Two examples of the use of SAR interferometry on displacement fields of small spatial extent

Abstract

Interferometric combination of pairs of SAR images acquired by the European ERS‐1 satellite maps deformation fields associated with two phenomena, both of small spatial extension and located in SE France: the one is rapid terrain deformation caused by a landslide near the city of Saint Etienne de Tinée, and the other is slower subsidence caused by underground coal mining near Gardanne. Unlike interferometric measurement of wide‐field deformation, atmospheric propagation heterogeneity is not an accuracy‐limiting factor. Although the radar data confirm prior knowledge concerning the landslide, such an application of SAR interferometry appears difficult under normal conditions of observation using current spaceborne radar systems. The study of soil subsidence, however, can be generalized and improves prior knowledge of the displacement field, which has here been modeled assuming elastic deformation in a half‐space from several sources. The two examples help to understand the limits of the interferometric technique.

Use of LIDAR in landslide investigations: a review

“…The two major remote sensing techniques that are exponentially developing in landslides investigation are interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) (Fruneau et al 1996;Colesanti et al 2003;Squarzoni et al 2003), and light detection and ranging (LIDAR) (Carter et al 2001;Slob et al 2002;Haugerud et al 2003;Slob and Hack 2004). InSAR techniques are usually ground-based (Stow 1996;Tarchi et al 2003) or satellite-based (Carnec et al 1996;Singhroy 2009), and only rarely airborne. InSAR techniques are mainly dedicated to the detection and the quantification of small displacements over large areas.…”

Aplicación de DInSAR a los estudios de subsidencia en el Valle de Mexicali

“…La técnica de Interferometría Diferencial de Radar de Apertura Sintética (Differential Interferometry of Synthetic Aperture Radar), DInSAR, es conocida desde los años noventa y ha sido aplicada al registro y análisis de deformaciones relacionadas con sismos (Massonnet et al, 1993;Stramondo et al, 1999;Fielding et al, 2005), volcanes activos (Massonnet et al, 1995;Sigmundsson et al, 1999;Amelung et al, 2000), glaciares (Goldstein et al, 1993;Kwok y Fahnestock, 1996), deslizamientos (Carnec et al, 1996) y hundimientos causados por extracción de material en minas (Carnec y Delacourt, 2000;Wegmüller et al, 2004) o extracción de fluidos. La técnica de DInSAR se ha aplicado tanto para análisis de efectos de extracción de agua en acuíferos someros (e.g.…”

Subsidence monitoring using SAR interferometry: Reduction of the atmospheric effects using stochastic filtering

“…The differential interferometric SAR (DInSAR) technique has demonstrated its capability to measure subsidences [Carnec et al, 1996;Amelung et al, 1999;Tesauro et al, 2000]. However, some of the published investigations rather focus on a qualitative use of the InSAR results, and in order to achieve the above standards different aspects of the technique have to be improved.…”