Dams have many important socio-economic functions, fulfilling roles ranging from storing water to power generation, but also serving as leisure areas. Monitoring of their deformation is usually performed using time-consuming traditional terr estrial techniques, leading to a yearly monitoring cycle. To increase the monitoring cycle, new methods are needed. Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) is a well-established technique for monitoring millimeter deformation of the Earth’s surface. The availability of free and open SAR data with a repeat cycle of 6 to 12 days from the Copernicus mission Sentinel-1, allows PSI to be used complementary to traditional surveying techniques. This present study investigates deformation dynamics at the Moehne gravity dam in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The applicability of the PSI technique to the deformation monitoring of dams is evaluated, in relation to the necessary accuracy requirements. For this purpose, Sentinel-1 data from January 2015 to November 2020 are analyzed and the deformation estimates are assessed with in situ information. Using a precise dam model, the radial deformation of the dam could be extracted and compared to trigonometric and plumb measurements. The first results show that the movements of the Moehne dam follow a seasonal pattern, reaching a maximum radial deformation of up to 4 mm in Spring, following a decline to −4 mm in the late summer. RMSE between 1.1 mm and 1.5 mm were observed between the PSI observations and the in situ data, showing that the PSI technique achieves the necessary accuracy requirements for gravity dam monitoring from space.

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Abstract. Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) is a well-established technique for monitoring millimetre deformation of the Earth’s surface. The availability of free and open SAR data with a repeat cycle of 6–12 days from the Copernicus mission Sentinel-1, allows PSI to be used complementary to traditional surveying techniques. Whilst the data resolution may not allow a precise determination of the geolocation of the occurring deformation, observed deformation patterns can be analysed with auxiliary data and often show correlation with the location of geophysical processes or human activities. In this paper, we investigate the particular case of the church tower of Bad-Frankenhausen in the north of the Free State Thuringia, Germany, with PSI processing of Sentinel-1 data. Both pass directions (descending and ascending) are considered, and different motion models are tested in order to retrieve the most accurate displacement pattern around the church location. Deformation up to −6 mm/yr are observed near the church location for the period 2016–2019 in ascending direction.