Correction of atmospheric delay effects in radar interferometry using a nested mesoscale atmospheric model

Wadge, G., Zhu, M., Holley, R. J., James, L. N., Clark, P. A., Wang, C. and Woodage, M. J. (2010) Correction of atmospheric delay effects in radar interferometry using a nested mesoscale atmospheric model. Journal of Applied Geophysics, 72 (2). pp. 141-149. ISSN 0926-9851 doi: 10.1016/j.jappgeo.2010.08.005

Abstract/Summary

The temporal variability of the atmosphere through which radio waves pass in the technique of differential radar interferometry can seriously limit the accuracy with which the method can measure surface motion. A forward, nested mesoscale model of the atmosphere can be used to simulate the variable water content along the radar path and the resultant phase delays. Using this approach we demonstrate how to correct an interferogram of Mount Etna in Sicily associated with an eruption in 2004-5. The regional mesoscale model (Unified Model) used to simulate the atmosphere at higher resolutions consists of four nested domains increasing in resolution (12, 4, 1, 0.3 km), sitting within the analysis version of a global numerical model that is used to initiate the simulation. Using the high resolution 3D model output we compute the surface pressure, temperature and the water vapour, liquid and solid water contents, enabling the dominant hydrostatic and wet delays to be calculated at specific times corresponding to the acquisition of the radar data. We can also simulate the second-order delay effects due to liquid water and ice.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/30106
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Uncontrolled Keywords	Radar delay; Nested atmospheric models; InSAR; Space geodesy; Etna
Publisher	Elsevier
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