Detecting subsidence in coastal areas by ultrashort-baseline TCPInSAR on the time series of high-resolution TerraSAR-X images

In this paper, we present an improved approach of the multitemporal interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) for detecting land subsidence in coastal areas by using the time series of high-resolution SAR images. In particular, our algorithm extends the capability of the temporarily coherent point InSAR (TCPInSAR) technique that can be used to detect subsidence even in the case of a small number of SAR images available for a study area. The proposed approach is implemented by using the interferograms with ultrashort spatial baselines (USBs) through several procedures, including the selection of USB interferometric pairs, TCP identification, TCP networking and modeling, as well as TCP solution by a least squares estimator. As the topographic effects in coastal areas are negligible in the USB interferograms, an external digital elevation model is no longer necessary for differential processing, thus simplifying both TCP modeling and parameter estimating. The USB-based TCPInSAR algorithm has been tested with the high-resolution TerraSAR-X images acquired over Tianjin (close to Bohai Bay) in China, and validated by using the ground-based leveling measurements. The testing results indicate that the density and coverage extent of TCPs can be increased dramatically by using the proposed algorithm, and the quality of subsidence measurements derived by the USB-based TCPInSAR can be raised.