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2026 Technical Short Course: InSAR Processing and Theory using GMTSAR

Date(s): July 20-22, and August 7
Location: Virtual

APPLICATIONS OPEN AROUND MAY 18, 2026

Course Description:

This course covers the theory and application of repeat-pass synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) using the GMTSAR software package. Participants will learn foundational SAR/InSAR concepts and work hands-on to generate interferograms from test datasets (including recently available NISAR data) and (optionally) construct deformation time series.

Primary Audience:  Graduate and undergraduate students in Earth Science; early-career geoscientists in university, government, or industry. Participants attend plenary sessions and may work with instructors in small groups to learn GMTSAR and prepare an oral presentation.

Secondary Audience:  Participants who plan to attend plenary sessions only and may already have some InSAR processing experience, and are seeking updated theory and methods from the instructor team.

Learning Objective:

  • Use the UNIX shell and install software using a package manager.
  • Gather a topography grid and make a basic map using GMT.
  • Understand the basic physical principles of SAR and InSAR.
  • Generate interferograms with test datasets.
  • Make your own interferogram(s).
  • Optional (advanced): Construct InSAR time series using Sentinel‑1 data.

Participant Commitment:

Participants attend 3 online sessions (4 hours each). Exercises require approximately 3–4 hours per session (12–16 hours total offline work).

Prerequisites, Computer and Data:

Coursework/Content Knowledge:

  • Basic calculus and physics; familiarity with UNIX.

Scientific Computing Skills Required:

  • Python (Functional)
  • ObsPy (Beginning–Developing)
  • Jupyter Notebooks (Functional)
  • Linux/UNIX Shell Scripting (Functional)
  • Signal Processing (Developing)

Hardware:

  • Access to a UNIX computer (laptop, desktop, or cloud) with at least 12 GB RAM and 100 GB free disk space.

Software:

  • UNIX, GMT, GMTSAR.

Internet:

  • Stable connection for Zoom meetings and to download ~50 GB of SAR data.

Brief Agenda:

Tentative agenda is listed below, and subject to change.

July 20-22Plenary Sessions:
– Theory of InSAR
– Applications of InSAR
– How to access SAR data and NISAR
– Two-pass interferometry
– InSAR time series
July 23-August 5Smaller Group Sessions
August 7Student Presentations

Assessment:

Final presentation slides documenting participants’ work.

Instructors:

Jingyi (Ann) Chen, University of Texas at Austin

Katherine Guns, USGS

Dunyu LIu, University of Texas at Austin

Kathryn Materna, University of Colorado, Boulder

Roger Michaelides, Washington University

Wojciech Milczarek, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology

David Sandwell, University of California San Diego

Kang Wang, EarthSope

Matt Wei, University of Rhode Island

Xiaohua Xu, University of Science and Technology of China

Molly Zebker, Scripps Institution of Oceanography