Integrating Ground-Based Radar and InSAR for Geotechnical Monitoring

On 23 October 2024, the Geosolutions Group hosted a webinar entitled ‘Combining Ground-Based Radar and InSAR for Monitoring Displacement’, inviting experts from 3vGeomatics and GroundProbe to explore the powerful combination of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) and ground-based radar technologies in diverse monitoring environments — particularly within mining operations.

Featuring insights from Dr Jon Leighton, Director of Operations at 3vGeomatics, and Antonio Rocha, Business Manager North America at GroundProbe, the discussion delved into how these two technologies complement each other, enhancing risk management and geotechnical monitoring.

Overview of InSAR and Ground-Based Radar Technologies

The webinar kicked off with detailed explanations of both technologies:

Antonio Rocha provided an in-depth overview of ground-based radar technology, highlighting its ability to deliver real-time, focused monitoring and alarm-based decisions.

Jon Leighton explained InSAR technology, which offers long-term, wide-scale monitoring, providing a broad overview to inform subsequent, more detailed monitoring efforts.

The bottom line? These technologies work best together, combining InSAR’s wide-area insights with ground-based radar’s precision monitoring to create a comprehensive, layered approach to displacement detection.

Key Takeaways from the Webinar

1. Integrating InSAR and Ground-Based Radar

Leighton and Rocha underscored the importance of combining InSAR and ground-based radar to achieve a more holistic geotechnical monitoring strategy.

• InSAR offers long-term, wide-area monitoring — providing a big-picture view that supports early detection and informs targeted monitoring.
• Ground-based radar complements this by delivering real-time, high-resolution data for immediate risk management and alarm-based decisions.
• Both technologies deliver high-precision displacement measurements.

Together, these technologies improve coverage and reliability, while 24/7 support services help validate false alarms and generate comprehensive reports.

2. Overcoming Challenges with Cutting-Edge Advances

The speakers acknowledged challenges such as dense vegetation, atmospheric interference, and line-of-sight accuracy. They also shared how recent technological breakthroughs are overcoming these issues:

• InSAR advancements: Leighton introduced non-persistent scatter technology, which doubles coverage by including targets that are intermittent in time or more permanently disrupted. He also discussed new displacement and acceleration detection algorithms based on the signal-to-noise ratio. These provide a means of assessing uncertainty and help narrow down the risk search space for site engineers.
• Ground-based radar innovations: Rocha highlighted Precision Atmospherics, an advanced algorithm that minimises atmospheric noise in radar data, significantly improving accuracy.

3. Versatile Applications Across Diverse Environments

The webinar also explored how these technologies are used in various environments, from open-pit and underground mines to tailing dams and civil infrastructure.

• Ground-based radar excels in harsh weather conditions and cold environments.
• InSAR can be used across a diverse set of applications including urban monitoring, linear infrastructure, oil and gas and engineering construction.

Both experts agreed that trends in movement are often more critical than the absolute displacement magnitude when monitoring geotechnical structures.

Key Insights

• InSAR provides a big-picture view for long-term planning, while ground-based radar offers real-time monitoring and immediate alerts.
• Trends in movement matter more than absolute magnitude when assessing geotechnical stability.
• Geotechnical Support Services can deliver 24/7 monitoring, validate false alarms, and produce insightful reports.
• Data integration platforms like GeoExplorer enhance performance by aggregating data from multiple sensors into a single, comprehensive interface.

The webinar made one thing clear: integrating InSAR and ground-based radar technologies is the way forward for comprehensive, reliable, and effective geotechnical monitoring — ensuring the safety and efficiency of mining operations and critical infrastructure.

Unlock the Full Webinar > Watch the webinar on-demand to learn more about how to combine ground-based radar and InSAR for monitoring displacement.

To learn more visit www.groundprobe.com and 3vGeomatics

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