Dear Colleagues,

Until today, measuring slow ground deformations in mountainous areas with Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) has been challenging, in large part due to the sporadic nature of the available acquisitions. The recent launch of the new generation of SAR satellites (e.g ESA’s Sentinel-1, JAXA’s ALOS-2) brings a new paradigm in Earth Science using space-based geodesy to measure at larger scale, with better temporal resolution, and in both ascending and descending view angles subtle ground movements in remote, vast and largely inaccessible regions of the Earth. This wealth of data has resulted in enormous scientific opportunities and challenges with applications to a variety of processes affecting the surface of the Earth and the measured phase delays. These domains of applications include seismic and aseismic fault processes, an-elastic deformation of the crust, volcanoes, landslides, groundwater depletion, soil moisture changes, isostatic adjustment due to lake level changes, permafrost active layer dynamics, hydrology and anthropogenic activities. 

In this Special Issue, we solicit contributions detailing methods and strategies that address these opportunities and challenges or exploit SAR data to better understand how lithospheric and surface processes reshape the Earth’s surface and create natural changes and hazards. We are inviting the submission of articles focusing on: 

(1) The development of new processing techniques that take advantage of the wealth of SAR data, leading to the generation of large-scale LOS or 3-dimensional velocity maps, or time-dependent surface displacement maps.

(2) The discussion of InSAR processing challenges, such as source separation, atmospheric phase delay corrections, or time series biases due to soil moisture changes, vegetation growth, snow, and abrupt changes of ground properties.  

(3) The observations and measurements with InSAR of slow (few mm/yr) steady-state surface displacements or episodic changes of ground surface displacements. 

Dr. Simon Daout
Dr. Benedetta Dini
Dr. Cécile Lasserre
Guest Editors

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• InSAR
• slow and episodic ground motion
• source separation
• tectonic
• landslides
• permafrost