Ground Based SAR campaigns for landslides and glaciers monitoring

Within the research activities combined between the Geohazard Monitoring Group, the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Pavia and the Catalonian Center of Technology and Telecommunications (CTTC), several survey campaigns of Ground-Based Synthetic Aperture Radar (GB-SAR) on glacier and landslide areas have been accomplished.

In detail, two surveys of the Plapinciuex Glacier (Grandes Jorasses massif – Mount Blanc) have been performed, where a specific research project of the GMG is proceeded. The first campaign has been accomplished during the period of September-October 2015 with IDS^TM instrumentation, whereas the second campaign has been repeated in June 2016 with the last generation device produced by the MetaSensing^TM. The availability of datasets measured by two different GB-SAR will allow the evaluation of qualities and limitations of this technology in a complex environment such as glacier.

Moreover, during April 2016 a long-lasting campaign has begun for the improvement of the monitoring network of the Gollone Landslide (Acceglio, CN) through the installation of an IDS^TM  GB-SAR. Currently, this landslide is an object of a GMG research project, which focuses on the study of the evolution of the landslide phenomenon using a robotized total station. Considering the geometry and the complex dynamics characterizing this landslide process, the combined use of a total station and a GB-SAR may represent an important benefit for the comprehension of the landslides and for the analysis of the atmospheric effects affecting the GB-SAR data.

GB SAR Planpincieux glacier monitoring using a MetaSensing^TM sensor.

GB SAR Gollone landslide monitoring using an IDS sensor.

Daniele Giordan