Spaceborne Radarinterferometry - A Promising Technology for Monitoring of Onshore CO2 Storage Sites in Europe

Abstract

Spaceborne radarinterferometry has demonstrated its capability for detection of surface movements in mm-range caused by injection and production of CO2 in projects like In Salah in the Algerian desert. In this work the method was analyzed regarding its potential for the monitoring of CO2 storage sites in Central Europe. Because of the lack of commercial CO2 storage sites in Central Europe a natural gas storage site was chosen. Forest, agricultural areas and smaller settlements resulted in an inhomogenous density and distribution of points with surface movement information. The use of high resolution TerraSAR-X SAR data together with a sophisticated processing approach finally lead to results, which clearly showed the periodical surface movement behavior. This was also expected from pressure decrease and increase caused by the production and storage of the gas during the year. Through correlation with known time series of underground pressure the part of the storage site has been delineated, which is influenced by production and injection of the natural gas – compliant with the known geological structure of the storage site. The results clearly demonstrate that spaceborne radarinterferometry can play an important role in monitoring plans for future CO2 storage sites – even under Central European conditions.