Weather model based atmospheric corrections of Sentinel-1 InSAR deformation data at Turkish volcanoes

SUMMARY One of the main constraints on the use of satellite radar data for monitoring natural hazards is the existence of atmospheric signals. In particular, volcanic deformation can be difficult to identify because atmospheric phase delays can mask or even mimic ground deformation signals. Eliminat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Journal International
Main Authors: Dogru, Fikret, Albino, Fabien, Biggs, Juliet
Other Authors: NERC, ERC, MAST
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Oxford University Press (OUP) 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggad070
https://academic.oup.com/gji/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/gji/ggad070/49201825/ggad070.pdf
https://academic.oup.com/gji/article-pdf/234/1/280/49404775/ggad070.pdf
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Summary:SUMMARY One of the main constraints on the use of satellite radar data for monitoring natural hazards is the existence of atmospheric signals. In particular, volcanic deformation can be difficult to identify because atmospheric phase delays can mask or even mimic ground deformation signals. Eliminating atmospheric signals is particularly crucial for high-relief volcanoes such as Ağrı, Tendürek, Acigöl, Göllüdağ and Hasandağ in the Eastern and Central Anatolia. To overcome the atmospheric effects, we use high-resolution ECMWF weather models coupled with an empirical phase-elevation approach for correcting Sentinel-1 interferograms. We apply these methods to two areas of Turkey, the first of which covers three volcanoes in Central Anatolia (Acigöl, Göllüdağ, Hasandağ) between January 2016 and December 2018 and the second covers two volcanoes in Eastern Anatolia (Ağrı, Tendürek) between September 2016 and December 2018. The reduction in standard deviation (quality factor) is calculated for both ascending and descending tracks and the atmospheric corrections are found to perform better on descending interferograms in both cases. Then, we use a least-squares approach to produce a time-series. For Central Anatolia, we used 416 ascending and 415 descending interferograms to create 144 and 145 cumulative displacement maps, respectively, and for Eastern Anatolia, we used 390 ascending and 380 descending interferograms to produce 137 and 130 cumulative displacement maps, respectively. We find that the temporal standard deviation before atmospheric corrections ranges between 0.9 and 3.7 cm for the five volcanoes in the region and is consistently higher on ascending track data, which is acquired at the end of the day when solar heating is greatest. Atmospheric correction reduces the standard deviation to 0.5–2.5 cm. Residual signals might be due to the ice-cap at Ağrı and agriculture near Acigöl. We conclude that these volcanoes did not experience significant magmatic deformation during this time period, despite the ...