Complex Surface Displacements above the Storage Cavern Field at Epe, NW-Germany, Observed by Multi-Temporal SAR-Interferometry

The storage cavern field at Epe has been brined out of a salt deposit belonging to the lower Rhine salt flat, which extends under the surface of the North German lowlands and part of the Netherlands. Cavern convergence and operational pressure changes cause surface displacements that have been studied for this work with the help of SAR interferometry (InSAR) using distributed and persistent scatterers. Vertical and East-West movements have been determined based on Sentinel-1 data from ascending and descending orbit. Simple geophysical modeling is used to support InSAR processing and helps to interpret the observations. In particular, an approach is presented that allows to relate the deposit pressures with the observed surface displacements. Seasonal movements occurring over a fen situated over the western part of the storage site further complicate the analysis. Findings are validated with ground truth from levelling and groundwater level measurements

Persistent scatterer interferometry to monitor mining related ground surface deformation for data-driven modelling

The monitoring, interpretation and prediction of gradual ground surface deformation are critical factors in the understanding of earth systems. In many parts of the world, particularly in coastal areas where resources are often easily transportable and where steep cliffs allow access to underlying strata, the patterns of natural ground surface deformation are complicated by mining or extraction activities. To accurately estimate the amount of sea-level rise and Its total affect on, for example, frequency of flooding or salt-water intrusion, the amount of ground surface deformation, either subsidence or uplift, need to be understood in great detail. Ground surface dynamics over an area of contemporary deep mining, IS investigated through two research objectives. A feasibility study of conventional InSAR and Persistent Scatterer InSAR (PSI) in a rural setting was carried out. Rural areas are generally avoided for the application of these techniques for the measurement of gradual ground surface deformation due to the lack of coherence between scenes. The results demonstrate that the new PSI technique significantly outperformed conventional InSAR m the detection of gradual ground surface deformation. However, limitations to the technique were identified in the low density and limited distribution of permanent scatterers. The behaviour of the deformation rate over time appears to be biased to a linear trend. Furthermore, in order to understand the link between underground mining activities and local ground surface response a data-driven model has been developed and evaluated. Based on different mining scenarios, this mode! IS able to estimate the total subsidence in a four dimensional space. It was found that local ground surface deformation can be forecasted accurately, based on an angle of draw and four variables. Five key indicators, which are the extent of die disturbed area, the total period of deformation, the peak rate, the moment of the peak rate and the total deformation, are relevant to understand the impact of underground excavations on the surface and to place it in a wider Earth system

Spatio-temporal linking of multiple SAR satellite data from medium and high resolution Radarsat-2 images

A recent development in Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technology is integrating multiple SAR satellite data to dynamically extract ground features. This paper addresses two relevant challenges: identification of common ground targets from different SAR datasets in space, and concatenation of time series when dealing with temporal dynamics. To address the first challenge, we describe the geolocation uncertainty of InSAR measurements as a three-dimensional error ellipsoid. The points, among InSAR measurements, which have error ellipsoids with a positive cross volume are identified as tie-point pairs representing common ground objects from multiple SAR datasets. The cross volumes are calculated using Monte Carlo methods and serve as weights to achieve the equivalent deformation time series. To address the second challenge, the deformation time series model for each tie-point pair is estimated using probabilistic methods, where potential deformation models are efficiently tested and evaluated. As an application, we integrated two Radarsat-2 datasets in Standard and Extra-Fine modes to map the subsidence of the west of the Netherlands between 2010 and 2017. We identified 18128 tie-point pairs, 5 intersection types of error ellipsoids, 5 deformation models, and constructed their long-term deformation time series. The detected maximum mean subsidence velocity in Line-Of-Sight direction is up to 15 mmyr-1. We conclude that our method removes limitations that exist in single-viewing-geometry SAR when integrating multiple SAR data. In particular, the proposed time-series modeling method is useful to achieve a long-term deformation time series of multiple datasets

Ground-based synthetic aperture radar (GBSAR) interferometry for deformation monitoring

Ph. D ThesisGround-based synthetic aperture radar (GBSAR), together with interferometry, represents a powerful tool for deformation monitoring. GBSAR has inherent flexibility, allowing data to be collected with adjustable temporal resolutions through either continuous or discontinuous mode. The goal of this research is to develop a framework to effectively utilise GBSAR for deformation monitoring in both modes, with the emphasis on accuracy, robustness, and real-time capability. To achieve this goal, advanced Interferometric SAR (InSAR) processing algorithms have been proposed to address existing issues in conventional interferometry for GBSAR deformation monitoring. The proposed interferometric algorithms include a new non-local method for the accurate estimation of coherence and interferometric phase, a new approach to selecting coherent pixels with the aim of maximising the density of selected pixels and optimizing the reliability of time series analysis, and a rigorous model for the correction of atmospheric and repositioning errors. On the basis of these algorithms, two complete interferometric processing chains have been developed: one for continuous and the other for discontinuous GBSAR deformation monitoring. The continuous chain is able to process infinite incoming images in real time and extract the evolution of surface movements through temporally coherent pixels. The discontinuous chain integrates additional automatic coregistration of images and correction of repositioning errors between different campaigns. Successful deformation monitoring applications have been completed, including three continuous (a dune, a bridge, and a coastal cliff) and one discontinuous (a hillside), which have demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of the presented algorithms and chains for high-accuracy GBSAR interferometric measurement. Significant deformation signals were detected from the three continuous applications and no deformation from the discontinuous. The achieved results are justified quantitatively via a defined precision indicator for the time series estimation and validated qualitatively via a priori knowledge of these observing sites.China Scholarship Council (CSC), Newcastle Universit

Ground deformation monitoring over Xinjiang coal fire area by an adaptive ERA5-corrected stacking-InSAR method

Underground coal fire is a global geological disaster that causes the loss of resources as well as environmental pollution. Xinjiang, China, is one of the regions suffering from serious underground coal fires. The accurate monitoring of underground coal fires is critical for management and extinguishment, and many remote sensing-based approaches have been developed for monitoring over large areas. Among them, the multi-temporal interferometric synthetic aperture radar (MT-InSAR) techniques have been recently employed for underground coal fires-related ground deformation monitoring. However, MT-InSAR involves a relatively high computational cost, especially when the monitoring area is large. We propose to use a more cost-efficient Stacking-InSAR technique to monitor ground deformation over underground coal fire areas in this study. Considering the effects of atmosphere on Stacking-InSAR, an ERA5 data-based estimation model is employed to mitigate the atmospheric phase of interferograms before stacking. Thus, an adaptive ERA5-Corrected Stacking-InSAR method is proposed in this study, and it is tested over the Fukang coal fire area in Xinjiang, China. Based on original and corrected interferograms, four groups of ground deformation results were obtained, and the possible coal fire areas were identified. In this paper, the ERA5 atmospheric delay products based on the estimation model along the LOS direction (D-LOS) effectively mitigate the atmospheric phase. The accuracy of ground deformation monitoring over a coal fire area has been improved by the proposed method choosing interferograms adaptively for stacking. The proposed Adaptive ERA5-Corrected Stacking-InSAR method can be used for efficient ground deformation monitoring over large coal fire areas.This research was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.41874044 and Grant No. 42004011), in part by project G2HOTSPOTS (PID2021-122142OB- I00) from the MCIN /AEI /10.13039 /501100011033 /FEDER, UE and in part by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2020M671646). At the same time, the research was also funded by the Construction Program of Space-Air-Ground-Well Cooperative Awareness Spatial Information Project (B20046) and National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFE0102600).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version