Persistent Scatterer Interferometry: Potential, Limits and Initial C- and X-band Comparison

This paper is focused on the potential and limits of Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI), a powerful remote sensing technique used to measure deformation phenomena. It only refers to satellite-based PSI techniques, focusing on the most important sources of C-band SAR data: ERS and Envisat. In addition, it compares C- and X-band results, considering data from the high-resolution TerraSAR-X sensor. The paper begins with a description of the main characteristics of PSI. It then discusses the most important PSI products and their performances, analyzing their spatial sampling, the so-called residual topographic error and PSI geocoding, the average displacement rates, and the deformation time series. As C-band products are concerned, the paper reports some relevant PSI validation results, which come from the ESA-funded Terrafirma Validation Project. Regarding the X-band, it describes the results obtained over the City of Barcelona by processing 13 TerraSAR-X images. The last part discusses the main limits of PSI.