scholarly journals INSAR TIME SERIES INVESTIGATION OF LAND SURFACE DEFORMATION IN AZAR OIL FIELD

Author(s):  
Z. Mirzaii ◽  
M. Hasanlou ◽  
S. Samieie-Esfahany ◽  
M. Rojhani ◽  
P. Ajourlou

Abstract. Time-series interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) has developed as an influential method to measure various surface deformations. One of the generations of time-series InSAR methodologies is Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) that focuses on targets with a high correlation over time. In this study, we have measured the surface deformation in Azar Oil Field utilizing time series analysis. Azar Oil Field is one of Iran's oil fields. This oil field is located in the east of the city of Mehran, Ilam province. The reservoir of this oil field is shared by Iraq oil field whose name is Badra where oil extraction started in 201409. While Iran started oil exploration in 201709, Iraq has maximized its oil exploration ever since. The subsidence is mainly observed in the vicinity of the oil field. The Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers (StaMPS) package has been employed to process 20 descending ENVISAT-ASAR images collected between 2003 and 2009, as well as 50 descending Sentinel-1A satellite images collected between 2014 and 2019. Sentinel-1 images bring new improvements due to their wide coverage and high revisiting time, which allows us to make a wide area processing. Due to the high depth of oil wells (4,300 meters), as well as the stone type of the region’s bed in some areas, we needed to calculate the magnitude of subsidence. The results show the maximum displacement rate in this area is 18 mm between 2014 and 2019 in the radar line of sight direction, but no subsidence took place between 2003 and 2009 .The results of the study confirm typical patterns of subsidence induced by oil extraction. Also, since 2017, with the onset of Iran’s oil extraction and the intensification of Iraq's oil exploration, subsidence has taken place with a steeper slope. The displacement of the area before and after this date is modelled with two lines.

Proceedings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
Zahra Mirzaii ◽  
Mahdi Hasanlou ◽  
Sami Samieie-Esfahany ◽  
Mahdi Rojhani ◽  
Parviz Ajourlou

Azar oil field is located to the east of the city of Mehran, Ilam. The tank of this oil field is shared by Iraq’s oil field whose name is Badra where oil extraction started in 2014, and they have maximized its oil exploration since 2017. Iran started oil exploration in 2017. In this study, we estimated the land surface deformation in Azar oil field using persistent scattering interferometry (PSI) in order to determine the corresponding subsidence source. PSI is a method of time series analysis used to measure various surface deformations. The Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers (StaMPS) package was employed to process 50 ascending Sentinel-1A satellite images collected between 2016 and 2019, and 50 descending Sentinel-1A satellite images were collected between 2014 and 2019 to extract horizontal and vertical displacement components from the Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) LOS (line-of-sight) displacement. The results showed that the maximum displacement rate in the Iran-Iraq joint oil field between 2016 and 2019 was 15 mm in the vertical direction. Moreover, the maximum displacement rate measured in the horizontal direction was 30 mm. The vertical deformation confirms typical patterns of subsidence caused by oil extraction, and the horizontal deformation occurred due to considerable precipitation events after a drought period, as well as the presence of sand layers at different depths of the earth.


Author(s):  
N. Ittycheria ◽  
D. S. Vaka ◽  
Y. S. Rao

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) is an advanced technique to map ground surface displacements of an area over a period. The technique can measure deformation with a millimeter-level accuracy. It overcomes the limitations of Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (DInSAR) such as geometric, temporal decorrelation and atmospheric variations between master and slave images. In our study, Sentinel-1A Interferometric Wide Swath (IW) mode descending pass images from May 2016 to December 2017 (23 images) are used to identify the stable targets called persistent scatterers (PS) over Bengaluru city. Twenty-two differential interferograms are generated after topographic phase removal using the SRTM 30 m DEM. The main objective of this study is to analyze urban subsidence in Bengaluru city in India using the multi-temporal interferometric technique such as PSI. The pixels with Amplitude Stability Index &amp;geq;<span class="thinspace"></span>0.8 are selected as initial PS candidates (PSC). Later, the PSCs having temporal coherence &amp;gt;<span class="thinspace"></span>0.5 are selected for the time series analysis. The number of PSCs that are identified after final selection are reduced from 59590 to 54474 for VV polarization data and 15611 to 15596 for VH polarization data. It is interesting to note that a very less number of PSC are identified in cross-polarized images (VH). A high number of PSC have identified in co-polarized (VV) images as the vertically oriented urban targets produce a double bounce, which results in a strong return towards the sensor. The velocity maps obtained using VV and VH polarizations show displacement in the range of &amp;plusmn;<span class="thinspace"></span>20<span class="thinspace"></span>mm<span class="thinspace"></span>year<sup>&amp;minus;1</sup>. The subsidence and the upliftment observed in the city shows a linear trend with time. It is observed that the eastern part of Bengaluru city shows more subsidence than the western part.</p>


Author(s):  
S. Thapa ◽  
R. S. Chatterjee ◽  
K. B. Singh ◽  
D. Kumar

Differential SAR-Interferometry (D-InSAR) is one of the potential source to measure land surface motion induced due to underground coal mining. However, this technique has many limitation such as atmospheric in homogeneities, spatial de-correlation, and temporal decorrelation. Persistent Scatterer Interferometry synthetic aperture radar (PS-InSAR) belongs to a family of time series InSAR technique, which utilizes the properties of some of the stable natural and anthropogenic targets which remain coherent over long time period. In this study PS-InSAR technique has been used to monitor land subsidence over selected location of Jharia Coal field which has been correlated with the ground levelling measurement. This time series deformation observed using PS InSAR helped us to understand the nature of the ground surface deformation due to underground mining activity.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Métois ◽  
Mouna Benjelloun ◽  
Cécile Lasserre ◽  
Raphael Grandin ◽  
Laurie Barrier ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Patos-Marinza oil field in Central Albania (40.71° N,19.61° E), operated since 1939, is one of the largest onshore fields in Europe. More than 7 millions oil barrels are extracted per year from the Messinian sandstone formations of the Durres Basin in the Albanian Peri-Adriatic Depression by the Bankers company operating the field since 2004. In the region, the background seismicity culminated in December 2016, when a shallow seismic swarm developed in the oil field, damaging houses and triggering the opening of a public inquiry. However, because of the lack of a dense local seismic array and incompleteness of historical catalogues for such moderate events, understanding whether this seismicity could be induced by the extraction/injection activities is an arduous task. In this study, we take advantage of the new Sentinel-1 radar images acquired every 6 to 12 days over Albania to measure the surface displacement in the Myzeqeja plain and in the Patos-Marinza oil field in particular. Images from two ascending and descending tracks covering the area are processed through a radar interferometry (InSAR) time-series analysis over the 2014 to 2018 time-span, providing consistent average Line-Of-Sight velocity maps and displacement time-series. The regional deformation field exhibits a slow subsidence of the entire sedimentary basin relative to the highlands (at rates of 2.5 mm/yr), that we interpret as a combination of natural and man-induced compaction. This broad picture is complicated by a very strong local subsidence signal with rates as high as 15 mm/yr that spatially correlates with the Patos-Marinza oil field and is maximal in the zone holding most of the operating horizontal wells, where Enhanced Oil Recovery techniques are used. The striking spatial correlation between the maximum subsidence area and the active wells, as seen from optical images, argues in favor of an oil-extraction induced surface deformation. The observed surface deformation is well reproduced by elastic models mimicking the basin and reservoir compaction using planar crack dislocations. Such modeling provides a first-order estimation of the volumetric deflation rate in the oil reservoir (~ 0.2 Mm3/yr). This strong subsidence signal, together with the increase of the background seismicity since the oil field reactivation, are evidences of significant man-induced stress changes in the basin that should be further monitored and taken into account for seismic hazard assessment.


Geosciences ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Cian ◽  
José Blasco ◽  
Lorenzo Carrera

The sub-Saharan African coast is experiencing fast-growing urbanization, particularly around major cities. This threatens the equilibrium of the socio-ecosystems where they are located and on which they depend: underground water resources are exploited with a disregard for sustainability; land is reclaimed from wetlands or lagoons; built-up areas, both formal and informal, grow without adequate urban planning. Together, all these forces can result in land surface deformation, subsidence or even uplift, which can increase risk within these already fragile socio-ecosystems. In particular, in the case of land subsidence, the risk of urban flooding can increase significantly, also considering the contribution of sea level rise driven by climate change. Monitoring such fast-changing environments is crucial to be able to identify key risks and plan adaptation responses to mitigate current and future flood risks. Persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a powerful tool to monitor land deformation with high precision using relatively low-cost technology, also thanks to the open access data of Sentinel-1, which provides global observations every 6 days at 20-m ground resolution. In this paper, we demonstrate how it is possible to monitor land subsidence in urban coastal areas by means of permanent scatterer interferometry and Sentinel-1, exploiting an automatic procedure based on an integration of the Sentinel Application Platform (SNAP) and the Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers (StaMPS). We present the results of PSI analysis over the cities of Banjul (the Gambia) and Lagos (Nigeria) showing a comparison of results obtained with TerraSAR-X, Constellation of Small Satellites for the Mediterranean Basin Observation (COSMO-SkyMed) and Environmental Satellite advanced synthetic aperture radar (Envisat-ASAR) data. The methodology allows us to highlight areas of high land deformation, information that is useful for urban development, disaster risk management and climate adaptation planning.


Solid Earth ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 363-378
Author(s):  
Marianne Métois ◽  
Mouna Benjelloun ◽  
Cécile Lasserre ◽  
Raphaël Grandin ◽  
Laurie Barrier ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Patos-Marinza oil field in central Albania (40.71∘ N, 19.61∘ E), operated since 1939, is one of the largest onshore oil fields in Europe. More than 7 million oil barrels are extracted every year from the Messinian sandstone formations of the Durres Basin in the Albanian Peri-Adriatic Depression by the Bankers Petroleum Ltd. (hereafter Bankers), which has been operating the field since 2004. In this study, we take advantage of the new Sentinel-1 radar images acquired every 6 to 12 d over Albania to measure the surface displacement in the Myzeqeja plain and in the Patos-Marinza oil field in particular. Images from two ascending and descending tracks covering the area are processed through a radar interferometry (InSAR) time series analysis over the 2014 to 2018 time span, providing consistent average line-of-sight (LOS) velocity maps and displacement time series. The regional deformation field exhibits a slow subsidence of the entire basin relative to the highlands (at rates of 2.5 mm yr−1) that we interpret as a combination of natural and human-induced compaction. This broad picture is complicated by a very strong local subsidence signal with rates as high as 15 mm yr−1 that spatially correlates with the Patos-Marinza oil field and is maximal in the zone holding most of the operating wells, where enhanced oil recovery techniques are used. The striking spatial correlation between the maximum subsidence area and the active wells, as seen from optical images, argues in favor of surface deformation induced by oil extraction. This deformation is well reproduced by elastic models mimicking the basin and reservoir compaction using planar negative tensile (closing) dislocations. Such modeling provides a first-order estimation of the volumetric deflation rate in the oil reservoir (∼0.2 Mm3 yr−1), and it suggests that concurrent injection activity has been conducted in the central part of the field where small uplift is observed. Our new InSAR-derived evidence of significant surface strain associated with the oil field operations raises the question of the potential impact of these operations on the local seismicity. A slight increase in the nearby released seismic moment rate seems to be observed since 2009, shortly after the oil field reactivation. However, without further seismological monitoring of the area and longer InSAR time series, this question will remain open.


Author(s):  
R. Dwivedi ◽  
P. Varshney ◽  
A. Tiwari ◽  
A. K. Singh ◽  
O. Dikshit

In this research work, PS-InSAR approach is envisaged to monitor slope stability of landslides prone areas in Nainital and Tehri region of Uttarakhand, India. For the proposed work, Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers (StaMPS) based PS-InSAR is used for processing ENVISAT ASAR C-Band data stacks of study area which resulted in a time series 1D-Line of Sight (LOS) map of surface displacement. StaMPS efficiently extracted the PS pixels on the unstable slopes in both areas and the time series 1D-LOS displacement map of PS pixels indicates that those areas in Nainital and Tehri region have measurement pixels with maximum displacement away from the satellite of the order of 22 mm/year and 17.6 mm/year respectively


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (18) ◽  
pp. 6445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodoros Gatsios ◽  
Francesca Cigna ◽  
Deodato Tapete ◽  
Vassilis Sakkas ◽  
Kyriaki Pavlou ◽  
...  

The Methana volcano in Greece belongs to the western part of the Hellenic Volcanic Arc, where the African and Eurasian tectonic plates converge at a rate of approximately 3 cm/year. While volcanic hazard in Methana is considered low, the neotectonic basin constituting the Saronic Gulf area is seismically active and there is evidence of local geothermal activity. Monitoring is therefore crucial to characterize any activity at the volcano that could impact the local population. This study aims to detect surface deformation in the whole Methana peninsula based on a long stack of 99 Sentinel-1 C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images in interferometric wide swath mode acquired in March 2015–August 2019. A Multi-Temporal Interferometric SAR (MT-InSAR) processing approach is exploited using the Interferometric Point Target Analysis (IPTA) method, involving the extraction of a network of targets including both Persistent Scatterers (PS) and Distributed Scatterers (DS) to augment the monitoring capability across the varied land cover of the peninsula. Satellite geodetic data from 2006–2019 Global Positioning System (GPS) benchmark surveying are used to calibrate and validate the MT-InSAR results. Deformation monitoring records from permanent Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations, two of which were installed within the peninsula in 2004 (METH) and 2019 (MTNA), are also exploited for interpretation of the regional deformation scenario. Geological, topographic, and 2006–2019 seismological data enable better understanding of the ground deformation observed. Line-of-sight displacement velocities of the over 4700 PS and 6200 DS within the peninsula are from −18.1 to +7.5 mm/year. The MT-InSAR data suggest a complex displacement pattern across the volcano edifice, including local-scale land surface processes. In Methana town, ground stability is found on volcanoclasts and limestone for the majority of the urban area footprint while some deformation is observed in the suburban zones. At the Mavri Petra andesitic dome, time series of the exceptionally dense PS/DS network across blocks of agglomerate and cinder reveal seasonal fluctuation (5 mm amplitude) overlapping the long-term stable trend. Given the steepness of the slopes along the eastern flank of the volcano, displacement patterns may indicate mass movements. The GNSS, seismological and MT-InSAR analyses lead to a first account of deformation processes and their temporal evolution over the last years for Methana, thus providing initial information to feed into the volcano baseline hazard assessment and monitoring system.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 3207
Author(s):  
Ioannis Papoutsis ◽  
Charalampos Kontoes ◽  
Stavroula Alatza ◽  
Alexis Apostolakis ◽  
Constantinos Loupasakis

Advances in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry have enabled the seamless monitoring of the Earth’s crust deformation. The dense archive of the Sentinel-1 Copernicus mission provides unprecedented spatial and temporal coverage; however, time-series analysis of such big data volumes requires high computational efficiency. We present a parallelized-PSI (P-PSI), a novel, parallelized, and end-to-end processing chain for the fully automated assessment of line-of-sight ground velocities through persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI), tailored to scale to the vast multitemporal archive of Sentinel-1 data. P-PSI is designed to transparently access different and complementary Sentinel-1 repositories, and download the appropriate datasets for PSI. To make it efficient for large-scale applications, we re-engineered and parallelized interferogram creation and multitemporal interferometric processing, and introduced distributed implementations to best use computing cores and provide resourceful storage management. We propose a new algorithm to further enhance the processing efficiency, which establishes a non-uniform patch grid considering land use, based on the expected number of persistent scatterers. P-PSI achieves an overall speed-up by a factor of five for a full Sentinel-1 frame for processing in a 20-core server. The processing chain is tested on a large-scale project to calculate and monitor deformation patterns over the entire extent of the Greek territory—our own Interferometric SAR (InSAR) Greece project. Time-series InSAR analysis was performed on volumes of about 12 TB input data corresponding to more than 760 Single Look Complex Sentinel-1A and B images mostly covering mainland Greece in the period of 2015–2019. InSAR Greece provides detailed ground motion information on more than 12 million distinct locations, providing completely new insights into the impact of geophysical and anthropogenic activities at this geographic scale. This new information is critical to enhancing our understanding of the underlying mechanisms, providing valuable input into risk assessment models. We showcase this through the identification of various characteristic geohazard locations in Greece and discuss their criticality. The selected geohazard locations, among a thousand, cover a wide range of catastrophic events including landslides, land subsidence, and structural failures of various scales, ranging from a few hundredths of square meters up to the basin scale. The study enriches the large catalog of geophysical related phenomena maintained by the GeObservatory portal of the Center of Earth Observation Research and Satellite Remote Sensing BEYOND of the National Observatory of Athens for the opening of new knowledge to the wider scientific community.


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