Abstract. Rocksalt has remarkable mechanical properties and a high economic importance, however, this strength of salt compared to other rocks makes it a rather vulnerable material. Human activities could lead to acceleration of the dissolution of soluble rocksalt and collapse of subsurface caverns. Although sinkhole development can be considered local geological disaster regarding the characteristic size of surface depressions the deformations can result in catastrophic events. In this study we report the spatiotemporal evolution of surface deformation in Solotvyno salt mine area in Ukraine based on Sentinel-1 interferometric synthetic aperture radar measurements. Although the mining operations were finished in 2010 several sinkholes have been opened up since then. Our results show that even though the enormous risk managing efforts the sinkholes continue to expand with a maximum line-of-sight deformation rate of 5 cm/yr. The deformation time series show a rather linear feature and unfortunately no slowdown of the processes can be recognized based on the investigated 4.5 year-long data set. We utilized both ascending and descending satellite passes to discriminate the horizontal and vertical deformations and our results revealed that vertical deformation is much more dominant in the area. With the 6-day repetition time of Sentinel-1 observations the evolution of surface changes can be detected in quasi real-time which can facilitate disaster response and recovery.
Geodetic/geodynamic benchmarks, equipped with both ascending and descending radar corner reflectors, and a method for integrated InSAR and GNSS/GPS network observation were developed and applied as the continuation of the former geodetic monitoring at the Dunaszekcső landslide, Hungary. The attempts to apply InSAR technologies using archive and Sentinel-1 data practically failed on the most intensive landside areas (“Vár” and “Szent János” hills), where proper persistent or distributed scatterers were not found. Our concept solved this problem, where the Simple Look Complex (SLC) images are used to interpolate the movements between two GNSS network observations using the integrated benchmarks and the method of Kalman-filtering. Since the InSAR line-of-sight (LOS) changes are barely sensitive to the north movements, this information is essentially provided by GNSS measurement alone, moreover, the GNSS measurements are used to: a) identify the benchmarks, b) detect the unwrapping errors and missing cycles and c) provide the boundary values of Kalman-filtering.After the installation of benchmarks three GPS observations were carried out and 69 ascending and 61 descending Sentinel-1 A and B images were processed. The data processing properly indicated the general movement history, which fit the curves of former geodetic observations, as well. The dense data points of the East and Up (vertical) components made possible more detailed geomorphologic interpretations of the ongoing process between two GPS observations. During the investigated periods the deceleration of movements was experienced, however, the deceleration of the dormant state needs the continuation of the monitoring.
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