Just before sunrise on Monday, a satellite peered down on regions of Morocco that had been damaged by an earthquake Friday night.
The data it gathered from 430 miles above Earth is offering scientists critical clues that will help unravel the mechanics behind the quake, including pinning down the specific fault that ruptured.
Key data came from Sentinel-1a, one of a group of satellites launched by the European Space Agency that pass around the Earth every 12 days, mapping out the surface.
The satellite relies on radar to measure tiny shifts in the ground toward or away from the orbiting craft, said Tim Wright, a geophysicist at the University of Leeds in England.
The technique is known as InSAR and allows scientists to compare the data collected before and after the quake to assess the three dimensional movement of the land around a fault with almost millimeter accuracy.
Persons:
Tim Wright, Judith Hubbard, Kyle Bradley
Organizations:
Sentinel, European Space Agency, University of Leeds, Cornell University
Locations:
Morocco, England