Generation of Advanced ERS and Envisat Interferometric SAR Products Using the Stable Point Network Technique

The advanced differential interferometric SAR techniques (A-DINSAR), based on time series of SAR images, are powerful geodetic tools for land deformation monitoring. This paper, which is focused on a particular A-DINSAR technique, named Stable Point Network, concisely outlines its characteristics and describes its products: average deformation maps, deformation time series, and the maps of the residual topographic error used to precisely geocode the A-DINSAR products. Furthermore, it illustrates the performance of the technique on a test area located in Barcelona, Spain. From this experiment, interesting features are highlighted: the capability to cover wide areas and at the same time measuring thin infrastructures, such as the main dike of the port; the good agreement between the deformation velocities and the reference values coming from leveling campaigns; the high sensitivity of the A-DINSAR estimations, which can measure millimeter-level periodical deformations due to thermal dilation, and the precise geocoding of the A-DINSAR products.