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Event Search Type#

Event search harnesses the capabilities of SAR proccessing to monitor natural disasters. Currently supported hazards are volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Generated products include fully terrain corrected image time series, as well as interferometric SAR data over areas affected by natural disasters. To facilitate full automation, the processing flow is triggered automatically by existing hazard alert systems such as the USGS Earthquake Notification Service. Event monitoring through Vertex is based on technology developed within SARVIEWS through grant NNX12AQ38G. Visit the Events (SARVIEWS) documentation for more information.

Visit ASF's Vertex to begin using the Event search.

  • When you select Event search type, a search will be performed, and all available events will be displayed. As with other search types, there are filters available to limit or refine your search results.
  • Click Event Search to enter an event name or partial name. You may also select the desired event from the drop down list displayed when you click the field.
  • Under Event Types, you can choose which event types you wish to be displayed. Currently, there are Earthquake and Volcano events.
  • You may select a Start Date or End Date.
  • Click Filters for more options
    • You may toggle the Active Events Only switch to display only active events. The default is to display all events, including inactive events.
    • You may adjust the Magnitude slider to filter earthquakes by your desired magnitude range. Note: This filter applies only to earthquake events. If your search includes volcanoes, these will continue to be displayed in your search results.
  • Once you have selected your desired Filters, click Search to update your search results.

Product Filters#

  • Path and Frame Filters are available. You may enter a single path or frame, or a range.
    • Click Clear to clear the entered path and frame values.
    • Note that Path and Frame will filter the displayed products within each event.
  • Under Product Type, you may select one or more product types. This will filter the displayed products within each event.

Interacting with Event Search Results#

While in Event Search type, you will notice many familiar controls in the results panel. The events are shown in the left column. The Volcano and Earthquake icons note what type of event each result is. The center column lists the detail and metadata for the selected event. The Files for the selected event are shown in the right column.

Result Panel Controls

  • At the top left of the results panel, you will see the number of events returned by your search.
  • Zoom will Zoom to results magnifying the map area of the Earth where the event is located.
  • Queue will Add all results to Downloads allowing you to add all event products to the download queue.
    • You may choose to add All Event Products or Selected Event Products to the download queue. You may select individual files in the right column.
  • Export will download the Bulk Download Script. This Python script allows you to download all products from the selected scene.
  • On Demand will allow you to Add all results to On Demand queue to do custom processing on the scenes. Depending on the types of files associated with the chosen event, you may be able to add RTC or InSAR jobs to your queue. To learn more click here.
  • Copy allows you to copy either the Scene IDs or the download URLs.
    • You may choose to copy either All Scene IDs or URLs, or only copy Selected Scene IDs or URLs. You may select individual files in the right column.
  • The Events column (left).
    • Each event has either an earthquake or a volcano icon to the left of it, to help you quickly identify the event type.
    • Click Zoom to Event to magnify the map area of the Earth where the event is located.
  • The Event Detail column (middle).
    • The event details are listed here. This includes the event processing start and stop time. For earthquakes, the magnitude and depth is also displayed.
    • You may Copy the Event ID.
    • For earthquake events, the USGS ID is listed. For volcanoes, the Smithsonian ID is listed. Click the link to go to the USGS or Smithsonian event page.
    • Adjust the Geographic Search Polygon Scale slider as desired. The Area of Interest polygon will also update on the map.
    • Once you are happy with the Geographic Search Polygon Scale, click Geographic to launch a Geographic search using the event's Area of Interest & dates.
    • Click List to launch a list search including all of the event's product scenes.
    • The eye icon labeled Open in Image Viewer opens a larger browse viewer window.
      • Note: When viewing InSAR images in the image viewer, the wrapped browse image is displayed. The unwrapped browse image is available in the downloaded product.
      • In the browse viewer, zoom using the + or - buttons. You may also zoom and pan using the mouse.
      • Click or scroll through the thumbnails at the bottom to see other browse images for the selected event.
      • The scene metadata is listed on the right side of the browse viewer window.
      • Under File, you may click the button labeled RTC GAMMA or INSAR GAMMA for more options
        • Click Download File to download the selected product.
        • Click Add file to queue to add it to your Download queue.
        • Click Reference Scenes to copy the reference scene names to the clipboard. These may be saved in a file or used in List Search.
        • Click Pin Browse to Map to pin the browse image to the map. Once pinned, you may click this button again to unpin.
    • Click the Download this image icon to download the browse image.
    • Click the Pin icon to pin the selected browse image to the map. Once pinned, you may click this button again to unpin.
  • The Files column (right).
    • The total number of files for the selected event is listed in this column.
    • You may sort the files using the Sort By and Order buttons at the top of the column.
      • Under Sort By, you may choose Date, Path, or Frame.
      • Click the Order Arrow to switch between ascending and descending order.
    • Click Product Criteria to open the Search Filters.
    • Click the checkboxes next to each file to select or deselect the file. The selected files will be pinned onto the map. Once your desired files are selected, you may also use the Download or Copy controls in the top left of the results panel to interact with selected products.
    • Click On Demand to add the selected file to your On Demand queue for further processing.
    • Click the Shopping Cart icon to add the selected file to your Download queue.
    • Click Download to download the selected file.
    • Note: You must be logged in to download products.