REGISTRATION OPENS MAY 1, 2024

This 5-day course will cover basic & advanced InSAR theory, InSAR processing with the JPL/Caltech InSAR Scientific Computing Environment (ISCE), methods for mitigating noise in InSAR data, access the ARIA standard InSAR product and prepare them for time-series analysis using ARIA-tools, InSAR time-series analysis with the MintPy software, pixel offset tracking, and basic data interpretation and modeling. 

Live lectures and demonstrations will be held on Zoom. For computing and training modules, we will use the Alaska Satellite Facility’s OpenScienceLab, which allows participants to execute real code on a remote server through a web browser. Pre-workshop training modules will allow participants to refresh important skills ahead of the course. Zoom-based “office hours” sessions held before and during the course provide opportunities for participants to ask questions and seek feedback. Additional, asynchronous means of communication will be provided via Slack.

Time: Daily 4-hour sessions, with 1-hour morning and evening office hours.
Primary Audience: Graduate students, postdocs and early career scientists interested in using InSAR in their research.
Secondary Audience: Instructors who plan to teach InSAR processing and analysis.

Learning Objectives

• Attendees will be able to process interferograms using the topsApp and stripmapApp workflows in ISCE
• Attendees will be able to distinguish between different sources of noise in InSAR data and apply appropriate corrections
• Attendees will be able to interpret interferograms and prepare them for modeling
• Attendees will be able to use pixel offset tracking to measure large surface motions such as those related to glaciers and large earthquakes
• Attendees will be able to use MintPy to perform time series analysis on coregistered stacks of InSAR data compiled using ARIA-tools and HyP3

Participant Commitment

• 5 days, 5 main sessions, with additional morning and evening office hours.
• Daily sessions are 4-5 hours long

Prerequisites, Computer and Data

• Graduate student status or equivalent past experience, in the geosciences or a related field
• Knowledge of Linux command line and Python is preferred, but not essential
• Computer with stable internet connection with connection speeds capable of sustaining live streaming
• Able to elucidate the research need, or other need, for taking the course in writing

Brief Agenda

August 5	– Plenary Lectures: Introduction and InSAR Theory (4-hours) – PM Office Hour (1-hour)
August 6	– AM Office Hour (1-hour) – Plenary Lectures: Sentinel-1 Processing and Interpretation (4-hours) – PM Office Hour (1-hour)
August 7	– AM Office Hour (1-hour) – Plenary Lectures: Dense Offsets and Modeling (4-hours) – PM Office Hour (1-hour)
August 8	– AM Office Hour (1-hour) – Plenary Lectures: Time Series Theory and Preparation (4-hours) – PM Office Hour (1-hour)
August 9	– AM Office Hour (1-hour) – Plenary Lectures: Time Series Processing and Analysis (4-hours)

Assessment

Attendees will demonstrate the learning goals by completing the majority of the assignments in the course.

Instructors

• Gareth Funning, University of California, Riverside
• Franz Meyer, University of Alaska Fairbanks / Alaska Satellite Facility
• Kang Wang, EarthScope
• More to be announced