L-band and C-band combined interferometric monitoring of the wenchuan earthquake

Abstract

Satellite differential radar interferometry (DInSAR) has played a pivotal role in observing the ground deformation caused by seismic events in recent years. The Ms8.0 Wenchuan Earthquake occurred on 12 May 2008 have caused tremendous losses in lives and properties of the people in affected areas. In this paper, the surface co-seismic deformation field of the quake was mapped by the two-pass DInSAR technique. Several pairs of long strip PALSAR images and one pair of ASAR ScanSAR images were processed. The ascending (PALSAR) and descending (ASAR) results were combined to derive vertical and easting components of the co-seismic deformation field. According to the comparison between the vertical and easting deformation maps and the GPS observations, it is believed that the accuracy of the DInSAR measurement of the co-seismic deformation is affected by the atmospheric artifacts. Due to the reliable ASAR ScanSAR interferometric signals only exist in the area located at the southeast of the fault zone, more descending DInSAR results are required to obtain the vertical and easting co-seismic deformation field in the northeast. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.