Wide area Persistent Scatterer Interferometry: Current developments, algorithms and examples

In recent years, Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) [1], [2] has been widely used for scientific applications and has developed into an operational and commercially rewarding remote sensing technology. Now, ESA´s upcoming Sentinel-1 mission allows a continuous, repeated without gap and global mapping of the Earth´s surface based on Terrain Observation by Progressive Scans (TOPS). The idea at ESA is to also extend PSI processing to such large coverages, mapping countries and continents. This will support users in subsidence monitoring of volcanic and seismogenic areas, of costal lowland, of landslides in mountainous areas and of mining and ground water regulation on a small scale. For this reason, a wide area product (WAP) for PSI monitoring has been developed at DLR. The paper has three specific objectives. The first objective is to list and describe the updated algorithms. In this context, we illustrate the improvement with respective processing examples. Our second objective is to explain the characteristics of the WAP. The last objective is to provide WAP processing results for seismogenic areas. The test cases of Greece and of Turkey demonstrate WAPs potential, its applicability and use.