Time series analysis of Mexico City subsidence constrained by radar interferometry
Résumé
In Mexico City, subsidence rates reach up to 40 cm/yr mainly due to soil compaction led by the over exploitation of the Mexico Basin aquifer. In this paper, we map the spatial and temporal patterns of the Mexico City subsidence by differential radar interferometry, using 38 ENVISAT images acquired between end of 2002 and beginning of 2007. We present the severe interferogram unwrapping problems partly due to the coherence loss but mostly due to the high fringe rates. These difficulties are overcome by designing a new methodology that helps the unwrapping step. Our approach is based on the fact that the deformation shape is stable for similar time intervals during the studied period. As a result, a stack of the five best interferograms can be used to compute an average deformation rate for a fixed time interval. Before unwrapping, the number of fringes is then decreased in wrapped interferograms using a scaled version of the stack together with the estimation of the atmospheric phase contribution related with the troposphere vertical stratification. The residual phase, containing less fringes, is more easily unwrapped than the original interferogram. The unwrapping procedure is applied in three iterative steps. The 71 small baseline unwrapped interferograms are inverted to obtain increments of radar propagation delays between the 38 acquisition dates. Based on the redundancy of the interferometric data base, we quantify the unwrapping errors and show that they are strongly decreased by iterations in the unwrapping process. A map of the RMS interferometric system misclosure allows to define the unwrapping reliability for each pixel. Finally, we present a new algorithm for time series analysis that differs from classical SVD decomposition and is best suited to the present data base. Accurate deformation time series are then derived over the metropolitan area of the city with a spatial resolution of 30 × 30 m