The Sentinel-1 mission for the improvement of the scientific understanding and the operational monitoring of the seismic cycle

We describe the state of the art of scientific research on the earthquake cycle based on the analysis of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data acquired from satellite platforms. We examine the achievements and the main limitations of present SAR systems for the measurement and analysis of crustal deformation, and envision the foreseeable advances that the Sentinel-1 data will generate in the fields of geophysics and tectonics. We also review the technological and scientific issues which have limited so far the operational use of satellite data in seismic hazard assessment and crisis management, and show the improvements expected from Sentinel-1 dat

Appraisal of Ancient Quarries and WWII Air Raids as Factors of Subsidence in Rome: A Geomatic Approach

Ancient mining and quarrying activities left anthropogenic geomorphologies that have shaped the natural landscape and affected environmental equilibria. The artificial structures and their related effects on the surrounding environment are analyzed here to characterize the quarrying landscape in the southeast area of Rome in terms of its dimensions, typology, state of preservation and interface with the urban environment. The increased occurrence of sinkhole events in urban areas has already been scientifically correlated to ancient cavities under increasing urban pressure. In this scenario, additional interacting anthropogenic factors, such as the aerial bombardments perpetrated during the Second World War, are considered here. These three factors have been investigated by employing a combined geomatic methodology. Information on air raids has been organized in vector archives. A dataset of historical aerial photographs has been processed into Digital Surface Models and orthomosaics to reconstruct the quarry landscape and its evolution, identify typologies of exploitation and forms of collapse and corroborate the discussion concerning the induced historical and recent subsidence phenomena, comparing these outputs with photogrammetric products obtained from recent satellite data. Geological and urbanistic characterization of the study area allowed a better connection between these historical and environmental factors. In light of the information gathered so far, SAR interferometric products allowed a preliminary interpretation of ground instabilities surrounding historical quarries, air raids and recent subsidence events. Various sub-areas of the AOI where the presenceof the considered factors also corresponds to areas in slight subsidence in the SAR velocity maps have been highlighted. Bivariate hotspot analysis allowed substantiating the hypothesis of a spatial correlation between these multiple aspects

On the use of COSMO/SkyMed data and Weather Models for interferometric DEM generation

AbstractThis work experiments the potentialities of COSMO/SkyMed (CSK) data in providing interferometric Digital Elevation Model (DEM). We processed a stack of CSK data for measuring with meter accuracy the ground elevation on the available coherent targets, and used these values to check the accuracy of DEMs derived from 5 tandem-like CSK pairs. In order to suppress the atmospheric signal we experimented a classical spatial filtering of the differential phase as well as the use of numerical weather prediction (NWP) model RAMS. Tandem-like pairs with normal baselines higher than 300 m allows to derive DEMs fulfilling the HRTI Level 3 specifications on the relative vertical accuracy, while the use of NWP models still seems unfeasible especially for X-band

시계열 InSAR 기법을 사용하여 비정상적 해수면 상승 기록을 보인 조위관측소의 수직지반변위 평가

학위논문(박사) -- 서울대학교대학원 : 자연과학대학 지구환경과학부, 2021.8. 김덕진.Global sea level rise has been a serious threat to the low-lying coasts and islands around the world. It is important to understand the global and regional sea level changes for preventing the coastal zones. Tide gauges are installed around the world, which directly measures the change in sea level relative to the local datum. Sea level in the past three decades has risen to 1.8 mm/year compared to the sea level rise in the 20th century (3.35 mm/year), estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). However, along with the contributors of sea level rise, vertical land motion (VLM) is indeed an essential component for understanding the regional sea level change; however, its contribution remains still unclear. The VLM is referred to as change in elevation of land at tide gauge due to the regional and local processes by both natural and anthropogenic activities can deteriorate the sea level records and lead to spurious sea level acceleration. Assessing the vertical land motion at tide gauges with the accuracy of sub-millimeters is essential to reconstruct the global and regional sea level rise. Previous studies attempt to observe the vertical land movements at sparse locations through Global Positioning System (GPS). However, the VLM observed from the sparse GPS network makes the estimation uncertain. In this study, an alternative approach is proposed in this study to directly measure the relative vertical land motion including spatial and temporal variations through Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data by using time-series SAR interferometric (InSAR) techniques. This work presents a contribution enhancing the estimation of VLM rates with high spatial resolution over large area using time-series InSAR analysis. First, the C-band Interferometric Wide-swath (IW) mode SAR data from the Sentinel-1 A/B satellite was used in this study to estimate the VLM rates of tide gauges. The Sentinel-1 A/B SAR data were obtained during the period between 2014/10 and 2020/12 (~ 6 years). Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers – Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (StaMPS-PSI) time-series InSAR algorithm was initially applied to the case study: Pohang tide gauge in the Korean peninsula for monitoring the stability of tide gauge station and its VLM rates during 2014 ~ 2017. For the Pohang tide gauge site, SAR data acquired in both ascending and descending passes and derived the ground movement rates at tide gauge along the line-of-sight direction. The vertical movements from the collocated POHA GPS station were compared with the InSAR derived VLM rates for determining the correlation between the two methods. The VLM rates at the Pohang tide gauge site were -25.5 mm/year during 2014 ~ 2017. This VLM rate at Pohang tide gauge derived by StaMPS-PSI estimates were from the strong dominant scatterers along the coastal regions. Second, for the terrains, with few dominant scatterers and more distributed scatters, a short temporal InSAR pair selection approach was introduced, referred as Sequential StaMPS-Small baselines subset (StaMPS-SBAS) was proposed in this study. Sequential StaMPS-SBAS forms the interferograms of short temporal sequential order (n = 5) to increase the initial pixel candidates on the natural terrains in the vicinity of tide gauges. Sentinel-1 A/B SAR data over ten tide gauges in the Korean peninsula having different terrain conditions were acquired during 2014 ~ 2020; and employed with sequential StaMPS-SBAS to estimate the VLM rates and time-series displacements. The initial pixel density has been doubled and ~ 1.25 times the final coherent pixels identified over the conventional StaMPS-SBAS analysis. Third, the potential for the fully automatic estimation of time-series VLM rates by sequential StaMPS-SBAS analysis was investigated. A fully automatic processing module referred to as ‘Seq-TInSAR’, was developed which has three modules 1) automatically downloads Sentinel-1 Single look complex (SLC) data, precise orbit files, and Digital Elevation Model (DEM); 2) SLC pre-processor: extract bursts, fine Coregistration and stacking and, 3) Sequential StaMPS-SBAS processor: estimates the VLM rates and VLM time-series. Finally, the Seq-TInSAR module is applied to the 100 tide gauges that exhibit abnormal sea level trend with par global mean sea level average. For each tide gauge site, 60 ~ 70 Sentinel-1 A/B SLC scenes were acquired and 300 ~ 350 sequential interferograms were processed to estimate the VLM at tide gauge stations. The final quantitative VLM rates and time-series VLM are estimated for the selected tide gauges stations. Based on the VLM rates, the tide gauges investigated in this study are categorized into different VLM ranges. The in-situ GPS observations available at 12 tide gauge stations were compared with InSAR VLM rates and found strong agreement, which suggests the proposed approach more reliable in measuring the spatial and temporal variations of VLM at tide gauges.전 세계적으로 발생하는 해수면 상승은 저지대 해안과 도서 지역에 심각한 위협으로 작용한다. 해안 지역을 보호하기 위해 전 지구 및 해당 지역의 해수면 변화를 이해하는 것은 대단히 중요하다. 조위 관측소는 전 세계에 설치되어 해당 지역 기준에 따른 해수면 변화를 직접 측정한다. 지난 30 년간 해수면은 IPCC (정부 간 기후 변화 패널)가 추정한 20 세기의 해수면 상승 (3.35mm / 년)대비 1.8mm / 년 가까이 상승하였다. 그러나 해수면 상승의 원인과 함께 연직 지반 운동 (VLM)은 지역 해수면 변화를 이해하는 데 필수적인 요소이지만 그 기여도는 여전히 불분명하다. VLM은 자연 활동과 인간 활동 모두에 의한 지역적 변화로 인해 조위 관측소에서 지반의 고도 변화로 정의되며 해수면 변화 정확도을 악화시키고 유사 해수면 변화의 가속을 초래할 수 있다. 전 세계 및 지역 해수면 상승을 재구성하려면 1 밀리미터 미만의 정확도로 조위 관측소에서 VLM을 평가하는 것이 필수적이다. 이전 연구는 GPS (Global Positioning System)를 통해 제한된 위치에서 VLM 을 관측하려고 시도하였으나 국소적인 GPS 신호들로부터 관측된 VLM으로는 그 추정이 불확실하다. 본 연구에서는 시계열 SAR 간섭계 (InSAR) 기법을 이용하여 SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) 데이터를 통해 공간적, 시간적 변화를 포함한 상대적 VLM을 직접 측정하기 위한 대안적 접근 방식을 제안한다. 이 작업은 시계열 InSAR 분석을 사용하여 광대역에 걸쳐 높은 공간 해상도로 VLM 속도의 추정을 향상시키는 데 기여한다. 첫째로, Sentinel-1 A / B 위성의 C-band Interferometric Wide-swath (IW) 모드 SAR 영상이 본 연구에서 조위 관측소의 VLM 속도를 추정하는 데 사용되었다. Sentinel-1 A / B SAR 영상은 2014 년 10 월부터 2020 년 12 월까지 (~ 6 년) 기간 동안 수집되었다. 고정 산란체를 위한 스탠포드 기법 – 고정 산란 간섭계 (StaMPS-PSI) 시계열 InSAR 알고리즘이 한반도 포항 조위 관측소의 2014 ~ 2017 년 동안의 조위 관측소의 안정성과 VLM 속도를 모니터링하기 위해 적용되었다. 포항 조위 관측소 부지의 경우, 위성궤도의 상승 및 하강 경로로 획득한 SAR 영상을 통해 시선 방향을 따라 조위 관측소에서의 지면 이동 속도를 도출하였다. 포항 GPS 관측소의 연직 이동은 두 기법 간의 상관성를 판단하기 위해 InSAR기법으로부터 추정된 VLM 속도와 비교되었다. 포항 조위 관측소의 VLM 속도는 2014 ~ 2017 년의 기간 동안 -25.5mm / 년으로 관측되었다. StaMPS-PSI 추정에 의해 도출 된 포항 조위 관측소의 VLM 속도은 해안 지역의 강한 산란 체에서 기인한다. 둘째로, 강한 산란체가 수가 적고 분산된 산란체가 더 많은 지형의 경우, 본 연구에서 Sequential StaMPS-Small baselines (StaMPS-SBAS)이라는 하는 단기 InSAR 쌍의 선택에 의한 접근 방식이 제안되었다. Sequential StaMPS-SBAS는 짧은 시간 범위(n = 5)의 간섭계 영상을 형성하여 조위 관측소 부근의 자연 지형에서 변화가 적은 화소 선택을 증가시킨다. Sentinel-1 A / B SAR 영상은 2014 년 ~ 2020 년 사이에 서로 다른 지형 조건을 가진 한반도의 10 개 조위 관측소에서 수집되었으며, VLM 속도 및 시계열 변위를 추정하기 위해 Sequential StaMPS-SBAS와 함께 사용되었다. 초기 화소 밀도는 기존 StaMPS-SBAS 분석을 통해 확인 된 최종적인 불변화소 밀도의 약 1.25 배와 두 배로 도출되었다. 셋째로, Sequential StaMPS-SBAS 분석에 의한 시계열 VLM 비율의 완전한 자동 추정 가능성을 조사하였다. Seq-TInSAR라고하는 완전한 자동 처리 모듈이 개발되었으며, 3 개의 하위 모듈로 구성되어있다. 1) Sentinel-1 SLC (Single Look Complex) 영상, 정밀한 궤도 정보 및 DEM (Digital Elevation Model)의 자동 다운로드 2) SLC 전 처리기 : 영상 별 Burst 추출, 정밀한 통합 및 Stacking, 3) Sequential StaMPS-SBAS 프로세서 : VLM 속도 및 VLM 시계열 변위의 추정 마지막으로, Seq-TInSAR 모듈은 동위 평균 해수면 평균으로 비정상적인 해수면 추세를 보이는 100 개의 조위 관측소에 적용된다. 조위 관측소 지점별로 60 ~ 70 개의 Sentinel-1 A / B SLC 영상을 획득하고 300 ~ 350 개의 시계열 간섭계 영상을 처리하여 조위 관측소에서 VLM을 추정하였다. 정량적인 VLM 속도와 시계열 VLM은 선정한 조위 관측소에 대해 추정하였다. VLM 속도을 기반으로 본 연구에서 도출한 조위 관측소는 다양한 VLM 범위로 분류된다. 12 개의 조위 관측소에서 취득한 현장 GPS 관측 자료를 InSAR로부터 추정한 VLM 비율과 비교하여 강력한 상관성을 찾았고, 이는 본 연구에서 제안한 접근 방식이 조위 관측소에서 VLM의 공간적 및 시간적 변화를 측정하는데 신뢰할 수 있는 자료로 사용될 수 있음을 시사한다.Chapter 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Brief overview of sea-level rise 1 1.2. Motivations 4 1.3. Purpose of Research 9 1.4. Outline 12 Chapter 2. Sea Level variations and Estimation of Vertical land motion 14 2.1. Sea level variations 14 2.2. Sea level observations 14 2.3. Long term sea level estimation 19 2.4. Factors contributing tide gauge records: Vertical Land Motion 19 2.5. Brief overview of InSAR and Time-series SAR Interferometry 24 Chapter 3. Vertical Land Motion estimation at Tide gauge using Time-series PS-InSAR technique: A case study for Pohang tide gauge 36 3.1. Background 36 3.2. VLM estimation at Pohang tide gauge using StaMPS-PSI analysis 38 3.3. Development of StaMPS-SBAS InSAR using Sequential InSAR pair selection suitable for coastal environments 55 3.4. Discussion 80 Chapter 4. Application of time-series Sequential-SBAS InSAR for Vertical Land Motion estimation at selected tide gauges around the world using Sentinel-1 SAR data 85 4.1. Description of PSMSL tide gauge data 87 4.2. Sentinel-1 A/B SAR data acquisitions 92 4.3. Automatic Time-series InSAR processing module ”Seq-TInSAR” 93 4.4. Results: Estimation of vertical land motions at selected tide gauges 97 4.5. Comparison of InSAR results with GNSS observations 112 4.6. Discussion 125 Chapter 5. Conclusions and Future Perspectives 128 Abstract in Korean 133 Appendix – A 136 Appendix – B 146 Bibliography 151박

Application of Differential and Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Interferometry for Studying Natural Hazards

In the following work, I address the problem of coherence loss in standard Differential Interferometric SAR (DInSAR) processing, which can result in incomplete or poor quality deformation measurements in some areas. I incorporate polarimetric information with DInSAR in a technique called Polarimetric SAR Interferometry (PolInSAR) in order to acquire more accurate and detailed maps of surface deformation. In Chapter 2, I present a standard DInSAR study of the Ahar double earthquakes (Mw=6.4 and 6.2) which occurred in northwest Iran, August 11, 2012. The DInSAR coseismic deformation map was affected by decorrelation noise. Despite this, I employed an advanced inversion technique, in combination with a Coulomb stress analysis, to find the geometry and the slip distribution on the ruptured fault plane. The analysis shows that the two earthquakes most likely occurred on a single fault, not on conjugate fault planes. This further implies that the minor strike-slip faults play more significant role in accommodating convergence stress accumulation in the northwest part of Iran. Chapter 3 presents results from the application of PolInSAR coherence optimization on quad-pol RADARSAT-2 images. The optimized solution results in the identification of a larger number of reliable measurement points, which otherwise are not recognized by the standard DInSAR technique. I further assess the quality of the optimized interferometric phase, which demonstrates an increased phase quality with respect to those phases recovered by applying standard DInSAR alone. Chapter 4 discusses results from the application of PolInSAR coherence optimization from different geometries to the study of creep on the Hayward fault and landslide motions near Berkeley, CA. The results show that the deformation rates resolved by PolInSAR are in agreement with those of standard DInSAR. I also infer that there is potential motion on a secondary fault, northeast and parallel to the Hayward fault, which may be creeping with a lower velocity

Sentinel-1 data exploitation for terrain deformation monitoring

Persistent Scatterer interferometry (PSI) is a group of advanced differential interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) techniques used to measure and monitor terrain deformation. Sentinel-1 has improved the data acquisition throughout and, compared to previous sensors, increased considerably the Differential Interferometric SAR (DInSAR) and PSI deformation monitoring potential. The effect of the refractive atmosphere on the interferometric phase and phase unwrapping ambiguity are two critical issues of InSAR. The low density of Persistent Scatterer (PS) in non-urban areas, another critical issue, has inspired the development of alternative approaches and refinement of the PS chains. Along with the efforts to develop methods to mitigate the three above-mentioned problems, the work presented in this thesis also deals with the presence of a new signal in multilooked interferograms which cannot be explained by noise, atmospheric or earth surface topography changes. This paper describes a method for atmospheric phase screen estimation using rain station weather data and three different data driven procedures to obtain terrain deformation maps. These approaches aim to exploit Sentinel-1 highly coherent interferograms and their short revisit time. The first method called the splitting makes uses of the power spectrum of the interferograms to split the signals into high and low frequency, and following a mutually exclusive consecutive processing chain for the two sets. This approach has resulted in greater density of PSs with decreased phase unwrapping errors. The second approach, called Direct Integration (DI), aims at providing a very fast and straightforward approach to screen wide areas and easily detect active areas. This approach fully exploits the coherent interferograms from the consecutive images provided by Sentinel-1 resulting in a very high sampling density. However, it lacks robustness and its usability lays on the operator experience. The third method, called PSIG (Persistent Scatterer Interferometry Geomatics) short temporal baseline, provides a constrained application of the PSIG chain, the CTTC approach to the PSI. It uses short temporal baseline interferograms and do not assume any deformation model for point selection. It is also quite a straightforward approach and a perfect complement to the direct integration approach. It improves the performances of the standard PSIG approach, increasing the PS density and providing robust measurements. The effectiveness of the approaches is illustrated through analyses performed on different test sites.La técnica Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) es un grupo de técnicas avanzadas de radar de apertura sintética interferométrica diferencial (SAR) que se utiliza para medir y monitorear losmovimientos del terreno. Sentinel-1 ha mejorado sensiblemente la adquisición de datos y, en comparación con los sensores SAR anteriores, ha aumentado considerablemente el potencial uso de la interferometría diferencial SAR y del PSI para medir y monitorizar desplazamientos del terreno. El efecto de la atmósfera sobre la fase interferométrica y la naturaleza ambigua de esta son dos cuestiones críticas de InSAR. Además, la baja densidad de Persistent Scatterer (PSs) en áreas no urbanas, es otro tema crítico que ha inspirado el desarrollo de enfoques alternativos y el refinamiento de las cadenas PS existentes. Junto con los esfuerzos por desarrollar métodos para mitigar los tres problemas antes mencionados, el trabajo presentado en esta tesis también aborda la presencia de una nueva señal en interferogramas multilooked que no puede explicarse por cambios de ruido, atmosféricos o topográficos de la superficie terrestre. Esta tesis describe un método para la estimación de la fase atmosférica utilizando datos meteorológicos adquiridos in-situ y tres aproximaciones diferentes basadas en datos Sentinel-1 para obtener mapas de deformación del terreno. Estos enfoques tienen como objetivo explotar los interferogramas altamente coherentes proporcionados por Sentinel-1 gracias a su corto tiempo de revisita. El primer método llamado división hace uso de filtros en el dominico frecuencial de los interferogramas para dividir las señales en alta y baja frecuencia, y siguiendo una cadena de procesamiento consecutiva independiente para cada clase. Este enfoque ha dado como resultado una mejora substancial de PS minimizando los errores debidos al desenrollado de fase. El segundo enfoque, llamado Integración Directa (DI), tiene como objetivo proporcionar un enfoque muy rápido y sencillo para examinar áreas amplias y detectar fácilmente áreas activas. Este enfoque aprovecha al máximo los interferogramas coherentes de las imágenes consecutivas proporcionadas por Sentinel-1, lo que da como resultado una densidad de muestreo muy alta. Sin embargo, carece de robustez y su usabilidad depende de la experiencia del operador. El tercer método, llamado PSIG (Persistent Scatterer Interferometry Geomatics) de línea de base temporal corta, proporciona una aplicación restringida de la cadena PSIG, el enfoque CTTC para el PSI. Utiliza interferogramas de línea base temporales cortos y no asume ningún modelo de deformación para la selección de puntos. Su uso es complementario al enfoque de integración directa proporcionando robustez en las zonas. Mejora el rendimiento del enfoque estándar de PSIG, aumentando la densidad de PS y proporcionando mediciones robustas. La efectividad de los enfoques se ilustra a través de análisis realizados en diferentes sitios de prueba.Postprint (published version