RADAR INTERFEROMETRY IN SURFACE DEFORMATION DETECTION WITH ORBITAL DATA

Abstract

In the last two decades, the advent of Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) technique has opened new perspectives in the use of orbital imaging radar for quantitative surface deformation measurements. In the last few years this trend was considerably expanded through the use of large stacks of SAR images collected over the same area, instead of the classical two interferometric acquisitions used in the standard configurations. Advanced DInSAR techniques are nowadays more quantitative geodetic tools rather than simple qualitative tools available for land deformation detection. The paper reviews the main SAR and INSAR concepts, the current availability of orbital SAR data, and addresses PSinSAR (Persistent Scatterer InSAR) and BAS (Small Baseline Subset), two innovative advanced forms of DInSAR for the detection of millimetric ground displacements in various application fields. Finally, perspectives on the use of these technologies in Brazil are emphasized.