On The Long-Term Stability of the Norilsk TPP-3 Fuel Tanks Dynamics According to Sentinel-1 SAR Data.

Zakharov, A. I.; Zakharova, L. N.

The results of the interferometric processing and analysis of European spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Sentinel-1 acquired over the territory of Norilsk thermal power plant TPP-3 between July 2017 and August 2020 are presented. Twelve-day differential interferograms allow the estimation of the stability of the position of all TPP-3 oil reservoirs with respect to reference known stable targets. The strong distorting influence of meteorological precipitation, as well as of the freeze–thaw processes of snow cover on the TPP-3 territory, on the quality of interferometric phase measurements is noted. It is found that on all of the twelve-day interferometric observation intervals from July 2019 to August 2020 made in warm seasons, the relative position of all four reservoirs and the adjacent territory is stable within the accuracy of about 1.3 mm. According to observations of the reservoirs between July 2017 and August 2020 using summer interferograms with a one-year interval between image acquisitions, the long-term stability of the position is about 4 mm. We can conclude that the reservoir damage was not caused by areal displacements of the scattering surfaces in the study area, supposedly due to the melting of permafrost in the area of the reservoirs.

SENTINEL-1 (Artificial satellite); FUEL tanks; SYNTHETIC aperture radar; SNOW cover; PETROLEUM reservoirs; SURFACE scattering

Izvestiya, Atmospheric & Oceanic Physics, 2022, Vol 58, Issue 12, p1599

0001-4338

Academic Journal

10.1134/S0001433822120271