Avant connects world-leading InSAR data into simple, easy-to-understand data reports. It integrates with our monitoring user platform, and connects with other datasets and live IoT sensors - bringing every layer of land-stability intelligence into one place.
Avant's InSAR technology is supplied and supported by:
Supplies Avant with InSAR ground-movement data across New Zealand. Founded in 2018 at the University of Leeds by Professors Tim Wright and Andy Hooper. Specialists in InSAR land-stability measurement, accurate to within a few millimetres per year.
Formerly GNS Science. SatSense works in partnership with Earth Sciences New Zealand, the country's primary earth-science research institution, which delivers nationwide Sentinel-1 InSAR coverage on a 12-day cycle.
ESA Sentinel-1 C-band radar satellites scan the same points on earth’s surface every 12 days, detecting even the smallest phase shifts in the returning radar signal - day or night, through cloud cover.
SatSense’s algorithms compare radar images over time, extracting displacement data with ±2-5mm/yr precision from hundreds of millions of ground points across New Zealand.
AVANT combines SatSense’s data with NZ geology, soil maps, flood records and hazard layers - generating your LandSure property report, digital twin and early-warning alerts.
AVANT Global was established in early 2023 in Whangārei, Northland. We are a group of geospatial and computer scientists - from New Zealand and around the world - working in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), IoT sensors, satellite imagery and Digital Twin technology.
We don’t claim to have invented the science. Our job is to bring the world’s best satellite and earth-science data together, make it genuinely useful, and apply it responsibly to New Zealand’s land. We’re proud to have supported organisations who trust us with serious work.
A few of the organisations we’ve worked with
AVANT is located in Whangārei-te-rerenga-parāoa - the gathering place of whales. We stand as Tangata Te Tiriti, committed to the values of Kaitiakitanga - the guardianship of the natural world.
SatSense was founded in 2018 at the University of Leeds by Professors Tim Wright and Andy Hooper - two of the world’s leading geodesy scientists - building on decades of combined algorithm development.
Their aim was straightforward: take InSAR technology that was once only available to governments and space agencies, and make it accurate, affordable and accessible.
SatSense’s technology is now embedded in New Zealand’s national-scale land movement mapping. Working in partnership with Earth Sciences New Zealand (formerly GNS Science) - the Crown research institute responsible for geohazard science - they have built comprehensive ground motion datasets covering the entire country. This work supports Earth Sciences NZ’s public-good research into landslides, subsidence and other geohazards.
The monitoring starts with the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 C-band radar, which revisits the same ground every 6-12 days and measures both vertical and horizontal displacement to within ±2-5mm/yr. Proprietary algorithms reduce noise and extract movement trends from archives dating back to 2014 - detecting not just movement, but changes in its rate, before damage becomes visible.
The team behind the technology
The SatSense team combines world-leading academic credentials with hard-won commercial experience across six continents. Their founders haven’t just studied ground movement - they have spent careers advancing the fundamental science that makes InSAR possible.
Leads SatSense product development - making complex ground movement data accessible and actionable for engineers, insurers and property professionals worldwide. Co-presented SatSense’s InSAR capabilities at the GRSG webinar 2025.
Professor of Satellite Geodesy at the University of Leeds. Director of COMET. Winner of the AGU Geodesy Section Award (2014) and the Royal Astronomical Society Harold Jeffreys Lectureship (2017). Co-founded SatSense in 2018.
Professor of Geodesy and Geophysics at the University of Leeds. Pioneer of the StaMPS algorithms now used globally across the InSAR community. His 35 combined years of algorithm development with Tim Wright form the scientific foundation of every data point.
Remote sensing specialist with 10+ years of InSAR processing experience at national scale. PhD in Geodesy and Geophysics (University of Leeds). MSc in Aerospace Engineering, Earth and Planetary Observation (Delft University of Technology).
The commercial force behind SatSense’s global expansion, on a mission to democratise ground movement data - making technology once reserved for space agencies available to businesses, engineers and property owners worldwide.
Leads SatSense’s New Zealand applications. Presented NZ geothermal InSAR case studies at GRSG 2024, showing how InSAR monitors reservoir management and pipeline infrastructure in Aotearoa’s geothermal fields.
In partnership with
Earth Sciences New Zealand (formerly GNS Science) is the country’s primary public institution for earth science research - responsible for understanding and reducing the impacts of natural hazards on New Zealand’s people, places and economy. Together with SatSense, it delivers nationwide Sentinel-1 InSAR coverage on a 12-day refresh cycle, supporting public good research across the motu.
Detecting magma movement and surface deformation in the Taupō Volcanic Zone - providing early warning of unrest long before any visible surface sign.
Measuring vertical land movement along NZ’s dynamic coastline to understand how the land itself is rising or sinking relative to sea level.
Using Sentinel-1 InSAR to detect slow-moving slope failures across NZ’s high-risk regions - including urban areas affected by extreme weather events.
Mapping co-seismic and post-seismic ground deformation at national scale - revealing how the land responds before, during and after major seismic events.
Evidence
Satellite radar has been measuring New Zealand ground for over a decade, and the results are published. These four studies, by Earth Sciences New Zealand and the New Zealand Geotechnical Society, show the same measurement LandSure reports on, applied to landslides, cities, earthquakes and industrial subsidence.
Landslides · Tairāwhiti Gisborne
10 mm
Coastal movement measured 2014–2017
Fifty-nine satellite passes over Gisborne mapped ground movement between 2014 and 2017. At Okitu on the coast, 10 mm of movement was measured across three years. At Titirangi Drive, the record captured a landslide reactivating through the winter of 2017, moving downslope toward the ocean.
Source: New Zealand Geotechnical Society · 21st Symposium · 2021
Urban coastline · Five cities
77%
Of urban coastline subsiding 0.5 mm/yr or more
Satellite radar and ground stations measured Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. Christchurch showed the fastest widespread rates, above 3 mm/yr in coastal suburbs, with Naval Point reaching 6.5 mm/yr. Land going down adds to sea coming up, and only one of the two is usually measured locally.
Source: NZ Journal of Geology and Geophysics · 2025
Earthquake · Nationwide
9 years
Of continuous national measurement
A national dataset covering 2017 to 2026 shows the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake still dominating ground movement across central New Zealand. The top of the South Island has flipped from subsiding to rising. Wellington’s vertical movement has gone from about 3 mm/yr of subsidence to near zero.
Source: Earth Sciences New Zealand · 2026 · Preprint
Industrial subsidence · Taupō
10+ mm/yr
Ongoing subsidence, Taupo Volcanic Zone
The Wairakei–Tauhara geothermal field has been surveyed on the ground since the 1950s and by satellite since the 2000s. It is the New Zealand case where satellite measurement can be checked against decades of independent levelling, and the two agree.
Source: Earth Sciences New Zealand · 2026 · and prior literature
Research by Earth Sciences New Zealand and the New Zealand Geotechnical Society · summarised by LandSure · figures are the published authors’ work, not LandSure measurements
SatSense is a trusted partner in delivering high quality InSAR data to advance our ability to assess and monitor geohazards in New Zealand.
The collaboration with Earth Sciences New Zealand represents a significant leap forward in making ground movement data readily accessible. Users in New Zealand routinely use our pre-processed and regularly updated ground movement data at a national scale, and we are delighted that our data is used to inform national safety-critical projects.
Join the growing number of homeowners, engineers and organisations across New Zealand who are using LandSure to monitor, protect and make smarter decisions about the land beneath them.
