Imaging a decade of creep along the San Andreas Fault from UAVSAR: Initial Results

Chelsea P. Scott, & Manoochehr Shirzaei

Published August 14, 2019, SCEC Contribution #9635, 2019 SCEC Annual Meeting Poster #206

Our project focuses on using imagery from NASA’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) mission to image almost a decade of creep along the southern and central San Andreas Fault. The high coherence L-band UAVSAR imagery offers high potential for imaging deformation of on-fault and distributed creep and ultimately understanding controls on fault behavior. We intend that our results contribute towards integrating UAVSAR data into the SCEC Community Geodetic Model. Here, we present initial results of our project. Processed interferograms along the Central Creeping San Andreas Fault (creep rates of 25-30 mm/yr) remain highly coherent despite the presence of vegetation and show that deformation is localized to the fault. Along the Southern San Andreas Fault (creep rates of 2-4 mm/yr), creep is detectable particularly in the longer time-span interferograms. Despite these clear observations of fault motion in the UAVSAR imagery, significant noise likely from imprecise knowledge of aircraft position results in an apparent rate change along the fault. We also present Sentinel-1 results along a portion of the southern San Andreas Fault.

Key Words
UAVSAR; geodesy; San Andreas Fault

Citation
Scott, C. P., & Shirzaei, M. (2019, 08). Imaging a decade of creep along the San Andreas Fault from UAVSAR: Initial Results. Poster Presentation at 2019 SCEC Annual Meeting.

Related Projects & Working Groups
Tectonic Geodesy