Measuring two-dimensional movements using a single InSAR pair

Abstract

We present a new method to extract along-track displacements from InSAR data, based on split-beam InSAR processing, to create forward- and backward-looking interferograms. The phase difference between the two modified interferograms provides the along-track displacement component. Thus, from each conventional InSAR pair we extract two components of the displacement vector: one along the line of sight, the other in the along-track direction. We analyze the precision of the new method by comparing our solution to GPS and offset-derived along-track displacements in interferograms of the 1999, Hector Mine earthquake. The RMS- error between GPS displacements and our results ranges from 5 to 8.8cm. Our method is consistent with along-track displacements derived by pixel-offsets, which are limited to 12-15cm precision. The theoretical precision of the new method depends on SNR and coherence. For a signal to noise ratio of 30 the expected precisions are 3, 11cm for coherence of 0.8, 0.4, respectively. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.