Analysis of ocean tide loading in differential InSAR measurements

Abstract

Ocean tide loading (OTL) causes crustal displacements in coastal regions, and the relative variation of these ground displacements may reach several centimeters across differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar (DInSAR) interferograms. However, orbit errors seriously affect the analysis of long-wavelength crustal deformation signals such as the OTL effect because of their similar signatures in DInSAR interferograms. To correct the orbit errors, we used a linear surface model to model the relative displacements of the Global Positioning System (GPS) precise point positioning (PPP) in the line of sight (LOS) direction as a priori parameter of the long-wavelength crustal deformation signals. After correcting the orbit errors, an ocean tide model was applied to correct the OTL effect in the DInSAR interferograms. The proposed approach was verified with the DInSAR interferograms from the Los Angeles basin. The experimental results confirm that the real orbit errors can be modeled by the bilinear ramp function under the constraint of the priori parameter. Moreover, after removing the orbit errors, the OTL effect, which is dominant in the long-wavelength crustal deformation signals, can be revealed, and then be effectively eliminated by the FES2004 tide model.