DEFORMATION MONITORING AT EUROPEAN SCALE: THE COPERNICUS GROUND MOTION SERVICE

Abstract

The Advanced Differential Interferometric SAR (A-DInSAR) technique is a class of powerful techniques to monitor ground motion. In the last two decades, the A-DInSAR technique has undergone an important development in terms of processing algorithms and the capability to monitor wide areas. This has been accompanied by an important increase of the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data acquisition capability by spaceborne sensors. An important step forward was the launch of the Copernicus Sentinel-1 constellation. The development of A-DInSAR based ground deformation services is now technically feasible. This paper describes some of the most important features of A-DInSAR. Then, it describes the European Ground Motion Service (EGMS), part of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, which represents a unique initiative for performing ground deformation monitoring on a European scale.