RADARSAT-2 Imaging of the Nepal Earthquake of
April 25, 2015
Marco van der Kooij, Shinya Sato, Troy Costello
May 1, 2015
www.mdacorporation.com
RADARSAT-2 Imaging of the Nepal Earthquake of
April 25, 2015
Imaging Mode – Extra-Fine (XF-2)
Size of image:
Pixel size:
Nominal ground resolution:
Heading:
Incidence angle:
125 x 135 km, 26,783 x 53,929 pixels
2.66 x 2.49 m
4.5 m
Descending
31.6-38.7 degrees
Post Event Acquisition Date and Time
April 29, 2015 00:19:49 UT
Archive Imagery in Exactly Repeated Geometry
April 5 2015, March 12, 2015, November 12 2014, October 19, 2014
Perpendicular Baseline for the April 5 – April 29 2015 pair: 64.8m
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Coverage of the RADARSAT-2 Extra-Fine Image
(GoogleEarthTM Backdrop)
Map data ©2015 Google, Landsat – U.S. Department of State Geographer.
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Infrastructure Damage Assessment
2015 Nepal Earthquake
Due to the suitable exactly repeated geometry and resolution of
imagery it is possible to automatically perform damage
assessment for large areas quickly in a statistical manner.
The result on the next slide shows an example of the results over
the area of Kathmandu.
• The areas indicated in red depict locations that are likely to
have experienced damage due to the earthquake and warrant
further investigation.
• This type of data has been used in other parts of the imagery to
assess damage in remote areas and towns like Langtang and
Barpak in the Nepal interior.
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Predicted Infrastructure Damage
Kathmandu Nepal Earthquake 2015
Unchanged Buildings
and Infrastructure
Predicted Damaged to
Buildings and
Infrastructure
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The following 3 slides show the interferogram and
derived line of sight deformation map of the InSAR pair.
The good quality of the interferogram is partly due to
the large azimuth and range bandwidth and resulted in
a successful phase unwrapping process.
The estimated location of the epicenter is denoted by
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RADARSAT-2 Imaging of the Nepal Earthquake of
April 25, 2015
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restrictions on the title page of this document. COPYRIGHT ©2015 MDA
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Measuring Line of Sight Deformation
• Point returns time to satellite at one
location
• Ground change at second observation,
changes time to satellite
• Measurements in the line of sight of the
satellite
• Identifies surface movement both vertically
and towards the satellite
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restrictions on the title page of this document. COPYRIGHT ©2015 MDA
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Nepal Earthquake – Phase Fringe Detail
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restrictions on the title page of this document. COPYRIGHT ©2015 MDA
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Nepal Earthquake
Line of Sight Deformation Map
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restrictions on the title page of this document. COPYRIGHT ©2015 MDA
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RADARSAT-2 Imaging of the Nepal Earthquake
Horizontal Displacement Map, a New Source of Information
• This map represents the component of
movement of the ground in the azimuth
direction (from NNE to SSW).
• This information is independent from the
slant-range deformation as shown in previous
slide and makes an important contribution to
the understanding of the 3-D ground motion
caused by the earthquake.
• The information presented here is a direct
benefit of the large azimuth bandwidth of the
RADARSAT-2 Extra-Fine mode.
• The results suggest a horizontal movement
of approximately 1.5 m towards the south as
part of the complex 3-dimensional
movement caused by the earthquake.
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restrictions on the title page of this document. COPYRIGHT ©2015 MDA
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For more information or to request the material
provided in this presentation, please contact the
MDA Geospatial Services Inc. Client Services
group at:
[email protected]
Use, duplication or disclosure of this document or any of the information or images contained herein is subject to the
restrictions on the title page of this document. COPYRIGHT ©2015 MDA
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