Emerging InSar Applications For Observing the Dynamics of Earth Systems

Presenter

Ann Chen
Associate Professor
Aerospace Engineering and Earth and Planetary Science
University of Texas at Austin

Description

Over the past 60 years, Earth-observing radar satellite missions have generated a large volume of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data since 1992. Recently launched Sentinel-1 mission has generated InSAR data with global coverage and open access on a 6-12 day repeat cycle. The upcoming NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission is scheduled to launch in 2025, which will continue to provide high-quality InSAR data free of charge for scientific uses in the coming decades. In this talk, we will first discuss how to infer a broader range of properties of the earth’s surface and subsurface using InSAR. We will then focus on how to extract subtle (a few mm/year) deformation signals along the densely vegetated Gulf Coast from severely decorrelated InSAR observations. Storm surge simulations suggest that subsidence-induced land loss may substantially increase inundated area and maximum surge heights for future hurricanes.