This course will cover the theory and application of repeat-pass synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) using the software GMTSAR. Lectures and exercises will be given to teach the basic theoretical aspects of InSAR. Labs will include software installation, running test data sets for standard interferogram formation, as well as more advanced processing for time series with Sentinel-1A TOPS-mode data. Those unfamiliar with the software package GMT are encouraged to review the 2023 Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) for Geodesy video playlist. Several of the instructors will be using Jupyter notebooks for the high-level interface.
Note for students in China: There will be an InSAR training short course hosted around July 14th-17th. Do watch out for any announcement for registration from the University of Science and Technology of China.
Time: Three, 2-hour classes virtual plenary sessions. Four 1-hour optional virtual small group help sessions.
Primary Audience: Graduate and undergraduate students in Earth Science, early career geoscientists, university, government, or industry. Students would attend the plenary sessions. In addition, they would work with instructors in smaller groups to learn GMTSAR and prepare an oral presentation.
Secondary Audience: Same as above except students would only sign up to attend plenary sessions. They may already be familiar with InSAR processing and want the latest theory from this group of instructors.
Learning Objectives:
By the end of this course, learners will be able to:
- Use the UNIX shell and install software using a package manager;
- Gather a topography grid and make a basic map using GMT;
- Understand the basic physical principles of SAR and InSAR;
- Generate interferograms with test data sets;
- Make your own interferogram(s); and optional (advanced)
- Construct InSAR time series using Sentinel-1 data.
Participant Commitment
This course will have a series of plenary lecture sessions on SAR and InSAR from leaders in the field. In addition, there will be optional opportunities to work with these leaders in individual smaller group meetings to learn how to process the data and present their own results.
- Students who choose to attend the plenary sessions only, will be expected to attend 2-3 days of lectures.
- Students who choose to attend the entire short course, should expect 20-80 hours worth of work, including small group breakouts and the 2-3 days of the plenary lecture sessions.
Prerequisites, Computer and Data
- Minimum hardware requirements: Access to UNIX computer (laptop, desktop, or cloud) with at least 12 Gbytes of RAM and at least 100 Gbytes of free disk space.
- Minimum software requirements: UNIX, GMT, GMTSAR
- Minimum internet requirements: Need stable internet for zoom meetings and download of 50 Gbytes of SAR data.
- Students should have a background in basic calculus and physics
- Students should be familiar with UNIX.
Brief Agenda
Tentative agenda is listed below, and subject to change.
| Day 1 and 2 | Plenary session (instructors and students) Theory of SAR – Theory of InSAR – Applications of InSAR – How to access SAR data and NISAR – Two-pass interferometry – InSAR time series – Learn to process NISAR data in the cloud |
| Day 3 | Plenary session (instructors and students) – Selected student presentations |
Assessment:
Each student will be required to make an oral or written presentation related to their interests and progress in InSAR data processing.
Instructors
- Ann Chen, University of Texas, Austin
- Katherine Guns, USGS
- Eric Lindsey, University of New Mexico
- Dunyu Liu, University of Texas, Austin
- Kathryn Materna, University of Colorado Boulder
- Wojciech Milczarek, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology
- Oi Ou, University of Edinburgh
- David Sandwell, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
- Katia Tymofyeyeva, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
- Kang Wang, EarthScope
- Matt Wei, University of Rhode Island
- Xiaohua Xu, University of Science and Technology of China
- Molly Zebker, Scripps Institution of Oceanography