How can Interferometry of Synthetic-Aperture Radar widen our ability to monitor temperate raised peatlands?

Alexis is currently an ESA Living Planet Fellow at University College Dublin (UCD, Dublin, Ireland). Since 2020 he has worked at the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Centre in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG) at University College Dublin (Ireland) to study ecohydrological conditions of Irish and British peatlands by using InSAR and SAR observations.

Previously he completed a Master and PhD in Earth Sciences in 2016 and 2019, respectively, at Université Clermont Auvergne (France). His PhD work dealt with the quantification of displacements related to lava flows at Piton de la Fournaise volcano, (La Réunion, France), using Interferometric synthetic-aperture radar (InSAR). He also implemented automatic processing of satellite radar data and developed new algorithms to monitor lava flow emplacements during eruptions.

Research objectives

The “Raised Peatland Ecohydrology Evaluation through Sentinel-1 InSAR data and Machine Learning” (RaiPEAT_InSAR) project will investigate linkages between ecohydrological parameters of raised peatlands and InSAR estimates to classify of ecohydrological dynamics of peatlands. The main objectives are as follows:

1. Ground validation of InSAR-derived surface motions of temperate raised peatlands by using co-located soil moisture, water table and in-situ displacement measurements.
2. Derivation of empirical relationships between soil moisture, groundwater levels, true surface displacement and InSAR-derived displacement for temperate raised peatlands.
3. Comparison of peatland surface motion data from the new European Ground Motion Service to both the in-situ ground measurements and local area InSAR data processing.
4. Upscaling of InSAR-derived water table fluctuation at temperate raised peatlands from site-scale to regional scales.
5. Classification of eco-hydrological dynamics of temperate raised peatlands from InSAR data via machine learning.