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jdccdevel writes:

The BBC has an article about the new ESA satellite system called Sentinel (Part of the ESA's Copernicus Earth Observation program)

On August 24th, a Magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit Napa California. Researchers have been walking across Napa in recent days to try to record exactly where the deep rupture broke through to the surface. In places, this is very evident from buckled roads and fractured kerbstones. But there are significant segments of the fault failure that have no obvious surface expression, and for these portions scientists hope to gain useful insights from the new Sentinel interferogram.

This is important information for understanding future seismic hazards and guiding infrastructure planning.

Sentinel 1A uses radar interferometry to measure ground displacement from orbit. Launched earlier this summer, the new satellite has used before and after data to Map the ground movements caused by the NAPA earthquake.

COMET Director, Tim Wright, from University of Leeds said, "This successful demonstration of Sentinel-1A marks the beginning of a new era for our ability to map earthquakes from space".

Sentinel-1A passes over the same spot on the ground every 12 days. However, once its identical twin, Sentinel-1B, is launched in 2016, this will be cut to just six days, so that changes can be mapped even faster.