Earth Observations for Geohazards: Present and Future Challenges

Earth Observations (EO) encompasses different types of sensors (e.g., Synthetic Aperture Radar, Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging, Optical and multispectral) and platforms (e.g., satellites, aircraft, and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and enables us to monitor and model geohazards over regions at different scales in which ground observations may not be possible due to physical and/or political constraints. EO can provide high spatial, temporal and spectral resolution, stereo-mapping and all-weather-imaging capabilities, but not by a single satellite at a time. Improved satellite and sensor technologies, increased frequency of satellite measurements, and easier access and interpretation of EO data have all contributed to the increased demand for satellite EO data. EO, combined with complementary terrestrial observations and with physical models, have been widely used to monitor geohazards, revolutionizing our understanding of how the Earth system works. This Special Issue presents a collection of scientific contributions focusing on innovative EO methods and applications for monitoring and modeling geohazards, consisting of four Sections: (1) earthquake hazards; (2) landslide hazards; (3) land subsidence hazards; and (4) new EO techniques and services.Part of this work was supported by the UK Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) through the Centre for the Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics (COMET, ref.: come30001) and the LICS and CEDRRIC projects (refs. NE/K010794/1 and NE/N012151/1, respectively), European Space Agency through the ESA-MOST DRAGON-4 projects (ref. 32244) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and EU FEDER funds under projects TIN2014-55413- C2-2-P and ESP2013-47780-C2-2-R

ALOS-2/PALSAR-2 Calibration, Validation, Science and Applications

Twelve edited original papers on the latest and state-of-art results of topics ranging from calibration, validation, and science to a wide range of applications using ALOS-2/PALSAR-2. We hope you will find them useful for your future research

Investigating the Ground Deformation and Source Model of the Yangbajing Geothermal Field in Tibet, China with the WLS InSAR Technique

Ground deformation contains important information that can be exploited to look into the dynamics of a geothermal system. In recent years, InSAR has manifested its strong power in the monitoring of ground deformation. In this paper, a multi-temporal InSAR algorithm, WLS InSAR, is employed to monitor and characterize the Yangbajing geothermal field in Tibet, China, using 51 ENVISAT/ASAR images acquired from two overlapping descending tracks. The results reveal that the WLS InSAR algorithm can suppress the adverse effects of seasonal oscillations, associated with the freezing-thawing cycle of the permafrost in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Deformations of up to 2 cm/yr resulting from the exploitation of the geothermal resource have been detected in the southern part of the Yangbajing field between 2006 and 2010. A source model inversion of the subsurface geothermal fluids was carried out based on the elastic half-space theory using the accumulated deformations. It was found that most geothermal fluid loss has occurred in the southern part of the shallow reservoir as the pore space beneath the northern part of field was recharged by the ascending flow from the deep layers of the reservoir through well-developed faults in the region