Abstract-We describe a procedure to accurately measure ground deformations from optical satellite images. Precise orthorectification is obtained owing to an optimized model of the imaging system, where look directions are linearly corrected to compensate for attitude drifts, and sensor orientation uncertainties are accounted for. We introduce a new computation of the inverse projection matrices for which a rigorous resampling is proposed. The irregular resampling problem is explicitly addressed to avoid introducing aliasing in the ortho-rectified images. Image registration and correlation is achieved with a new iterative unbiased processor that estimates the phase plane in the Fourier domain for subpixel shift detection. Without using supplementary data, raw images are wrapped onto the digital elevation model and coregistered with a 1/50 pixel accuracy. The procedure applies to images from any pushbroom imaging system. We analyze its performance using Satellite pour l'Observation de la Terre (SPOT) images in the case of a null test (no coseismic deformation) and in the case of large coseismic deformations due to the Mw 7.1 Hector Mine, California, earthquake of 1999. The proposed technique would also allow precise coregistration of images for the measurement of surface displacements due to ice-flow or geomorphic processes, or for any other change detection applications. A complete software package, the Coregistration of Optically Sensed Images and Correlation, is available for download from the Caltech Tectonics Observatory website.

[1] We investigate the coseismic and postseismic deformation due to the M w 6.0 2004 Parkfield, California, earthquake. We produce coseismic and postseismic slip models by inverting data from an array of 14 continuous GPS stations from the SCIGN network. Kinematic inversions of postseismic GPS data over a time period of 3 years show that afterslip occurred in areas of low seismicity and low coseismic slip, predominantly at a depth of $5 km. Inversions suggest that coseismic stress increases were relaxed by predominantly aseismic afterslip on a fault plane. The kinetics of afterslip is consistent with a velocity-strengthening friction generalized to include the case of infinitesimal velocities. We performed simulations of stress-driven creep using a numerical model that evaluates the time-dependent deformation due to coseismic stress changes in a viscoelastoplastic half-space. Starting with a coseismic slip distribution, we compute the time-dependent evolution of afterslip on a fault plane and the associated displacements at the GPS stations. Data are best explained by a rate-strengthening model with frictional parameter (a À b) = 7 Â 10 À3 , at a high end of values observed in laboratory experiments. We also find that the geodetic moment due to creep is a factor of 100 greater than the cumulative seismic moment of aftershocks. The rate of aftershocks in the top 10 km of the seismogenic zone mirrors the kinetics of afterslip, suggesting that postearthquake seismicity is governed by loading from the nearby aseismic creep. The San Andreas fault around Parkfield is deduced to have large along-strike variations in rate-and-state frictional properties. Velocity strengthening areas may be responsible for the separation of the coseismic slip in two distinct asperities and for the ongoing aseismic creep occurring between the velocity-weakening patches after the 2004 rupture.