17 days have passed since the first violent earthquake which hit Turkey and Syria on the night of 6 February and the work of the COSMO-SkyMed radar satellite constellation of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) does not stop.
The satellites continue to 'watch' and ASI has set up a dedicated acquisition plan to monitor many of the cities that have been affected by the earthquake. The latest images received from the COSMO-SkyMed satellites date back to 20 February at 15:27 UTC on the city of Gaziantep and on Kahramanmaras at 03:07 UTC, there are many of those present in the post-event archive that ASI has made immediately available to organizations and national and international institutions e on which the elaboration work of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) does not stop.
INGV has carried out an initial analysis of the damage that occurred in the cities of Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras using COSMO-SkyMed data and images.
Through an advanced methodology called Intensity Correlation Difference (ICD) it was possible to obtain a damage estimate map (damage proxy map) using the identification of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) scene changes. In fact, the ICD is an index that calculates the difference in intensity correlation between pairs of satellite images acquired before and after the seismic event, i.e. a pre-seismic pair and a pair straddling the event.
Also in this dramatic event the synergy between different areas of scientific research is fundamental, putting the best innovations of knowledge at the service of society.
picture 1 - Damage map based on ICD generated by INGV of Gaziantep center.
picture 2 - Zoom in on two damaged areas in Gaziantep.
Picture 3 - ICD-based damage overview map of central Kahramanmaras.
picture 4 -Zoom in on two damaged areas in Gaziantep.