A First Quantitative Assessment of the P-SBAS Approach Capability to Retrieve SAOCOM-1 DlnSAR Deformation Time Series over the Italian Territory

Abstract:
We investigate the capability to generate, from the L-band SAR images acquired by the Argentinian SAOCOM-1 constellation, surface deformation time series through the Differential SAR lnterferometry (DlnSAR) technique referred to as Parallel Small BAseline Subset (P-SBAS) approach. In particular, we first describe the main changes implemented in the already available P-SBAS processing chain, in order to generate SAOCOM-1 advanced DlnSAR products from temporal sequences of stripmap SAR images. Subsequently, we present the results relevant to two selected test areas: the Etna volcano (southern ltaly) and the city of Rome (central Italy), that confirm the efficacy of the adapted P-SBAS processing chain to properly exploit these L-band SAR data. This activity, which is a follow-up of the DlnSAR-3M project, co-funded by the ltalian Space Agency (ASI), is preparatory to built up an L-band DlnSAR deformation retrieval capability focused on the ltalian territory where, starting from 2022 a SAR interferometry-oriented, a systematic acquisition strategy of SAOCOM-1 stripmap images has been implemented by ASI, in collaboration with Argentinian Space Agency (CONAE).