Research Project
The Use of InSAR Data to Monitor the Hydrologic Response of a Confined Aquifer in the San Luis Valley, Colorado
The Place
The San Luis Valley (SLV) is an 8000 km2 valley, located on the northern side of the Colorado-New Mexico border.
The Problem
The San Luis valley has a vibrant agricultural economy that is highly dependent on the effective management of the limited water resources. The Rio Grand Decision Support System (RGDSS), a Colorado-state-funded project includes a hydrogeologic database and a MODFLOW finite-difference groundwater flow model. The critical challenge for the RGDSS, is acquiring sufficient data to characterize the spatially heterogeneous, time-varying behavior of the groundwater system.
Our Approach
Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) has emerged as a remote sensing method that can provide data to help constrain large-scale hydrogeologic models. The question we ask: How can we use InSAR data to model the response of the aquifer system?
Great Sand Dunes National Park in the foreground; Sangre De Cristo Mountains in the distance. Photo provided by Andrew Valdez.
Results to Date
Verified that high quality InSAR deformation measurements can be made in agricultural areas like the San Luis Valley (Reeves et al., 2011).
Identified similar seasonal trends in hydraulic head measurements and InSAR deformation measurements in the San Luis Valley (Reeves et al., 2011).
Estimated the uncertainty in the InSAR deformation measurements and propagated this uncertainty through the data processing chain.
Adapted a time-series processing algorithm such that high quality data are selected based upon the uncertainty of the final deformation time-series.
Current Work
Using the relationship between InSAR measured deformation data and hydraulic head data we are investigating ways that the deformation data can be used to interpolate and extrapolate hydraulic head measurements in time and space.
Project Lead/Contact
Jessica Reeves, Rosemary Knight, Howard Zebker
Project Collaborators
Willem A. Schreüder, Principia Mathematica
Piyush Shanker Agram, Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University
Tom Rune Lauknes, Northern Research Institute Tromsø Norway
Project Publications and Presentations
- Reeves, J.A., R. Knight, H.A. Zebker, (in review for IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing November 2012), An analysis of the uncertainty in InSAR deformation measurements for groundwater applications.
- Reeves, J.A., R. Knight, H.A. Zebker, W.A. Schreüder, P. Shanker Agram, P., T.R. Lauknes (2011), High quality interferometric synthetic aperture radar data linked to seasonal change in hydraulic head for an agricultural area in the San Luis Valley, Colorado, Water Resour. Res., 47, W12510, doi:10.1029/2010WR010312..
- Reeves, J., Knight, R., Zebker, H.A., (2012), An analysis of the uncertainty in InSAR deformation measurements for groundwater applications in the San Luis Valley, Colorado, Abstract G51B-1104 presented at 2012 Fall Meeting, AGU, San Francisco, Calif., 3-7 Dec.
- Reeves, J., Knight, R., Zebker, H.A., (2012), Estimating uncertainty in InSAR deformation measurements in the San Luis Valley, Colorado, poster at 2012 AGU Chapman Conference, Remote Sensing of the Terrestrial Water Cycle, Waikaloa, Hawaii, 19-23 Feb..
- Reeves, J., Knight, R., Zebker, H.A., Schreuder, W.A., (2011), InSAR imaging of seasonal groundwater change in the San Luis Valley, Colorado, Abstract NS13A-08 presented at 2011 Fall Meeting, AGU, San Francisco, Calif., 4-9 Dec.
- Reeves, J., Knight, R., Zebker, H.A., Schreuder, W.A., (2011), Satellite-Based InSAR Measurements: A New Approach to Groundwater Monitoring, poster at 2011 SAGEEP, Charleston, S.C., 10-13 Apr.
- Reeves, J. A., R. J. Knight, H. A. Zebker, W. A. Schreuder, P. Agram, and T. R. Lauknes (2011), High quality interferometric synthetic aperture radar data linked to seasonal change in hydraulic head for an agricultural area in the San Luis Valley, Colorado, Water Resour. Res., doi:10.1029/2010WR010312,
- Reeves, J., Knight, R., Zebker, H.A., Schreuder, W.A., Agram, P., Lauknes, T. (2010), InSAR data produce specific storage estimates for an agricultural area in the San Luis Valley, Colorado, Abstract H11K-08 presented at 2010 Fall Meeting, AGU, San Francisco, Calif., 13-17 Dec.
- Reeves, J., Knight, R., Zebker, H.A., Schreuder, W. A., Agram, P., Lauknes, T.R., High quality InSAR deformation measurements for an agricultural area in the San Luis Valley, EGU topical conference series on the hydrologic cycle: Earth Observation and Water Cycle Science, POSTER, November 2009.
- Reeves, J., Knight, R., Zebker, H.A., Schreüder, W. A., Agram, P., Lauknes, T.R., InSAR deformation time series for an agricultural area in the San Luis Valley, Eos Trans. AGU, 90(22), Jt. Assem. Suppl., Abstract H13A-03, POSTER, 2009.
