On 28 September 2018, an Mw 7.4 earthquake, followed by a tsunami, struck central Sulawesi, Indonesia. It resulted in serious damage to central Sulawesi, especially in the Palu area. Two descending paths of the Advanced Land Observation Satellite 2 (ALOS-2) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data were processed with interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) and pixel tracking techniques to image the coseismic deformation produced by the earthquake. The deformation measurement was used to determine the fault geometry and the coseismic distributed slip model with a constrained least square algorithm based on the homogeneous elastic half-space model. We divided the fault into four segments (named AS, BS, CS and DS, from the north to the south) in the inversion. The BS segment was almost parallel to the DS segment, the CS segment linked the BS and DS segments, and these three fault segments formed a fault step-over system. The Coulomb failure stress (CFS) change on the causative fault was also calculated. Results show that the maximum SAR line-of-sight (LOS) and horizontal deformation were −1.8 m and 3.6 m, respectively. The earthquake ruptured a 210-km-long fault with variable strike angles. The ruptured pattern of the causative fault is mainly a sinistral slip. Almost-pure normal characteristics could be identified along the fault segment across the Palu bay, which could be one of the factors resulting in the tsunami. The main slip area was concentrated at the depths of 0–20 km, and the maximum slip was 3.9 m. The estimated geodetic moment of the earthquake was 1.4 × 10²⁰ Nm, equivalent to an earthquake of Mw 7.4. The CFS results demonstrate that the fault step-over of 5.3 km width did not terminate the rupture propagation of the main shock to the south. Two M>6 earthquakes (the 23 January 2005 and the 18 August 2012) decreased CFS along CS segment and the middle part of DS segment of the 2018 main shock. This implies that the stress release during the previous two earthquakes may have played a vital role in controlling the coseismic slip pattern of the 2018 earthquake.

The 2018 M_W 7.5 Papua New Guinea earthquake is the largest earthquake instrumentally recorded in the Papuan Fold Belt since 1900. Based on a combined analysis of backprojection imaging and finite‐fault joint inversion, we determined a complex spatiotemporal rupture model of the mainshock. During the rupture process, three major asperities were ruptured successively with relatively low rupture velocities ranging from 1.9 to 2.3 km/s. The spatiotemporal evolution of the imparted Coulomb stress indicates that the rupture of the preceding asperity played an important role in triggering the delayed rupture of the adjacent asperity. Based on our rupture model, the upper bound of the radiation efficiency of this event is estimated to be 9.7–12.3%, a relatively low value, indicating that this earthquake is extremely dissipative. The high energy dissipation implies that the 2018 M_W 7.5 Papua New Guinea earthquake may be controlled by the immature seismogenic environment.

The 6 February 2023 Türkiye earthquake doublet occurred on the east Anatolian fault system, which marks the tectonic boundary between the Arabia plate and the Anatolian microplate. This earthquake doublet consists of the $Mw$ 7.8 Pazarcik earthquake along the east Anatolian fault and the $Mw$ 7.6 Çardak earthquake along the Savrun–Çardak fault. Sentinel‐1 Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) satellite successfully imaged the surface deformation caused by this earthquake doublet. The pixel offset from cross correlation of two Synthetic Aperture Radar images complements the interferograms in mapping the surface ruptures and the near‐field deformation. We inverted for a coseismic slip model in elastic half‐space using the InSAR phase and the range offset data. The variance reduction of the inversion reaches ∼90%. The coseismic slip model shows that the 2023 Türkiye earthquake doublet are left‐lateral strike‐slip events. The peak slip is located near Nurhak in southern Türkiye along the Savrun–Çardak fault. From measuring discontinuities in the pixel offset images we found that the surface rupture length of the Pazarcik earthquake is ∼300 km and the surface rupture length of the Çardak earthquake is ∼100 km. To first order, the faults are dipping vertically. “Slip gaps” are identified by our modeling, and they might be the source regions of future large earthquakes.

On 23 February 2023, an Mw 6.8 earthquake struck the border of Tajikistan and Xinjiang China, the source mechanism remains controversial according to different seismic inversions. To better comprehend the source characteristics and the surface deformation pattern, we used the ascending and descending orbital Sentinel-1A SAR data to obtain the coseismic deformation of this earthquake based on the traditional two-pass differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR). The source model is inverted from the InSAR coseismic deformation results. The possible Coulomb Failure Stress (CFS) transfer is analyzed based on the preferred source model. The results illustrate that the earthquake ruptured a blind left-lateral strike-slip fault of strike 28.1° with a maximum slip of 1.53 m and the total geodetic moment is 1.99 × 10¹⁹ N·m (Mw 6.83). The strike direction and the fault characteristics suggest the Seismogenic fault is a secondary fault of the Sarez–Karakul Fault System. The 2015 Mw 7.2 Sarez Earthquake plays a triggering role in the occurrence of the 2023 Tajikistan earthquake. Earthquake hazard on Sarez–Karakul Fault System and Sarez–Murghab Thrust System is enhanced due to the Coulomb stress loaded by the Tajikistan earthquake.

On 21 May 2021, an Mw 6.1 earthquake, causing considerable seismic damage, occurred in Yangbi County, Yunnan Province of China. To better understand the surface deformation pattern, source characteristics, seismic effect on nearby faults, and strong ground motion, we processed the ascending and descending SAR images using the interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) technique to capture the radar line-of-sight (LOS) directional and 2.5-dimensional deformation. The source model was inverted from the LOS deformation observations. We further analyzed the Coulomb failure stress (CFS) transfer and peak ground acceleration (PGA) simulation based on the preferred source model. The results suggest that the 2021 Yangbi earthquake was dextral faulting with the maximum slip of 0.9 m on an unknown blind shallow fault, and the total geodetic moment was 1.4 × 10¹⁸ Nm (Mw 6.06). Comprehensive analysis of the CFS transfer and geological tectonics suggests that the Dian–Xibei pull-apart basin is still suffering high seismic hazards. The PGA result demonstrates that the seismic intensity of this event reached up to VIII. The entire process from InSAR deformation to source modeling and strong ground motion simulation suggests that the InSAR technique will play an important role in the assessment of earthquake disasters in the case of the shortening of the SAR imaging interval.

This paper provides details on a complete integration of Content- adaptive Spatial Scalability (CASS) into the scalable video coding extension of H.264/AVC (SVC). CASS enables the efficient encoding of a high-quality bit stream that contains several versions of an original image sequence. Thereby, each such image sequence has been created by content-adaptive and art directed retargeting to different display aspect-ratios and/or resolutions. Non-linear dependencies between spatial layers, which have been introduced through content-adaptive retargeting, are exploited by a generalization of the three inter-layer prediction tools of SVC, i.e. by content-adaptive inter-layer texture, motion and residual prediction. The CASS extended SVC enables the transmission of video content which has been specifically adapted in an art- directed way to multiple display configurations (e.g. to SD and HD displays with 4:3 and 16:9 aspect-ratios, respectively) using a single compressed bit stream. With our extension, video content of higher semantic quality can be transmitted in a scalable way by introducing an average overhead in bit rate of 9.3%.