SAR Interferometry Applications: the Outlook for Sub Millimeter Measurements

Optical leveling campaigns, tiltmeters, GPS and InSAR are geodetic techniques used to detect and monitor surface deformation phenomena. In particular, InSAR data from satellite radar sensors are gaining increasing attention for their cost-effectiveness and unique technical features, making it possible the monitoring of large areas, even revisiting the past. Moreover, more advanced InSAR techniques (PSInSARTM, SqueeSARTM) developed in the last decade are capable of providing millimeter precision, comparable to optical leveling, and a high spatial density of displacement measurements, over long periods of time without need of installing equipment or otherwise accessing the study area. Thanks to the high density and quality of the measurements the PSInSAR data can be successfully used in geophysical inversion, to measure the permeability of oil reservoirs and/or to evaluate the possibilities and risks due to seismic faulting in the sequestration of CO2. In these cases, the precision, the sub weekly frequency of the measurements and the time required for the data to be available are the most important aspects, more relevant than the spatial resolution.