Sentinel-1 radar image compared to interferogram

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.

The image on the left is a radar image captured by Sentinel-1C on 2 April, while the image on the right is an interferogram – a composite created by combining a Sentinel-1A image from 27 March with the Sentinel-1C image from 2 April, after the earthquake.

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