Wenchuan earthquake ruptures located by offset-tracking procedure of ENVISAT ASAR amplitude images

Abstract

Two rupture zones of Wenchuan earthquake have been successfully located by an offset-tracking procedure of ENVISAT ASAR amplitude images. Accuracy of offset-tracking strongly depends on the quality of image coregistration. In order to remove noise caused by coregistration, a combined filter method is proposed to remove noise of estimated offsets. In addition, Kriging interpolation is applied to smooth the azimuth displacement offset map. The displacement offset maps of azimuth and range show that about 245 km and 60 km in length along Beichuan-Yingxiu fault and Guanxian-Jiangyou fault were ruptured by Wenchuan earthquake, respectively. The result of offset-tracking is validated by field observations of China Earthquake Administration.