The J-STARS Prize Paper Award 2015 at INGV

The J-STARS Prize Paper Award for the best 2015 paper has been awarded to a team of researchers from INGV. It was awarded by the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society, during the IGARSS 2015 congress held these days in Milan

A notable contribution made by the research group of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) which, through the analysis of the displacement field caused on the surface by the earthquake of 21 June 2013 between Lunigiana and Garfagnana, has provided new information for a better understanding of the seismotectonics of the area and for the study of earthquakes located in the same area or in "junction" areas of the Northern Apennines. With this motivation, the international commission of experts awarded, on the basis of the 500 or more articles published in 2014 by the J-STARS journal (Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing), the J-STARS Prize Paper Award 2015 to team of researchers from INGV, Salvatore Stramondo, Paola Vannoli, Valentina Cannelli, Marco Polcari, Daniele Melini, Sergey Samsonov, Marco Moro, Christian Bignami and Michele Saroli, for the publication of the article: X- and C-Band SAR Surface Displacement for the 2013 Lunigiana Earthquake (Northern Italy): A Breached Relay Ramp? (link: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=6819006).
“The study”, explains the first INGV researcher, Salvatore Stramondo, “analyzes and discusses the displacement field caused on the surface by the earthquake that occurred between Lunigiana and Garfagnana on 21 June 2013 with magnitude (Mw) 5.3. The seismic event, located in the northern Apennines at a depth of about 5 km, was felt in a very large area throughout northern Italy, with minor damage in the epicentral area. In the past, the area was hit by various seismic events with magnitudes ranging from Mw 4.8 to 6.5; the latter case is represented by the earthquake of 7 September 1920, which caused extensive damage in the area affected by the earthquake”.
There are two main elements of interest in the work. A set of satellite images acquired by a special radar sensor (called SAR, or Synthetic Aperture Radar), processed with a particular technique known as differential interferometry SAR (DInSAR - Differential Interferometry Synthetic Aperture Radar), capable of processing the displacements produced by earthquake on the earth's surface, and a multisensor-multifrequency approach, using SAR data acquired from two different satellite missions: COSMO-SkyMed (which has a SAR with a wavelength of about 3 cm), and Radarsat-2 (length d 5,6 cm wave approximately).
"Based on the displacement field obtained, it resulted that the seismogenic source, responsible for the earthquake of 21 June 2013, was a fault located between the two well-known extensional basins of Lunigiana (northwest) and Garfagnana (southeast), site of destructive historical earthquakes. This fault, with its peculiar location and its geometric-kinematic parameters, has provided valuable information on a transfer zone, capable of accommodating the displacement between adjacent seismogenic structures, creating a connecting ramp between the two main extensional structures of the area" .
The award ceremony took place at the National Museum of Science and Technology "Leonardo da Vinci" during the IGARSS 2015 congress (http://www.igarss2015.org/) which was held in Milan.