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InSAR for Earthquake Deformation Observation

A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Remote Sensing in Geology, Geomorphology and Hydrology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 February 2022) | Viewed by 21319

Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As one of the most dangerous geohazards in the world, earthquakes pose great threats to human life, property, and economic and social developments. It has been acknowledged that ground deformation measurements, especially considering the complete three-dimensional framework, can be used to infer manifestations of earthquakes, which provide significant information improving our understanding of earthquakes, such as triggering mechanisms, slip distribution, the evaluation of disaster risk, and the assessment of disaster management. Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), characterized by the performance of measuring high-resolution, small gradient of deformations in a large coverage without any ground auxiliary, has been developed as a routine technique for the monitoring of earthquakes. InSAR measurements have recently contributed to almost all of the significant land earthquakes, e.g., the 2008 Wenchuan and 2010 Yushu earthquakes in China, the 2011 Tohoko and 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes in Japan, and the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake in New Zealand. More importantly, deformations occurring throughout the whole earthquake cycle, including inter-seismic, co-seismic, and post-seismic periods, are measurable by InSAR, and the stress transfer and active tectonic process can be investigated using these data by employing geophysical models.

For this Special Issue, we are soliciting contributions covering the methods, applications and reviews of InSAR observations based on the monitoring/interpretation/modeling of any stage of the earthquake cycle (i.e., inter-seismic, co-seismic, and post-seismic periods). The InSAR observations referred to here include both the phase and amplitude information from spaceborne, airborne, and ground-based SAR sensors and their combinations with other geodetic and remote sensing measurements. The abovementioned issues represent a portion of possible topics in which we are interested, but the list is not exhaustive. Other significant contributions with related to InSAR are also welcome.

Prof. Dr. Jun Hu
Prof. Dr. Teng Wang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • InSAR
  • time series InSAR
  • earthquake
  • co-/inter-/post-seismic deformation
  • three-dimensional deformations
  • geophysical inverse model
  • active fault
  • slip distribution

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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15 pages, 7065 KiB  
Article
Fault Geometry and Mechanism of the Mw 5.7 Nakchu Earthquake in Tibet Inferred from InSAR Observations and Stress Measurements
by Yujiang Li, Yongsheng Li, Xingping Hu and Haoqing Liu
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(24), 5142; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13245142 - 17 Dec 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3670
Abstract
Different types of focal mechanism solutions for the 19 March 2021 Mw 5.7 Nakchu earthquake, Tibet, limit our understanding of this earthquake’s seismogenic mechanism and geodynamic process. In this study, the coseismic deformation field was determined and the geometric parameters of the seismogenic [...] Read more.
Different types of focal mechanism solutions for the 19 March 2021 Mw 5.7 Nakchu earthquake, Tibet, limit our understanding of this earthquake’s seismogenic mechanism and geodynamic process. In this study, the coseismic deformation field was determined and the geometric parameters of the seismogenic fault were inverted via Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) processing of Sentinel-1 data. The inversion results show that the focal mechanism solutions of the Nakchu earthquake are 237°/69°/−70° (strike/dip/rake), indicating that the seismogenic fault is a NEE-trending, NW-dipping fault dominated by the normal faulting with minor sinistral strike-slip components. The regional tectonic stress field derived from the in-situ stress measurements shows that the orientation of maximum principal compressive stress around the epicenter of the Nakchu earthquake is NNE, subparallel to the fault strike, which controlled the dominant normal faulting. The occurrence of seven M ≥ 7.0 historical earthquakes since the M 7.0 Shenza earthquake in 1934 caused a stress increase of 1.16 × 105 Pa at the hypocenter, which significantly advanced the occurrence of the Nakchu earthquake. Based on a comprehensive analysis of stress fields and focal mechanisms of the Nakchu earthquake, we propose that the dominated normal faulting occurs to accommodate the NE-trending compression of the Indian Plate to the Eurasian Plate and the strong historical earthquakes hastened the process. These results provide a theoretical basis for understanding the geometry and mechanics of the seismogenic fault that produced the Nakchu earthquake. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue InSAR for Earthquake Deformation Observation)
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18 pages, 14486 KiB  
Article
Parameterized Modeling and Calibration for Orbital Error in TanDEM-X Bistatic SAR Interferometry over Complex Terrain Areas
by Huiqiang Wang, Yushan Zhou, Haiqiang Fu, Jianjun Zhu, Yanan Yu, Ruiping Li, Shengwei Zhang, Zhongyi Qu and Shouzhong Hu
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(24), 5124; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13245124 - 17 Dec 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2758
Abstract
The TerraSAR-X add-on for Digital Elevation Measurements (TanDEM-X) bistatic system provides high-resolution and high-quality interferometric data for global topographic measurement. Since the twin TanDEM-X satellites fly in a close helix formation, they can acquire approximately simultaneous synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, so that [...] Read more.
The TerraSAR-X add-on for Digital Elevation Measurements (TanDEM-X) bistatic system provides high-resolution and high-quality interferometric data for global topographic measurement. Since the twin TanDEM-X satellites fly in a close helix formation, they can acquire approximately simultaneous synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, so that temporal decorrelation and atmospheric delay can be ignored. Consequently, the orbital error becomes the most significant error limiting high-resolution SAR interferometry (InSAR) applications, such as the high-precision digital elevation model (DEM) reconstruction, subway and highway deformation monitoring, landslide monitoring and sub-canopy topography inversion. For rugged mountainous areas, in particular, it is difficult to estimate and correct the orbital phase error in TanDEM-X bistatic InSAR. Based on the rigorous InSAR geometric relationship, the orbital phase error can be attributed to the baseline errors (BEs) after fixing the positions of the master SAR sensor and the targets on the ground surface. For the constraint of the targets at a study scene, the freely released TanDEM-X DEM can be used, due to its consistency with the TanDEM-X bistatic InSAR-measured height. As a result, a parameterized model for the orbital phase error estimation is proposed in this paper. In high-resolution and high-precision TanDEM-X bistatic InSAR processing, due to the limited precision of the navigation systems and the uneven baseline changes caused by the helix formation, the BEs are time-varying in most cases. The parameterized model is thus built and estimated along each range line. To validate the proposed method, two mountainous test sites located in China (i.e., Fuping in Shanxi province and Hetang in Hunan province) were selected. The obtained results show that the orbital phase errors of the bistatic interferograms over the two test sites are well estimated. Compared with the widely applied polynomial model, the residual phase corrected by the proposed method contains little undesirable topography-dependent phase error, and avoids unexpected height errors ranging about from −6 m to 3 m for the Fuping test site and from −10 m to 8 m for the Hetang test site. Furthermore, some fine details, such as ridges and valleys, can be clearly identified after the correction. In addition, the two components of the orbital phase error, i.e., the residual flat-earth phase error and the topographic phase error caused by orbital error, are separated and quantified based on the parameterized expression. These demonstrate that the proposed method can be used to accurately estimate and mitigate the orbital phase error in TanDEM-X bistatic InSAR data, which increases the feasibility of reconstructing high-resolution and high-precision DEM. The rigorous geometric constraint, the refinement of the initial baseline parameters, and the assessment for height errors based on the estimated BEs are investigated in the discussion section of this paper. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue InSAR for Earthquake Deformation Observation)
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14 pages, 3684 KiB  
Technical Note
Three-Dimensional Surface Displacements of the 8 January 2022 Mw6.7 Menyuan Earthquake, China from Sentinel-1 and ALOS-2 SAR Observations
by Jihong Liu, Jun Hu, Zhiwei Li, Zhangfeng Ma, Jianwen Shi, Wenbin Xu and Qian Sun
Remote Sens. 2022, 14(6), 1404; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14061404 - 14 Mar 2022
Cited by 39 | Viewed by 4629
Abstract
The 8 January 2022 Mw6.7 Menyuan earthquake was generated in the transition zone between the western Lenglongling fault and the eastern Tuolaishan fault, both being part of the Qilian–Haiyuan fault system with an important role in the adjustment of the regional tectonic regime. [...] Read more.
The 8 January 2022 Mw6.7 Menyuan earthquake was generated in the transition zone between the western Lenglongling fault and the eastern Tuolaishan fault, both being part of the Qilian–Haiyuan fault system with an important role in the adjustment of the regional tectonic regime. In this study, four pairs of SAR (synthetic aperture radar) data from Sentinel-1 and ALOS-2 (Advanced Land Observation Satellite-2) satellites were used to derive the surface displacement observations along the satellite line-of-sight (LOS) and azimuth directions using the differential interferometric SAR (InSAR, DInSAR), pixel offset-tracking (POT), multiple aperture InSAR (MAI), and burst overlap InSAR (BOI) methods. An SM-VCE method (i.e., a method for measuring three-dimensional (3D) surface displacements with InSAR based on a strain model and variance component estimation) was employed to combine these derived SAR displacement observations to calculate the 3D co-seismic displacements. Results indicate that the 2022 Menyuan earthquake was dominated by left-lateral slip, and the maximum horizontal and vertical displacements were 1.9 m and 0.6 m, respectively. The relative horizontal surface displacement across the fault was as large as 2–3 m, and the fault-parallel displacement magnitude was larger on the southern side of the fault compared with the northern side. Furthermore, three co-seismic strain invariants were also investigated, revealing that the near-fault area suffered severe deformation, and two obviously expanding and compressed zones were identified. We provide displacements/strains derived in this study in the prevailing geotiff format, which will be useful for the broad community studying this earthquake; in addition, the SM-VCE code used in this study is open to the public so that readers can better understand the method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue InSAR for Earthquake Deformation Observation)
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10 pages, 15672 KiB  
Technical Note
Coseismic Slip Model of the 2021 Maduo Earthquake, China from Sentinel-1 InSAR Observation
by Xiaopeng Tong, Xiaohua Xu and Shi Chen
Remote Sens. 2022, 14(3), 436; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14030436 - 18 Jan 2022
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 4085
Abstract
The 2021 Maduo earthquake occurred in the interior of the Bayan Har block of the Tibetan Plateau. We used space-born radar interferometry to study the coseismic deformation of this earthquake. Sentinel-1 InSAR observations along ascending and descending orbits provide the coseismic deformation. Pixel [...] Read more.
The 2021 Maduo earthquake occurred in the interior of the Bayan Har block of the Tibetan Plateau. We used space-born radar interferometry to study the coseismic deformation of this earthquake. Sentinel-1 InSAR observations along ascending and descending orbits provide the coseismic deformation. Pixel offset tracking method is used to complement InSAR observations near the rupture zone. The surface trace of the ruptured fault can be clearly mapped by InSAR observations. We constructed a three-dimensional coseismic slip model constrained by interferograms and pixel offset tracking in the form of a geodetic inverse problem. The coseismic slip model demonstrates that: (1) the Maduo earthquake was a left-lateral strike-slip event with moment magnitude of 7.4; (2) the peak slip is approximately 8 m and is located at a depth of 4 km; (3) a ‘shallow slip deficit’ of the Maduo earthquake is observed; (4) the ruptured faults are found to be dipping northward with a high dipping angle (80 degrees). This study has important implications on earthquake hazard evaluation of the Bayan Har block. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue InSAR for Earthquake Deformation Observation)
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10 pages, 2505 KiB  
Technical Note
Detecting and Analyzing the Displacement of a Small-Magnitude Earthquake Cluster in Rong County, China by the GACOS Based InSAR Technology
by Liang Zhao, Rubing Liang, Xianlin Shi, Keren Dai, Jianhua Cheng and Junxing Cao
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(20), 4137; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13204137 - 15 Oct 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2725
Abstract
A series of small-magnitude earthquakes (Mw 2.9~Mw 4.9) occurred in Rong County, Sichuan Province, China between 30 March 2018 and December 2020, which threatened the safety of local residents. Determining the surface displacement and estimating the damage caused by these earthquakes [...] Read more.
A series of small-magnitude earthquakes (Mw 2.9~Mw 4.9) occurred in Rong County, Sichuan Province, China between 30 March 2018 and December 2020, which threatened the safety of local residents. Determining the surface displacement and estimating the damage caused by these earthquakes are significant for earthquake relief, post-earthquake disaster assessment and hazard elimination. This paper integrates the Generic Atmospheric Correction Online Service (GACOS) with interferometry synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) to accurately detect the displacement of the series of small-magnitude earthquakes in Rong County based on 45 Sentinel-1 ascending/descending images acquired from January 2018 to December 2020. We analyze the influence of some factors involved in surface displacement, including earthquake magnitude, focal depth and the distance from the epicenter to the fault. The above measurement for small-magnitude earthquakes and statistics analysis for the displacement have not been performed before, so this can help better understand the displacement features of small-magnitude earthquakes, which are important for post-earthquake hazard assessment and disaster prevention. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue InSAR for Earthquake Deformation Observation)
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