IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - June 2020 - 118

TABLE 2. A COMPARISON BETWEEN TRADITIONAL MONITORING AND INSAR TECHNOLOGIES.
POINT OF
COMPARISON

TRADITIONAL
TECHNOLOGY

INSAR TECHNOLOGY

Accuracy

Millimeter

Millimeter or submillimeter

Spatial resolution

Low

High

Sample density

Sparse

Dense

Measurement
method

Based online
or in network

Based on the surface of the
monitoring area

Monitoring result
form

Discrete point

Deformation information of
the entire deformation surface

Monitoring scope

Small

Large

Observation cost

Expensive

Cheap

Other

Affected by
environment
and weather

Noncontact measurement

TABLE 3. THE PRIMARY SAR SATELLITE SENSORS.
SENSOR

REPEAT
OPERATION BAND CYCLE (DAYS)

COUNTRY

SEASAT

1978

United States

ERS-1

1991-2000

Europe

ERS-2

1995-2011

Europe

JERS-1

1992-1998

Japan

ENVISAT

2002-2012

Europe

ALOS-PALSAR

2006-2011

Japan

RADARSAT-1

1995-2013

Canada

RADARSAT-2

2007

Canada

TerraSAR-X

2007

Germany

TanDEM-X

2010

Germany

HJ-1C

2012

China

RISAT-1

2012

India

KOMPSAT-5

2013

Korea

SENTINEL-1A

2014

Europe

SENTINEL-1B

2016

Europe

PAZ

2014

Spain

ALOS-2

2014

Japan

SAOCOM-1/2
(2 satellites)

2015

Argentina

COSMO-SkyMed
(four satellites)

2007

Italy

COSMO-SkyMed, 2016
second generation
(two satellites)

Italy

RADARSAT constellation (three
satellites)

Canada

2018

major leap forward in oil and gas exploration deformation
monitoring technology. Table 2 compares InSAR technology with traditional monitoring technology, highlighting
the advantages of InSAR technology in oil and gas exploration deformation monitoring, mainly with regard to the
following aspects.
118

First, the results of InSAR deformation monitoring have
the advantages of high precision and a wide range. The
measurement of the traditional deformation monitoring
method can be accurate to the millimeter or even the submillimeter level. Similarly, the resolution of a radar image
can reach the meter level, and the surface deformation of
the millimeter level can be monitored by InSAR technology. However, InSAR technology has a wider monitoring
range than traditional technology. It can monitor the surface area of hundreds to thousands of square kilometers at
a time as well as an entire oil field and surrounding areas.
Second, InSAR technology is less affected by the weather
and environment than traditional methods are, and monitoring can take place around the clock. Traditional methods
require the placement of measurement points in oil and gas
production areas. In reality, however, the working areas of
the oil and gas industry are mostly located in the wilderness
and even the sea, which makes the monitoring work difficult
and creates potential safety hazards. It is difficult to place
measurement points in some hazardous monitoring areas.
Observations are sometimes limited, and the progress of the
measurement is usually affected by the monitoring environment. At times, GPS deformation monitoring is limited by
the number of visible satellites.
However, InSAR technology is a noncontact measurement method; it requires only the acquisition of satellite imagery, and it is very convenient and implement. InSAR technology is not affected by topography and weather changes
and provides timely and accurate monitoring information.
It also has the ability to work continuously for a long time.
This advantage is especially reflected in the fact that, when
an oil and gas exploration area encounters major geological
disasters or emergencies such as earthquakes and typhoons,
an InSAR monitoring system can quickly report the disaster
location of the mining area, effectively shortening the emergency response time and minimizing the loss of oil and gas
exploration areas. The efficiency of emergency rescue has
been improved, which is of great significance for improving
the safety supervision of oil and gas exploration areas.
Third, the monitoring process and results of InSAR technology are more continuous. The traditional deformation
monitoring method involves the observation of discrete
points. Moreover, due to comprehensive consideration of
the observation workload, cost, resources, and other factors, traditional deformation monitoring observation takes
place over long intervals, so the observations obtained are
discontinuous in time and space. In contrast, InSAR technology has continuity in both time and space. It obtains the
deformation result of the entire monitoring surface and can
extract the deformation information of the target point.
With the development of InSAR satellite constellation
technology, the repeated monitoring cycle of InSAR will
decrease, especially when using the improvement from the
data fusion technique for different InSAR satellites [88].
The main SAR satellite sensors and their parameters are
shown in Table 3.
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING MAGAZINE

JUNE 2020

IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - June 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - June 2020