Turbulence in the Earth's troposphere revealed by Synthetic Aperture
Radar Interferometry

S. Liu, F. Kleijer and  R.F. Hanssen

Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) and Persistent
Scatterers Interferometry (PSI) are proved to be capable of mapping
the earth's topography and monitoring land subsidence with
sub-centimeter accuracy at relatively low cost. Nevertheless, the
performances of both techniques are degraded by atmospheric artifacts
which are mainly due to water vapor variations in the earth's
troposphere (i.e. troposphere's turbulence). Here, we present thee
observed troposphere's turbulence by means of phase unwrappedd
interferograms derived from images acquired by ERS1 and ERS2
satellites during the tandem (1-day interval) mission over the
Netherlands. Apart from that, a statistical description based on
structure function and power spectrum theory is provided to interpret
atmosphere water vapor variations in different scales observed from
InSAR. In the end, recommendations are given for further research to
mitigate atmospheric disturbance for InSAR applications.