Measurement of subresolution terrain displacements using SPOT panchromatic imagery

Abstract

It is shown that satellite-derived imagery can be used to measure subresolution horizontal terrain displacements associated with present-day earthquakes, sand dune migration, glacial motion, coastal sediment transport, and pre-eruptive volcanic processes. This use of these data allows the detection of change and the determination of rates of many environmental processes worldwide. The premise of the method is that areally extensive, subresolution spatial differences in ground patterns between images acquired at different times can be accurately measured to high precision and can be distinguished from systematic image differences, such as those due to sensing-system attitude variations. Thus far, a preliminary algorithm has been tested that shows that the approach is reasonable.