Myanmar interferogram and coherence map from Copernicus Sentinel-1

On 28 March 2025, a powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck central Myanmar, sending shockwaves through the region. While the country is still dealing with the devasting aftermath, scientists have used radar images from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites to reveal a detailed picture of how the ground shifted during the quake – offering new insights into the mechanics of the tectonic Sagaing Fault and the scale of the seismic rupture.

Just one day before the earthquake struck the Sentinel-1A satellite, as part of its routine global monitoring plan, captured a radar image of Myanmar. Then a few days after the quake, Sentinel-1C revisited the site and was tasked to acquire an additional radar image. Both images were combined to form an interferogram of the Sagaing Fault area.

This set of images offer a wide-view interferogram (left), where the tight fringes on the right cut through Mandalay and extend southwards, making the extent of the rupture clearly evident.

The image on the right uses data from Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1C to reveal a ‘coherence map’, where the fault appears as a dark fracture slicing through the land. This coherence map shows areas that have changed between the two acquisition dates as dark tones while stable areas appear bright. These impressive results demonstrate that the new Sentinel-1C satellite is working perfectly and its data can be used with confidence alongside its older Sentinel-1A sibling.

Read full story: Sentinel-1 captures ground shift from Myanmar earthquakes