Terry Schwarz's InSAR Page

After taking Matt Pritchard's EAS 731: Graduate seminar on Ground water, surface deformation and InSAR, I was inspired to take up an InSAR based investigation in Southeast Alaska, looking specifically at glacial dynamics and regional uplift due to isostatic rebound with Matt Pritchard (EAS) and Shannon Seifert (BEE).

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Abstract

An investigation of Southeast Alaska’s Juneau Icefield was undertaken using Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR).  The Juneau Icefield is one of the longest and most comprehensively studied icefields in North America (Pelto 1990). However, few remote sensing studies have been completed in this area (Ramage 2003) and no InSAR data been compiled.  Nine SAR images were acquired from the Alaska SAR Facility (ASF) for use in making four interferograms. European Radar Satellites (ERS-1/2) datasets from 1995 to 1996 were used in this study.  Interferograms were created for data sets with a span of only 1 day.  Coherence of data increased significantly as shorter time intervals were utilized.  Two pairs of ERS1/2 tandem data (one pair ascending and the other descending in orbit) from October 28th to 30th 1995, produced the highest coherence and therefore the most useful images. These two pairs of data were in opposing orbits (ascending and descending), which can be compiled into a 3-dimensional model in the future.  The relative success of investigation this data, warrants continued work with InSAR data from the dynamic Southeast Alaska region for short and possibly long term time spans.

Current Alaska InSAR References

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