Geo-Hazard Detection and Monitoring Using SAR and Optical Images in a Snow-Covered Area: The Menyuan (China) Test Site

Abstract

In this work, we combine SAR and optical images for geo-hazard detection and monitoring in Western China. An extremely small baseline of C-band SAR image pairs acquired from Sentinel-1A at Menyuan, China, is analyzed. Apart from the large area of coseismal deformation, we proposed an earthquake-derived landslide detecting method by removing the coseismal deformation with polynomial fitting, then the detected moving areas were confirmed with Chinese Gaofen-1 optical satellite images. Sentinel-1A C-band interferograms show about a 7-cm line of sight movement caused by the MS 6.4 Menyuan earthquake; meanwhile, several features indicative of ground movement were detected by the proposed method and demonstrated by the Gaofen-1 optical images; the interpretation of high-resolution optical data complemented the goal of better understanding the behavior of geo-hazard disasters. InSAR time series analysis provides an opportunity for continuous monitoring of geo-hazards in remote areas, while the optical image method is easily affected by decorrelation due to snowfall.

Keywords

• Menyuan MS 6.4 earthquake
• SAR interferometry
• Sentinel-1
• Gaofen-1 satellite
• geo-hazards