A method for minimising of low frequency and unwrapping artefacts from interferometric calculations

On 7 September 1999 a magnitude MW55.9 earthquake occurred in the Athens area of Greece producing a subsidence of 6–7 cm detected by radar interferometry. This study introduces a processing technique, which produces a clear deformation pattern of the earthquake, mostly released from artefacts due to orbital effects, unwrapping cycle slipping errors and atmospherics disturbances. A set of 17 ERS-1 and ERS-2 SAR images acquired between December 1997 and January 2001 has been used. The contribution of each artefact to the interferograms was calculated, both in the frequency and spatial domains