European Ground Motion Service (EGMS)

Interferometric processing of a time series of acquisitions from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites makes it possible to detect and measure ground motion phenomena, typically caused by landslides, subsidence, earthquakes or volcanic activity, with millimeter-scale precision. This enables, for example, monitoring of the stability of slopes, mining areas, buildings and infrastructures. This work presents the European Ground Motion Service (EGMS), funded by the European Commission as an essential element of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS). The EGMS constitutes the first application of the interferometric SAR (InSAR) technology to high-resolution monitoring of ground deformations over an entire continent, based on full-resolution processing of all Sentinel-1 (S1) satellite acquisitions over most of Europe (Copernicus Participating States). Upscaling from existing national precursor services to pan-European scale is challenging. The EGMS will employ the most advanced persistent scatterer (PS) and distributed scatterer (DS) InSAR processing techniques in combination with a high-quality Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) model to calibrate the ground motion products. To foster as wide usage as possible, the EGMS will also provide tools for visualization, exploration, analysis and download of the ground deformation products, as well as elements to promote best practice applications and user uptake.