of the Earth's crust and most specifically in that regions which are problematic for direct field inspections needed to establish the occurred ground deformations.

The obtained maps of the deformations of the earth's crust are based on data from the ascending and descending orbits of the satellite Sentinel1 under the EU program "Copernicus", which were compared with field data to increase the reliability of the drawn conclusions. The results of the study proved to be reliable as they were compared with in-situ measurements, which in turn suggest that on the basis of the results it would be possible to provide reliable information to national authorities on the deformations of the Earth's crust and most specifically in those regions which are problematic for direct field inspections aimed at establishing the occurred deformations.