Study of the precursor aspects of earthquakes suing InSAR case study l'aquila earthquake

In this work, we are trying to assess the feasibility of the detection of small deformation of the crust, just few weeks before an earthquake using InSAR. The SAR data made available by the European Space Agency (ESA) after the L'Aquila earthquake (06 April 2009) Mw 6.3, was used for this purpose. Two tracks 079 (descending), 401 (ascending) of Envisat satellite were used. An anomaly in the topography was revealed in the interferograms generated for the period of one month before the earthquake. This anomaly quantified as half fringe = 1.4cm in both ascending and descending couples. This anomaly was not present in the previous interfero-grams. The change in the instability of the ionosphere few days before the earthquake, leaded to a big difference in the value of the TEC between the acquisitions, and integrated a delay in the SAR signal.