A two-scale differential SAR interferometry approach for investigating earth surface deformations

This paper presents a DIFSAR approach that allows us to detect and follow the temporal evolution of surface deformations at different spatial scales. In particular, our solution extends the capability of the algorithm referred to as small baseline subsets (SBAS) technique (Berardino et al., 2002), and allows us to investigate large scale deformation phenomena as well as displacements of single buildings or structures. The proposed technique relies on small baseline DIFSAR interferograms only, in order to mitigate the decorrelation phenomena, and requires two different sets of data generated at low (multi-look) and high (single-look) spatial resolution, respectively. The algorithm has been tested with the data acquired by the European Remote Sensing (ERS) satellites which are relative to the city of Napoli (Italy) and surroundings; the results have been validated by using geodetic data.