ESA - Observing the Earth - Satellite data look behind the scenes of deadly earthquake

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Satellite data look behind the scenes of deadly earthquake

15 October 2009

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Beichuan City before and after the earthquake

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Beichuan City was destroyed completely by the quake and suffered the highest number of casualties.

Credits: Prof. Xiwei Xu

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Interferogram over the Wenchuan earthquake

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An ALOS Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) interferogram that shows the surface deformation associated with the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. The white curves depict traces of fault surface breaks. ESA is supporting ALOS (Advanced Land Observing Satellite) as a 'Third Party Mission', which means ESA utilizes its multi-mission European ground infrastructure and expertise to acquire, process and distribute data from the satellite to its wide user community.

Credits: Jianbao Sun; ALOS data: JAXA

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The clock on the Hangwan Bell Tower stopped forever at 14:28 (06:28 UTC), when the earthquake struck.

Credits: Ms. Fang Liang

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GPS and InSAR data post fit residuals. The main map and inset map are derived from Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) data from Japan’s ALOS satellite (main map), Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) data in C-band from ESA’s Envisat satellite and GPS data. Red arrows and black columns are for the horizontal and vertical components of the GPS displacements.

Credits: Jianbao Sun, IGCEA; ALOS data: JAXA; Envisat data: ESA

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