Interseismic deformation from Sentinel-1 burst-overlap interferometry: Application to the southern Dead Sea fault

Abstract

Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data are increasingly being used to map interseismic deformation with ascending and descending-orbit observations allowing for resolving for the near-east and vertical displacement components. The north component has, however, been difficult to retrieve due to the limited sensitivity of standard InSAR observations in that direction. Here we address this problem by using time-series analysis of along-track interferometric observations in burst-overlap areas of the TOPS imaging mode of the Sentinel-1 radar satellites. We apply this method to the southern part of the near-north striking Dead Sea transform fault to show that the ∼5 mm/year relative motion is well recovered. Furthermore, the results indicate the locking depth of the fault decreases towards the south as it enters the transtensional Gulf of Aqaba basin. Our results show that time-series analysis of burst-overlap interferometric observations can be used to obtain meaningful interseismic deformation rates of slow-moving and northerly-striking faults.