Monitoring Surface Deformation in Active Margin Settings with the Scansar Technique Using Wide Swath Envisat Data

Active continental margins are the Earth's principal regions of active deformation and significant earthquake hazard. We apply the enhanced method called Scan Synthetic Aperture Radar (ScanSAR) interferometry to quantify active surface deformation in the coastal region of the South American active margin in central Chile between 22° S and 27° S. Here, as in other active margin settings, crustal deformation may reach far inland and affects hundreds of square kilometer wide areas. The “normal” ENVISAT ASAR Strip-Mode covers a 100km wide stripe and will therefore not be sufficient for such deformation study. We use the ENVISAT ASAR Wide Swath (WS) data that cover in generally an area of 400x400km2. Because of this we investigate the potential of WS data to monitor such wide-stretched surface displacement. Therewith a high spatiotemporal surface deformation monitoring in active margin settings can be given.