Henrik S. Andersen's research while affiliated with European Environment Agency (EEA) and other places

The European Ground Motion Service (EGMS), funded by the European Commission as an essential element of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS), constitutes the first application of the interferometric SAR (InSAR) technology to high-resolution monitoring of ground deformations over an entire continent, based on full-resolution processing of all Sentinel-1 (S1) satellite acquisitions over most of Europe (Copernicus Participating States). The first release of EGMS products is scheduled for the first quarter of 2022, with annual updates to follow. Upscaling from existing national precursor services to pan-European scale is challenging. EGMS employs the most advanced persistent scatterer (PS) and distributed scatterer (DS) InSAR processing algorithms, and adequate techniques to ensure seamless harmonization between the Sentinel-1 tracks. Moreover, within EGMS, a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) high-quality 50 km grid model is realized, in order to tie the InSAR products to the geodetic reference frame ETRF2014. The millimeter-scale precision measurements of ground motions performed by EGMS map and monitor landslides, subsidence and earthquake or volcanic phenomena all over Europe, and will enables, for example, monitoring of the stability of slopes, mining areas, buildings and infrastructures. The new European geospatial dataset provided by EGMS will enable and hopefully stimulate the development of other products/services based on InSAR measurements for the analysis and monitoring of ground motions and stability of structures, as well as other InSAR products with higher spatial and/or temporal resolution. To foster as wide usage as possible, EGMS foresees tools for visualization, exploration, analysis and download of the ground deformation products, as well as elements to promote best practice applications and user uptake. This presentation will describe all the qualifying points of EGMS. Particular attention will be paid to the characteristics and the accuracy of the realized products, ensured in such a huge production by advanced algorithms and quality checks. In addition, many examples of EGMS products will be shown to discuss the great potential and the (few) limitations of EGMS for mapping and monitoring landslides, subsidence and earthquake or volcanic phenomena, and the related stability of slopes, buildings and infrastructures.

The European Ground Motion Service (EGMS) is the most recent addition to the product portfolio of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service. The EGMS is funded by the European Commission in the frame of the Copernicus Programme and it is implemented under the responsibility of the European Environment Agency. The Service provides consistent, regular, standardized, harmonised and reliable information regarding natural and anthropogenic ground motion phenomena over the Copernicus Participating States and across national borders, with millimetre accuracy. The EGMS is based on the multi-temporal interferometric analysis of Sentinel-1 radar images at full resolution. Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) data are used as calibration of the interferometric measurements. The EGMS distributes three levels of products: (i) basic, i.e. line of sight (LOS) velocity maps in ascending and descending orbits referred to a local reference point; (ii) calibrated, i.e. LOS velocity maps calibrated with a geodetic reference network so that measurements are no longer relative to a local reference point and (iii) ortho, i.e. components of motion (horizontal and vertical) anchored to the reference geodetic network. Data are available and accessible for all and for free through a dedicated viewer and download interface. EGMS is an unprecedented opportunity to study geohazards and human-induced deformation over Europe, such as slow-moving landslides, subsidence due to groundwater exploitation or underground mining activities, volcanic unrests, and many more. These data can serve a wide spectrum of users interested in ground motion data for geohazards mapping and monitoring. This presentation will offer a first look at the products distributed by EGMS through relevant case studies in different environmental contexts of Europe. Landslides along the Alpine Arc and in the rocky slopes of Scandinavian fjords, subsidence in alluvial plains in Spain and Italy, mining-induced deformation in Poland and Germany are some of the examples that will be presented. The interferometric data will be analyzed to provide an interpretation under geoscientific aspects of the measured ground motion and to show how the EGMS products can be successfully used for geohazards-related studies.

his study is focused on wide-area deformation monitoring initiatives based on the differential interferometric SAR technique (DInSAR). In particular, it addresses the use of advanced DInSAR (A-DInSAR) techniques, which are based on large sets of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and Copernicus Sentinel-1 images. Such techniques have undergone a dramatic development in the last twenty years: they are now capable to process big sets of SAR images and can be exploited to realize a wide-area A-DInSAR monitoring. The study describes several initiatives to establish wide-area ground motion services (GMS), both at county- and region-level. In the second part of the study, some of the key technical aspects related to wide-area A-DInSAR monitoring are discussed. Finally, the last part of the study is devoted to the European ground motion service (EGMS), which is part of the Copernicus land monitoring service. It represents the most important wide-area A-DInSAR deformation monitoring system ever developed. The study describes its main characteristics and its main products. The end of the production of the first EGMS baseline product is foreseen for the last quarter of 2021.