Estimation the motion of Dongkemadi Glacier in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau using differential SAR interferometry with corner reflectors

Synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) has been proven to provide very useful information for the glacier movement. Although the main potential of InSAR for glacier movement estimation has been shown in several case studies, its successful application is often limited by decorrelation. Due to the back scattering characteristic change of the individual scatters on glacier surface, the coherence of glacier surface will be entirely missing for the long temporal baseline (such as 35 days or more). The corner reflectors, duo to their design, provide a very clear and stable target response (both amplitude and phase) to the radar at any acquisition time. They don´t suffer from decorrelation effects of conventional DInSAR [1-3]. In this paper, we first attempt to use the differential InSAR technique with corner reflectors (CR-DInSAR) to monitor and detect the motion of mountain glacier in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. This method will be more effective than the conventional D-InSAR, as well as nature persistent scatters method.