Mapping three-dimensional surface deformation caused by the 2010 Haiti earthquake using advanced satellite radar interferometry.

Hyung-Sup Jung,Soo-Min Hong,João Miguel Dias

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0188286

Abstract

Mapping three-dimensional (3D) surface deformation caused by an earthquake is very important for the environmental, cultural, economic and social sustainability of human beings. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems made it possible to measure precise 3D deformations by combining SAR interferometry (InSAR) and multiple aperture interferometry (MAI). In this paper, we retrieve the 3D surface deformation field of the 2010 Haiti earthquake which occurred on January 12, 2010 by a magnitude 7.0 Mw by using the advanced interferometric technique that integrates InSAR and MAI data. The surface deformation has been observed by previous researchers using the InSAR and GPS method, but 3D deformation has not been measured yet due to low interferometric coherence. The combination of InSAR and MAI were applied to the ALOS PALSAR ascending and descending pairs, and were validated with the GPS in-situ measurements. The archived measurement accuracy was as little as 1.85, 5.49 and 3.08 cm in the east, north and up directions, respectively. This result indicates that the InSAR/MAI-derived 3D deformations are well matched with the GPS deformations. The 3D deformations are expected to allow us to improve estimation of the area affected by the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Highlights

For advances in the geological interpretation of geohazards such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, three-dimensional (3D) surface deformation mapping has been becoming increasingly more essential
We will sketch out the advanced multiple aperture interferometry (MAI) method for ALOS PALSAR interferometry
To observe the surface deformation caused by the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the InSAR and MAI methods were applied to the ascending and descending ALOS PALSAR interferometric pairs

Summary

Introduction

For advances in the geological interpretation of geohazards such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, three-dimensional (3D) surface deformation mapping has been becoming increasingly more essential. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems enable us to measure 3D surface deformations precisely by combining SAR interferometry (InSAR) and multiple aperture interferometry (MAI) [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. The InSAR method has been successful in mapping ground surface deformations in the line-of-sight (LOS) direction over areas of thousands of square kilometers. InSAR has a limitation that it cannot measure the along-track deformation, which is approximate to the deformation in the North-South direction because most SAR satellites have near-polar orbits [2,4,5,6]. Since the InSAR method has a difficulty in measuring.

Methods

Results

Conclusion