Ground Displacement Measurement by TerraSAR-X Image Correlation: The 2011 Tohoku-Oki Earthquake

Author

Yague-Martinez, Nestor ; Eineder, Michael ; Cong, Xiao Ying ; Minet, Christian

Author_Institution

Dept. of SAR Signal Process., Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt, Wessling, Germany

Volume

9

Issue

4

fYear

2012

fDate

7/1/2012 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

539

Lastpage

543

Abstract

Japan was struck by an M9.0 megathrust earthquake on March 11, 2011. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images from the TerraSAR-X satellite have been used to generate a ground motion map by means of correlation techniques. Geophysical corrections due to solid Earth tide and atmospheric path delay effects have been applied. These corrections can reach up to 20 cm in the radar line of sight. Using this approach, absolute displacements in the radar line of sight and in the satellite flight direction are determined. This letter shows the potential of correlation techniques for ground motion monitoring and a comparison with the interferometric technique. Using multiple scenes, a wide area displacement map is generated and quantitatively compared with GPS data, showing a divergence of about 15 cm.

Keywords

earthquakes; remote sensing by radar; AD 2011 03 11; GPS data; TerraSAR-X Image correlation; TerraSAR-X satellite; Tohoku-Oki earthquake; atmospheric path delay; correlation techniques; ground displacement measurement; ground motion map; ground motion monitoring; interferometric technique; megathrust earthquake; radar line-of-sight; solid Earth tide; synthetic aperture radar images; Azimuth; Correlation; Earth; Geophysical measurements; Global Positioning System; Synthetic aperture radar; Tides; Differential synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry (DInSAR); SAR; earthquakes; image correlation; speckle tracking;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1545-598X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LGRS.2012.2196020

Filename

6198864