Monitoring Earth surface displacements through spaceborne radar interferometry techniques

Spaceborne Differential SAR Interferometry (DInSAR) is a widely used remote sensing technique to measure Earth surface displacements with high accuracy. The diffusion of DInSAR has been possible thanks to the long-term availability of satellite constellations that regularly acquire SAR data over the Earth at different carrier frequencies and spatial resolutions. Recently, the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, which marked its 10th anniversary last year, has further provided the remote sensing community with an unprecedented flood of systematically acquired, format standardized, and open-access data takes. This enabled a shift towards the implementation of monitoring services operating at local and global scale.

In this work, we present an overview of the state-of-the-art of operational DInSAR services aimed at detecting ground displacements induced by various natural (e.g., earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides) and anthropogenic (e.g., gas storage, geothermal exploitation) phenomena at different scales. We also highlight initiatives, primarily the European Plate Observing System (EPOS), that allow the sharing of DInSAR measurements with the wider scientific community, ensuring data reproducibility and knowledge exchange.

Furthermore, we show how the DInSAR measurements can be integrated into civil protection frameworks for hazard evaluation and risk management and mitigation.

Finally, we explore the near-future DInSAR landscape where the availability of the new NISAR, ROSE-L (L-Band) and IRIDE (X-Band) constellations will significantly enhance the ground displacement detection capabilities, further improving our understanding and management of the phenomena under study.

 

This work has been partly funded by the Italian DPC, in the frame of IREA-DPC (2025–2027) agreement, the HE EPOS-ON (GA 101131592), and the EU-NextGeneratonEU ICSC - CN-HPC - PNRR M4C2 Investimento 1.4 - CN00000013 project.