InSAR and GPS time series analysis: Crustal deformation in the Yucca Mountain, Nevada region

Several previous studies have successfully demonstrated that long time series (e.g. >5 years) of GPS measurements can be employed to detect tectonic signals with a vertical rate greater than 0.3 mm/yr (e.g. Hill and Blewitt, 2006; Bennett et al. 2009). However, GPS stations are often sparse, with spacing from a few kilometres to a few hundred kilometres. Interferometric SAR (InSAR) can complement GPS by providing high horizontal spatial resolution (e.g. meters to tens-of metres) over large regions (e.g. 100 km × 100 km). A major source of error for repeat-pass InSAR is the phase delay in radio signal propagation through the atmosphere. The portion of this attributable to tropospheric water vapour causes errors as large as 10-20 cm in deformation retrievals. InSAR Time Series analysis with Atmospheric Estimation Models (InSAR TS + AEM), developed at the University of Glasgow, is a robust time series analysis approach, which mainly uses interferograms with small geometric baselines to minimise the effects of decorrelation and inaccuracies in topographic data. In addition, InSAR TS + AEM can be used to separate deformation signals from atmospheric water vapour effects in order to map surface deformation as it evolves in time. The principal purposes of this study are to assess: (1) how consistent InSAR-derived deformation time series are with GPS; and (2) how precise InSAR-derived atmospheric path delays can be. The Yucca Mountain, Nevada region is chosen as the study site because of its excellent GPS network and extensive radar archives (>10 years of dense and high-quality GPS stations, and >17 years of ERS and ENVISAT radar acquisitions), and because of its arid environment. The latter results in coherence that is generally high, even for long periods that span the existing C-band radar archives of ERS and ENVISAT. Preliminary results show that our InSAR LOS deformation map agrees with GPS measurements to within 0.35 mm/yr RMS misfit at the stations which is the same as the 0.35 mm/yr RMS misfit between the strain map and the GPS velocities used to derive it. Therefore there is reason to hope that InSAR measurements can be precise enough to improve the accuracy and resolution of maps of crustal strain between the GPS sites.