Welcome to the Supersite Website
The Supersites have data for the study of natural hazards in geologically active regions, including information from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), GPS crustal deformation measurements, and earthquakes.
The data are provided in the spirit of GEO, ESA, NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF), that easy access to Earth science data will promote their use and advance scientific research, ultimately leading to reduced loss of life from natural hazards.
Click on a site in the map below, or see the regions listed below in Phase 1 and Phase 2 Supersites.
This website is a prototype created by
UNAVCO and
WInSAR on behalf of the Group on Earth Observations
(GEO) and the European Space Agency
(ESA).
The web site will attain an official design and move to a permanent home once a host is selected.
Summary
Supersites is an initiative of the geohazard scientific community. The Supersites provide access to spaceborne and in-situ geophysical data of selected sites prone to earthquake, volcano or other hazards. The initiative began with the "Frascati declaration" at the conclusion of the 3rd International Geohazards workshop of the Group of Earth Observation (GEO) held in November 2007 in Frascati, Italy. The recommendation of the workshop was “to stimulate an international and intergovernmental effort to monitor and study selected reference sites by establishing open access to relevant datasets according to GEO principles to foster the collaboration between all various partners and end-users”. This recommendation is formalized as GEO task DI-09-010.
The spaceborne portion of the Supersite initiative was initiated at the Second International Workshop on the Use of Remote Sensing Techniques for monitoring Volcanoes and Seismogenic Areas held in November 2008 in Naples, Italy (USEReST). Many of the workshop participants from research institutions and geological surveys around the world agreed to make SAR and in-situ data available Supersites (listing below). ESA agreed to provide the IT infrastructure for access to the SAR data (ESA’s Virtual Archive). The discussions are summarized here
For more information on the Supersites please contact Falk Amelung at the University of Miami (famelung@rsmas.miami.edu), Veronica Grasso at the GEO Secretariat (VGrasso@geosec.org) or Wolfgang Lengert at ESA (wolfgang.lengert@esa.int).
Phase 1 Supersites
Phase 1 Supersites were selected for scientific reasons but also to maximize the visibility of the project. It is clear that, for example, a better understanding of the seismic hazard of Vancouver and Tokyo requires not only the study of these particular sites but also of subduction zones around the world.
Event Supersites
Chile
Haiti
l'Aquila, Italy
Volcano Supersites
Campi Flegreii and Vesuvius, Italy
Mt Etna, Italy
Hawaiian volcanoes, USA
Earthquake Supersites
Istanbul, Turkey
Tokyo, Japan
Los Angeles, USA
Vancouver and Seattle, Canada and USA
Phase 2 Supersites (Natural Laboratories)
Phase 2 supersites will be selected in order to maximize the science results.
A number of potential Supersites have been suggested (listed below).
For some of the sites community members have offered to contribute ground or space-based data geophysical data. Phase 2 Supersite selection will be discussed at the next Supersite meeting. It is possible that a procedural framework for Supersite selection (such as a Supersite committee with members from EPOS, WInSAR and PIXEL) will be formed.
Next steps
The next steps are the selection of Phase 2 Supersites, and bringing other space agencies on board, such as JAXA, CSA and DLR.
Planning Session
Detailed discussions were held in the Supersite session at the November 9-13 2009 Third ALOS Joint PI Symposium.
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