Estimation of 3-D Surface Displacement Based on InSAR and Deformation Modeling

A new approach is presented for mapping 3-D surface displacement caused by subsurface fluid volumetric change based on 1-D interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) line-of-sight measurements and surface deformation modeling. The relationship between surface deformation and source fluid volumetric change is modeled according to elastic half-space theory. A distinctive advantage of the proposed approach is that it effectively extends the capability of the sun-synchronous orbit side-looking synthetic aperture radar that has been essentially only able to measure 1-D displacements accurately or at most 2-D displacements when InSAR measurements from more than one orbit or platform are combined. Experimental studies are carried out with both simulated and real data sets to test the performance of the method. The results have demonstrated that the approach works very well.