Remote Sensing of Environment 221 (2019) 722–740

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Remote Sensing of Environment

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rse

Reconstructing movement history of frozen debris lobes in northern Alaska T

using satellite radar interferometry
⁎
Wenyu Gonga,b, Margaret M. Darrowc, , Franz J. Meyerb, Ronald P. Daanend
a
State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, China
b
Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA
c
Department of Mining & Geological Engineering, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA
d
Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (DGGS), Fairbanks, AK 99709, USA

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Frozen debris lobes (FDLs) are slow-moving landslides along permafrost-affected slopes, and consist of soil, rock,
InSAR organic debris, and areas of massive infiltration ice. Based on their proximity to the adjacent infrastructure, their
Permafrost size, and their flow dynamics, FDLs represent potential geohazards. Eight FDLs (FDL-A, -B, -C, -D, -4, -5, -7, -11)
Frozen debris lobe within the Dalton Highway corridor in the Brooks Range, Alaska, USA are the subject of this paper. We examined
Landslide
temporal and spatial variation of FDL displacement using medium-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)
Alaska
images and differential SAR Interferometry (dInSAR) techniques. European Remote Sensing satellite 1/2 (ERS 1/
2) and Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) acquisitions were used to generate co-
herent interferograms to study the displacement history of FDLs for 1995–1996 and 2006–2010. We conducted
an initial assessment of the capability of satellite InSAR to monitor FDL movement depending on data resolution,
season, and vegetation coverage, which also helped us to select useful interferograms. With multi-temporal
interferometric displacement maps, we found that seven investigated FDLs (FDL-7 was excluded from this sub-
experiment due to limited data coverage) demonstrated strong spatial and seasonal variations in their movement
patterns, with maximum displacement rates typically occurring in October and minimum displacement rates
during February or March, which is consistent with previously published field study results. Overall, through this
study we: (1) delineated the active FDLs during the winter period using a wrapped PALSAR interferogram; (2)
analyzed the spatial variation of the deformation field within each FDL body; (3) modeled the seasonal changes
of FDL deformation rates through the analysis of multi-temporal ERS tandem interferograms; and (4) integrated
InSAR-derived deformation rates with those obtained through historical imagery analysis to determine long-term
deformation rates. Results from this study fill the gaps left in the historical imagery analysis and provide im-
portant seasonal and spatial deformation data, which are essential in the development of a mitigation plan as
these features approach infrastructure. We also summarize our research experience studying these moving
features using satellite radar interferometry and believe this can be useful for future studies of similar features.

1. Introduction Simpson et al., 2016). FDLs represent potential geohazards because of

Frozen debris lobes (FDLs) are slow-moving landslides along per-
mafrost-affected slopes, and consist of soil, rock, organic debris, and
areas of massive infiltration ice (Daanen et al., 2012). We have iden-
tified 43 FDLs within the Dalton Highway corridor, and nearly 160
more throughout the Brooks Range, Alaska, USA (Darrow et al., 2016).
They were initially mapped as flow slides or rock glaciers; however in
recent studies, researchers identified that FDLs are different from rock
glaciers in their source, movement rate and mechanism, composition,
and surface coverage (Daanen et al., 2012; Darrow et al., 2016;
their proximity to adjacent infrastructure, their size, and their flow
dynamics. For instance, FDL-A (the closest FDL to the Dalton Highway,
Alaska) was only 25.6 m away from the toe of the highway embank-
ment based on our August 2018 field measurements. When it reaches
the highway, FDL-A will deposit over 19 m3 of debris on the road each
day. Thus, it is important to reconstruct the historical movement of
these FDLs and to monitor their current condition so that we can un-
derstand their motion dynamics and predict future movement.
Using historical aerial and satellite imagery, differential Global
Positioning System (DGPS) measurements, and subsurface

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mmdarrow@alaska.edu (M.M. Darrow).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2018.12.014
Received 8 July 2018; Received in revised form 29 November 2018; Accepted 9 December 2018
Available online 19 December 2018
0034-4257/ © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/).
W. Gong et al. Remote Sensing of Environment 221 (2019) 722–740

instrumentation, Darrow et al. (2016) determined the historic and
current displacement rates for eight FDLs. Their results indicate that the
FDLs moved asynchronously since 1955, with a general increasing
trend in their movement rates as well as signs of instability. Although
the optical aerial and satellite historical imagery covered the time span
between 1955 and 2014, the sparse sampling led to large gaps in the
time series (e.g., a data gap from 1993 to 2007), which resulted in less
certain long-term trend estimation. Results from previous field work
suggested that the FDLs move throughout the winter; however, because
the study area experiences a lack of daylight and cold temperatures
during the winter season (typically November through March), neither
DGPS measurements nor optical remote sensing imagery are optimal
techniques to monitor FDL rates throughout the winter months. Ad-
ditionally, the DGPS device measures displacement at discrete points
and can only provide limited information on the spatial distribution of
FDL displacement fields, which is important to understand before de-
veloping a mitigation plan as these features approach infrastructure.
Therefore, in this study we conducted research with Differential Syn-
thetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Interferometry (d-InSAR) techniques and
satellite SAR images acquired over these eight previously-studied FDLs
to investigate the variations of their temporal-spatial displacement
fields. Recently, d-InSAR techniques have been recognized as promising
tools for measuring ground deformation with centimeter to millimeter
accuracy (Hanssen, 2001; Massonnet et al., 1994; Rosen et al., 2000).
Since the 1990s, d-InSAR techniques also have been applied success-
fully to study permafrost features (e.g., Iwahana et al., 2016; Liu et al.,
2014a; Liu et al., 2013; Liu et al., 2014b; Liu et al., 2010; Wang et al.,
2017), as well as to investigate other natural hazards including volcano
and earthquake deformation, and landslides (Barboux et al., 2015;
Gong et al., 2014; Hu et al., 2016; Lindsey et al., 2015; Lu and Dzurisin,
2014; Tong et al., 2010).
Fig. 1a provides the location of the study area and the distribution
of the eight investigated FDLs along the Dalton Highway in northern
Alaska. In this study, acquisitions from two medium resolution SAR
satellite sensors, European Remote Sensing Satellite 1/2 (ERS 1/2) and
Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR), were
used to generate coherent interferograms to study the deformational
history of the selected FDLs. Fig. 1b provides the spatial coverage of
these acquisitions in the form of color-coded boxes. Data from other
SAR sensors (e.g., TerraSAR-X, Radarsat-1 and 2, and Sentinel-1) were
not used in this study as their acquisition parameters (i.e., temporal
baseline, wavelength, resolution) did not warrant coherent data over
the FDL features (see Section 3 for more information).
The objectives of this paper are to: (1) delineate the active FDLs
during the winter period using differential interferograms; (2) analyze
the spatial variation of the deformation field within each FDL body
using ERS data; (3) analyze the seasonal changes of FDL deformation
rates through the analysis of time series interferograms; and (4) analyze
the long-term deformation rate change of FDLs via a combination of
InSAR measurements with published rate measurements derived from
historical imagery and DGPS (Darrow et al., 2016). In Section 2, we
introduce the site conditions and datasets used to study FDLs. Using
coherence maps, Section 3 provides a performance analysis of InSAR in
measuring FDL movement and our strategy in selecting interferometric
pairs. We describe general methods to reconstruct displacement fields
in Section 4. Section 5 is a summary of the InSAR-derived deformation
results of the investigated FDLs, and we present our conclusions in
Section 6.
2. Study area and datasets
2.1. Site description
We studied eight FDLs in a 19 km by 38 km area along the Dalton
Highway in the south-central Brooks Range, between Wiseman and
Atigun Pass (Fig. 1a). This area is located in the transition zone between

(b)
(a)

Fig. 1. Geographic location of FDLs and corresponding topography. (a) Location of the investigated FDLs within Alaska (light green) and along the Dalton Highway
corridor (purple; Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) shown in green). (b) Coverage of SAR images from ERS and PALSAR sensors overlying Google Earth imagery
(Google, 2018); the filled white box is the same area of interest as the inset in (a); red, green, and gray boxes denote descending ERS 1/2 frames with path numbers of
315, 43, and 272, respectively; the blue and pink boxes are for ERS 1/2 ascending frames with path numbers of 178 and 407, respectively; the white box denotes a
PALSAR quad-polarization image pair (in descending orbit with path number 626); the black boxes denote two PALSAR frames (F1360 and F1350) from the same
path (number 255) in fine beam single-polarization mode and ascending orbit. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred
to the web version of this article.)

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W. Gong et al.
the Alaska Interior climate and the Arctic climate (Bieniek et al., 2012).
A climate summary from Wiseman, Alaska indicates that the average
annual air temperature is −5.2 °C. The maximum snow depth typically
occurs in February or March and averages 0.6 m, and the area is typi-
cally snow-free between June and September (data source: https://
wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?ak9869). Previous mapping efforts
indicated that our area of interest is underlain by continuous perma-
frost (Jorgenson et al., 2006); however, the permafrost in the southern
Brooks Range valleys is highly susceptible to degradation and active
layer deepening, due to the relatively warm and shallow permafrost
(CADIS, 2016), as well as warmer subsurface temperatures caused by
snowpack insulation (Daanen et al., 2012).
Daanen et al. (2012) provided an initial description of the FDLs in
this area and compiled a preliminary characterization of their move-
ment processes. More recently, researchers conducted field-based sur-
face and subsurface geotechnical studies at these FDLs (e.g., boreholes,
rock samples, etc.) to describe their composition and mechanical
properties (Darrow et al., 2016; Simpson et al., 2016). The study by
Darrow et al. (2016) suggests that FDLs typically form in and flow from
a catchment (e.g., FDL-A, FDL-B), or in some cases form at the base of a
slope with the accumulation of loose colluvium (e.g., FDL-C) or from
landslide deposits. FDLs are composed of a mix of frozen fine-grained
soil, rocks, and organic debris, as well as infiltration ice. The term
“infiltration ice” was borrowed from the literature on glaciers to de-
scribe ice formed from rain or snowmelt entering into cracks opened at
the surface (Darrow et al., 2016). Exposure of massive infiltration ice in
retrogressive thaw slumps (RTS) causes various stages of instability that
lead to morphological differences among the FDLs. Subsurface mea-
surements of FDL-A from 2013 to 2015 indicated an average active
layer depth of 2.3 m and an average permafrost temperature of
−0.85 °C at depths between 15.0 and 20.6 m (i.e., below the depth of
zero annual amplitude; Darrow et al., 2016). Despite the sub-freezing
temperatures, we observed evidence of water pressure during drilling,
and subsequent piezometer measurements indicated artesian conditions
at two depths (i.e., 16.3 m and 26.1 m below ground surface) within the
lobe (Darrow et al., 2017).
FDLs are often compared to rock glaciers, which are another type of
mass movement feature on mountain slopes in many permafrost regions
(Barsch, 1996). Although FDLs resemble rock glaciers in some aspects,
they differ in their distinguishable surface coverage (namely mature
white spruce forest and brushy vegetation), subsurface composition,
and typical movement rates and mechanisms (Daanen et al., 2012;
Darrow et al., 2016). For instance, Daanen et al. (2012) suggest that the
movement rates of FDLs are similar to common glaciers in the Brooks
Range, which is about an order of magnitude greater than those typical
of rock glaciers. A more detailed comparison between FDLs and rock
glaciers can be found in Darrow et al. (2016).
Fig. 2 illustrates the typical appearance and evidence of movement
on FDLs. Because of its recent rapid movement, FDL-D's surface
(Fig. 2a) is more exposed as the vegetative cover has been ripped apart.
The downslope movement causes tension and shearing (Fig. 2b),
forming cracks on the surface that cause trees to lean and split. The
photographic sequence in Fig. 2c–e illustrates the progressive widening
of a split spruce trunk from 2011 to 2017.
2.2. SAR imagery and auxiliary datasets
We chose PALSAR (L-band) and ERS 1/2 (C-band) acquisitions to
study movement rates of FDLs, because these acquisitions covered time
spans during the 1990s and 2000s that were not studied using historical
optical satellite images or DGPS measurements (Darrow et al., 2016).
We examined all ERS and PALSAR SAR images available in the archives
of the NASA Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) Distributed Active Archive
Center (DAAC) (https://vertex.daac.asf.alaska.edu/) for their suit-
ability to measure FDL movement. The details of SAR data from these
two sensors are as follows.
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Remote Sensing of Environment 221 (2019) 722–740
(1) Satellite ERS-1 (life span 1991–2000) and ERS-2 (life span
1995–2011) have similar configurations, both providing C-band
SAR acquisitions in a stripmap-type imaging mode. The pixel spa-
cing of the standard Single Look Complex (SLC) product of ERS-1/2
is about 8 m in range and 4 m in azimuth with a swath width of
about 100 km (ESA, 2018). During October 1995–June 1996, ERS-
1/2 satellites were operated in a tandem mission configuration,
meaning that the same area of the earth was revisited by ERS-1 and
ERS-2 with only one day offset (Duchossois and Martin, 1995). This
1-day temporal separation was ideal for the analysis of FDLs, and
we used these tandem pairs to reconstruct the displacement field of
FDLs with SAR interferometry techniques.
(2) The L-band PALSAR sensor was flown on board the Advanced Land
Observing Satellite (ALOS). We collected PALSAR SLC products in
fine resolution mode (about 4 m in range and 3 m in azimuth pixel
spacing with 70 km swath width) and polarimetric mode (about 9 m
in range and 4 m in azimuth pixel spacing with 30 km swath width)
(ASF, 2018) from the ASF archives. We expected the L-band
PALSAR data to have better performance than the C-band imagery
provided by ERS-1/2. This is because the L-band wavelength pe-
netrates deeper into snow and vegetation-covered surfaces (Rignot
et al., 2001), resulting in higher interferometric coherence (Zebker
and Villasenor, 1992).
Fig. 1b illustrates the SAR data coverage over our area of interest.
The ERS 1/2 sensors provide coverage with three tracks (P43, P315,
and P272) in descending orbit and two tracks (P178 and P407) in the
ascending direction. There are also three ALOS PALSAR tracks covering
our study area: ascending track P255 and descending track P262 (both
in fine resolution mode), and descending track P626 (quad-polarization
mode).
The rapid movement of FDLs, together with the frequent snow/ice
coverage, can lead to great changes in backscattering mechanisms over
our study area. Thus, as the first part of our study, we evaluated co-
herence conditions with different baseline configurations, which also
helped us to preselect interferogram pairs and develop a strategy for
our InSAR-based analysis of FDLs. Details and results of this coherence
analysis can be found in Section 3.
We used digital elevation model (DEM) products generated from
airborne interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IfSAR) data to pro-
vide topographic information needed for the formation of differential
interferograms. The airborne IfSAR images over northwest Alaska were
acquired in 2012 as part of the Alaska Statewide Digital Mapping
Initiative (USGS, 2013). The DEM derived from these data has a 5-m
resolution with vertical accuracy of 3 m over 0–10 degree slopes. The
IfSAR DEM only covers an area along the Dalton Highway corridor just
large enough to include the eight investigated FDLs. Nevertheless, as it
has higher accuracy than other available DEMs in this area, we used this
dataset to reduce the topography-induced phase errors in the differ-
ential interferometric phase and to calculate the average slope or-
ientation angles needed for the geophysical interpretation of InSAR
deformation measurements. In conjunction with SAR satellite orbit in-
formation, we also used DEM data to identify areas affected by SAR
geometry errors (e.g., shadow) and to compute the local incidence
angle. We used all of these geometry parameters to derive the down-
slope displacement rates of FDLs, which will be discussed in Section 4.2.
We added DGPS measurements obtained in the field from 2012 to
2016, to assist in the analysis of the InSAR displacement results. The
purpose was to extract the displacement history at the same geographic
locations, so that movements measured from multiple sources (e.g.,
InSAR and DGPS results) were comparable and trackable. We also
compared the DGPS measurements from the 2010s to the InSAR results
from 1995–1996 to 2007–2010, in order to understand the long-term
behavior of FDLs and gain insight into their year-to-year dynamics. This
analysis is presented in Section 5.
W. Gong et al.
Fig. 2. Typical FDL appearance and evidence of movement. (a) FDL-D in 2016; (b) shear along the right flank on FDL-7 in 2016; and a leaning, cracked tree on FDL-A
in (c) 2011, (d) 2015, and (e) 2017.
3. Coherence analysis and strategy of quantitative study
3.1. Coherence evaluation and interferograms selection
Limited by the ground coverage, climate conditions, and complex
terrain variations of the study area, we first identified the most ap-
propriate interferometric temporal and spatial baseline configurations
to generate coherent interferograms. Coherence is a critical factor in
InSAR processing, indicating two radar echoes at different times have
similar sets of backscattering mechanism (Zebker and Villasenor,
1992). We were especially concerned about the impact of temporal
decorrelation because the fast movement rates of FDLs – typically
1–10 m/ yr or more (Daanen et al., 2012) – would lead to changes in
geomorphology, and thus decorrelation, over a short period of time.
Additionally, the spatial extent of FDLs – typically 700–1400-m long
and 100–400-m wide (Darrow et al., 2016) – may be too small to be
identified using the medium-resolution PALSAR and ERS image pro-
ducts, and heavy vegetation and snow/ice coverage of this area in the
winter may produce poor results. Thus, prior to the displacement field
reconstruction, we first analyzed a large amount of ERS and PALSAR
coherence maps and corresponding differential interferograms with
various baseline configurations.
3.1.1. Temporal decorrelation
The coherence maps were derived from adaptively filtered inter-
ferograms with a 5-by-5 window size. Fig. 3 provides representative
examples of the coherence condition over three FDLs (FDL-A, -B, and
-C) with different wavelength and temporal baseline configurations.
Each interferogram overlays a Google Earth (Google, 2018) optical
image acquired in April 2014, when the area was snow-covered
(Fig. 3a). An ERS 1/2 (C-band) data pair with a temporal baseline of 1-
day shows high interferometric coherence across almost the entire area
(Fig. 3b). Only small parts of FDL-B and FDL-A demonstrate decorr-
elation. Decorrelation started within parts of the FDLs in the tandem
pairs (Fig. 3b–c), but as the temporal baseline increased to 35 days
(Fig. 3d), other parts of the image around the FDLs became dec-
orrelated. Additionally, with the same temporal separation, the same
area that is decorrelated in Fig. 3b (20/10/1995 to 21/10/1995) is
again coherent in Fig. 3c (27/03/1996–28/03/1996; all dates pre-
sented in this paper are in dd/mm/yyyy format). Note that the
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Remote Sensing of Environment 221 (2019) 722–740
perpendicular baseline separation of the 27/03/1996–28/03/1996 pair
(−69.78 m) is similar to that of the 20/10/1995 to 21/10/1995 pair
(61.98 m); hence, the decorrelation in Fig. 3b is not due to the geometry
decorrelation. As will be discussed in Section 5, we found that FDLs
move faster in October than in March. Therefore, we believe the dec-
orrelation in this short time interval (i.e., 1 day) at FDLs is mainly due
to backscatter changes.
Fig. 3d illustrates an ERS-2 data pair with a 35-day temporal
baseline. In this interferogram, all FDLs and surrounding areas show
almost full decorrelation. Fig. 3e and f are coherence maps produced
with L-band data with 46-day and 92-day temporal baselines, respec-
tively. In these two coherence maps, although the surrounding area
remains coherent, the three FDLs are decorrelated within 46 days and
become even worse within 92 days, especially FDL-A and -B. As evi-
denced by the areas surrounding the FDLs in Fig. 3e and f, the longer
wavelength (L-band) performs better in maintaining coherence. FDL-C
demonstrates relatively higher coherence due to its slower movement
rate as compared to FDL-A and -B (Darrow et al., 2016). We observed
similar decorrelation behavior for the other five studied FDLs, also
showing higher coherence in L-band than in C-band, and a strong de-
crease in correlation on FDLs as temporal baselines increase (please
refer to Figs. S1–S4 in the Supplement). These decorrelation patterns
can cause difficulties in displacement signal reconstruction.
3.1.2. Interferogram selection
Based on our interferogram tests, we found that a coherence limit of
~0.4 calculated from spatially filtered data (Section 3.1.1) is generally
sufficient to facilitate phase unwrapping and retrieve ground dis-
placements. A coherence limit of 0.4 also was suggested by Barboux
et al. (2015). Only the 46-day ALOS PALSAR pairs acquired in the
October and March time frames and ERS tandem-mode pairs were able
to produce interferograms that maintained sufficient coherence on
FDLs. All available ERS tandem pairs for the study area were acquired
between October 1995 and May 1996. The selected PALSAR scenes
were acquired in October and March of the years 2006 to 2011. Tables
1 and 2 summarize the temporal and spatial baselines as well as the
orbit information of the selected ERS and PALSAR pairs, respectively.
The ERS interferogram 13/12/1995–14/12/1995 (highlighted as bold
text in Table 1) was discarded because it was affected by strong, small
scale turbulent atmosphere signals that severely impacted the analysis
W. Gong et al. Remote Sensing of Environment 221 (2019) 722–740

Fig. 3. Demonstration of coherence change over FDLs with different radar wavelength and temporal baselines. Coherence condition is displayed in the color scale
shown to the right; ideal coherence has a value of 1. (a) Ground coverage of FDL-A, B, and -C (outlined in white) in April 2014 (from Google Earth (Google, 2018));
(b) ERS 1/2 tandem pair (20/10/1995 to 21/10/1995); (c) ERS 1/2 tandem pair (27/03/1996–28/03/1996); (d) ERS-2 35-day pair (14/10/1999–18/11/1999); (e)
PALSAR 46-day pair (07/12/2007 to 22/01/2008); and (f) PALSAR 92-day pair (22/10/2007 to 22/01/2008). All the coherence maps are overlaid on the Google
Earth optical image (the scale is noted in (a)). All dates presented in this paper are in dd/mm/yyyy format.

of FDL displacements. 3.2. General analysis strategy

The perpendicular baselines of the selected interferograms remain
smaller than 230 m for ERS pairs (see Table 1) and < 860 m for
PALSAR pairs (see Table 2). Both are far less than the suggested critical
baseline values (Sandwell et al., 2008), thus reducing geometry dec-
orrelation. The reported IfSAR DEM accuracy is about 3 m in the ver-
tical direction (GINA, 2012). We can calculate the maximum DEM-error
induced phase in selected interferograms (Ferretti, 2014), which cor-
responds to one-way range changes of about 5 mm in PALSAR inter-
ferograms and 2 mm for ERS interferograms. Hence, DEM errors have
limited impact on deformation estimates derived from InSAR.
Seven of the eight investigated FDLs are located on the east side of
the Brooks Range valley, with FDL-7 located on the west side (Fig. 1a
inset). Due to the oblique SAR satellite viewing geometry, movement
along FDL-7 was only observable in ERS ascending frames, whereas the
other seven FDLs on the east side of the valley were observed by des-
cending frames. Thus, FDL-7 was only captured by two available ERS
ascending pairs, while multiple ERS descending pairs effectively cov-
ered the remaining FDLs (Table 1). All nine listed PALSAR inter-
ferogram pairs covered the eight studied FDLs.
As summarized in Tables 1 and 2, these selected interferograms are
mostly disconnected from each other in time. Hence, most time series
InSAR methods like persistent scatters interferometry (Ferretti et al.,
2001; Hooper et al., 2007) or Small Baseline Subset InSAR (Berardino
et al., 2002; Lanari et al., 2004) are not suitable for this study, as both
of these approaches require a series of temporarily-connected inter-
ferogram networks (single-master or multi-master). Therefore, we could
only analyze the generated differential interferograms individually.
Additionally, it should be noted that the selected interferograms were
from multiple orbit paths of two microwave sensors having different
observation geometries. Hence, data from the different InSAR pairs had
to be converted to the same geometry for integrated analysis and dis-
cussion. To do so, we estimated line-of-sight (LOS) displacement rates
for FDLs from every individual differential interferogram, converted
LOS rates to the downslope direction, and then analyzed temporal
changes of their displacement rates in a multi-temporal manner. In
order to achieve our objectives, we designed the following analysis
strategy:

Table 1
ERS tandem pairs for the movement analysis of eight FDLs grouped by path number.
ID Master Slave B⊥(m) Frame/patha ID Master Slave B⊥(m) Frame/patha

1 04/10/1995 05/10/1995 229.29 F279/P43 8 01/01/1996 02/01/1996 −77.15 F279/P315

2 13/12/1995 14/12/1995 −90.09 F279/P43 9 20/10/1995 21/10/1995 61.98 F279/P272
3 21/02/1996 22/02/1996 141.59 F279/P43 10 24/11/1995 25/11/1995 151.65 F279/P272
4 27/03/1996 28/03/1996 −69.78 F279/P43 11 29/12/1995 30/12/1995 −112.14 F279/P272
5 01/05/1996 02/05/1996 −39.56 F279/P43 12 14/10/1995 15/10/1995 −135.84 F171/P178
6 23/10/1995 24/10/1995 83.73 F279/P315 13 12/02/1996 13/02/1996 139.64 F171/P407
7 27/11/1995 28/11/1995 53.81 F279/P315

a
F171 is in ascending orbit that covers FDL-7; F279 is in descending orbit that covers the remaining seven FDLs.

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W. Gong et al.
Table 2
PALSAR pairs for the movement analysis of FDL-C.
ID Master Slave B⊥(m) Frame/patha
1 04/12/2006 19/01/2007 −384.99 F1360/P255
2 22/10/2007 07/12/2007 297.37 F1360/P255
3 07/12/2007 22/01/2008 643.41 F1360/P255
4 24/10/2008 09/12/2008 348.81 F1360/P255
5 09/12/2008 24/01/2009 662.82 F1360/P255
a
P626 is in descending orbit; F255 is in ascending orbit.
(1) For the first objective of this paper (to delineate active FDLs during
the winter season), we used a single wrapped PALSAR differential
interferogram acquired during the winter period to outline the ac-
tively moving areas. As shown in the above coherence analysis,
PALSAR L-band data demonstrated better performance than ERS C-
band data for this task. Additionally, the revisit of PALSAR inter-
ferograms was 46 days, which more effectively captured the accu-
mulated displacement of FDLs, increasing the displacement signal-
to-noise ratio to isolate the moving FDLs from the relatively stable
background.
(2) For the second objective (to analyze the spatial variation of the
deformation field within each FDL body), we used unwrapped ERS
tandem differential interferograms to investigate the 2D displace-
ment fields of FDLs; Figs. S5–S9 in the Supplement illustrate all
unwrapped interferogram subsets for eight FDLs. Given that there
were only two ascending pairs (one in October and another in
February) that cover FDL-7 and in order to discuss all eight FDLs
together, we chose two descending pairs acquired in the same
month to analyze and compare all eight FDLs.
(3) For the third objective (to analyze the seasonal changes of FDL
deformation rates), we excluded FDL-7 from this analysis and used
all available descending unwrapped ERS pairs for the other seven
FDLs. To facilitate this multi-temporal analysis, we extracted dis-
placement measurements at a set of ground control points (GCPs)
from each interferogram and used the extracted information for
time series analysis. DGPS locations were used as GCPs. Examples of
point-by-point analyses will be provided for FDL-A and -B. The time
series of spatial average movement rates at GCPs for seven FDLs
will be presented and compared for comprehensive analysis. As the
selected ERS tandem pairs only covered a portion of a year (i.e.,
from 1995 October to 1996 May), we used other published data to
supplement our analysis.
(4) For the last objective (to analyze the long-term deformation rate
change of FDLs), we compared ERS tandem pair measurements to
historical optical remote sensing results obtained by Darrow et al.
(2016). We excluded FDL-7 from this part of the study due to the
limited InSAR coverage of this FDL. Additionally, we added
PALSAR interferograms to analyze FDL-C's long-term displacement
rate. The selected PALSAR interferograms measured cumulative
displacement over 46 days, which is ideal to study FDLs with slower
displacement rates, such as FDL-C. As discussed above, rapid dis-
placement causes the ground target to move out from the satellite
imagery resolution, causing decorrelation. More details will be
presented in Section 5.
4. Methods to reveal the displacement history
In this section, we discuss the composition of the measured inter-
ferometric phase in order to reconstruct the FDL displacement fields.
InSAR measures the displacement in the satellite-to-ground LOS direc-
tion. The LOS results need to be converted to the downslope direction
so that the measurements from different satellite geometries (e.g., in-
terferograms from ERS 1/2 multiple paths) can be combined for sub-
sequent combined analysis.
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Remote Sensing of Environment 221 (2019) 722–740
ID Master Slave B⊥(m) Frame/patha
6 24/01/2009 11/03/2009 781.83 F1360/P255
7 15/12/2010 30/01/2011 744.69 F1360/P255
8 30/01/2011 17/03/2011 857.91 F1360/P255
9 27/10/2007 12/12/2007 520.00 F2230/P626
4.1. Differential interferogram processing
We processed the ERS 1/2 data with a multi-look factor of 1 in range
and 5 in azimuth. The fine beam mode PALSAR data was processed
with a multi-look factor of 2 in range and 3 in azimuth, and of 1 in
range and 2 in azimuth for quad-polarimetric imagery. These proces-
sing steps were made to reduce speckle noise while preserving spatial
resolution. We also filtered interferograms with an adaptive spectral
filter prior to the unwrapping step (Werner et al., 2002). The inter-
ferometric phases were unwrapped using a minimum cost flow (MCF)
approach (Costantini, 1998; Werner et al., 2002). For the regions cov-
ering the targeted FDLs, we manually checked for unwrapping errors,
or the 2π phase jump between neighboring coherent pixels at FDLs in
the resulting interferograms. We identified unwrapping errors only at
FDL-7 in the 14/10/1995–15/10/1995 pair and applied appropriate
phase corrections. Assuming that the displacement field at FDLs to be
continuous in space, we manually outlined affected pixels and corrected
unwrapping errors by manually compensating for the 2π phase jump.
The unwrapped differential interferometric phase, ϕp, i, of a pixel p in
an interferogram i can be modeled using Eq. (1) (Hanssen, 2001):
ϕp, i = ϕp, i, defo + ϕp, i,topo + ϕp, i, orbit + ϕp, i, atm + ϕp, i, noise (1)
where ϕp, i, topo is the phase contribution caused by inaccuracy of the
terrain data, ϕp, i, defo is the projection of ground target movement (FDL
motion vector) into the satellite's LOS direction, ϕp, i, orbit is the phase
introduced by inaccuracies in the satellite orbits, ϕp, i, atm is caused by
the atmospheric distortions between two image acquisition times, and
ϕp, i, noise is the noise term consisting of system thermal noise, decorr-
elation noise, etc.
Based on field measurements, we expected excessive deformation
for the studied FDLs, thus making ϕp, i, defo the dominant contribution to
ϕp, i. The ϕp, i, topo term is a function of the perpendicular baseline (B⊥)
and height difference (also referred as height-error below) between the
external DEM and real terrain conditions at the time of acquisition. For
our selected interferograms, we minimized the ϕp, i, topo by using small
perpendicular baselines together with the IfSAR DEM; however, given
that FDLs are fast-moving features as introduced in Section 2.1, this
may still cause tens of meters difference in vertical terrain elevation.
The perpendicular baseline values listed in Tables 1 and 2 correspond to
a maximum height-error related phase term (phase per meter of height-
error) of about 0.15 rad/m for ERS and about 0.10 rad/m for PALSAR.
Assume, for example, a 10-m height-error, which may have occurred
between the 2012 IfSAR DEM and the 1995 real terrain condition. This
height difference will impact the ERS data analysis the most, corre-
sponding to about 6.6 mm in one-way distance change in LOS direction
for ERS with about 230 B⊥. Because all interferograms are significantly
impacted by the displacement signal at FDLs, we cannot estimate the
height-error to rebuild an accurate DEM model like that presented in Lu
et al. (2012) from these data. Note that this height difference is the most
significant at an FDL's toe with its progressive downslope movement,
while the height difference is less for other parts of the FDL. Thus, we
use caution in the subsequent analysis.
As we were only interested in the deformation of FDLs, which have
small spatial extents compared to the size of the overall SAR image
frame, the typically large-scale linear phase ramp that consists of ϕp, i,
W. Gong et al. Remote Sensing of Environment 221 (2019) 722–740

orbit and part of ϕp, i, atm were largely removed by subtracting planar presented in Eq. (2):
trends from ϕp, i. The impact from the rest of the ϕp, i, atm contribution,
λ ϕp, i
which consists of troposphere and ionosphere signals, was reduced by ds = − ·
setting up a proper spatial reference area close to the targeted FDLs. A 4π sin(θlocal ) ∙cos(α x ) (2)
spatial reference area is a location that ideally is stable through time
Fig. 4c is an example of the simplified geometry formed by mapping
and corresponds to a set of nearby pixels in SAR imagery. Thus, the
Fig. 4a into the N-E plane, in which ds, g is the result of projecting ds′
spatial reference area also can be used in determining FDL displacement
into the N-S plane. The satellite heading angle α is defined as the angle
rates. Using reference areas nearby the sliding surfaces reduces ϕp, i, atm
between geographic north and the satellite flight direction, thus α
because the typical FDL size is smaller than the correlation length of
∈(−π, π]. The slope orientation angle (or slope heading angle) αs is
atmosphere delay signals. Note that ionospheric distortions have
defined relative to the geographic north direction, αs ∈(−π, π]. The
stronger impacts in L-band PALSAR data than C-band ERS data, and are
symbol αx′ denotes the angle between ds, g and the SAR satellite ground
more significant at higher latitudes (Gray et al., 2000; Meyer et al.,
range direction. The example in Fig. 4 represents InSAR imagery in an
2006). Nevertheless, the spatial scale of ionosphere delays is generally
ascending orbit and the slope oriented in the southwest direction.
large and phase screens are generally spatially smooth (Meyer, 2010).
Mapping the geometry into the up-range plane, Fig. 4b demonstrates
Hence, one can assume that the ionosphere condition of the region near
using the local incidence angle θlocal to convert between dlos and ds′.
FDLs is the same based on their small spatial extents. Similarly for the
Assuming right-looking InSAR sensors (e.g., ERS and PALSAR) and
troposphere phase, the spatial reference zone in near-field is expected
according to the above definitions, satellite heading angles are defined
to be useful in the mitigation, because the troposphere signal is con-
sidered to be spatially correlated at small scales (2–3 km) (Colesanti (π π
(
as α ∈ − 2 , 0⎤ for ascending orbits and α ∈ −π,− 2 ⎤ for descending
⎦ ⎦
frames. Also, as shown in Fig. 4a, αx′ is the projection of the angle (αx)
et al., 2003). Therefore, we selected an individual spatial reference zone ′
between ds and ds. In order to simplify the equation linking dlos to ds, we
each for FDL-D, -7, and -11, and shared spatial reference zones for the
assume that αx = αx′, which is only a strict relationship in cases were
groups of FDL-A, -B, and -C, and FDL-4 and -5, since these FDLs are
the slope angle (θs in Fig. 4a) is close to zero. Using this assumption, we
immediately adjacent to each other. Each spatial reference zone was
find that cos(αx′) ≅ ± sin (αs − α), with the sign depending on the sa-
located near but not on the FDLs, to separate the relative displacement
tellite heading and slope orientation direction. By analyzing all possible
between FDLs and the surrounding surface and to mitigate the impact
combinations between InSAR satellite heading trajectories (ascending
of the previously mentioned error signals on FDL movement measure-
and descending) and slope directions, Eq. (2) can be rewritten as Eq.
ments. The zones were located in an area near the valley bottom that
(3):
was assumed to be more stable (e.g., close to the Dalton Highway).
Overall, with this data processing scheme, we minimized the con-
⎧− λ ·
tribution of nuisance signals on InSAR-based FDL deformation rate es- ⎪ 4π
timates. ⎪ ϕp, i
⎪ (a)
⎪ sin (θlocal ) ∙sin (αs − α )
⎪
4.2. Converting LOS measurements to the downslope direction ⎪ π
α ∈ ⎛− , 0] and αs ∈ (0, π ]
⎪ ⎝ 2
Because the processed SAR images were from two different satellites ⎪ if or
⎪
and multiple paths, it was necessary to convert all the InSAR LOS dis- ⎪ π
α ∈ (−π , − ⎤ and αs ∈ (−π , 0]
placements into a common reference frame in order to compare the ⎪ 2⎦
ds ≅
InSAR results to each other and to the field DGPS measurements. First ⎨ λ
of all, we assumed that each FDL was moving along the downslope ⎪ + 4π ·
⎪
vector direction. Based on the geometries of the satellites and the sur- ⎪ ϕp, i
face slopes at FDL locations, the LOS measurement and downslope ⎪ (b)
⎪ sin (θlocal ∙sin (αs − α )
)
displacement can be connected through projections. Table 3 sum- ⎪ π
marizes the definitions of symbols used in this section. ⎪ α ∈ ⎛− , 0] and αs ∈ (−π , 0]
⎪ ⎝ 2
Shown in Fig. 4a, the downslope displacement ds is projected into a or
⎪ if
plane that is defined by the sensor's LOS direction and the satellite nadir ⎪ π
point, resulting in ds′ (where ds′ = ds· cos (αx), and αx is the angle be- ⎪ α ∈ (−π , − ⎤ and αs ∈ (0, π ]
⎩ 2⎦
tween ds′ and ds). The measured InSAR LOS displacement is the result of
(3)
ds′ projected in the satellite LOS direction as demonstrated in Fig. 4b by
dlos (where dlos = ds′· sin (θlocal), as well as dlos = − 4π ·ϕp, i ). Hence, con-
λ
Eq. (3a) is used for (i) ascending geometry and 0 < αs ≤ π (e.g.,
verting dlos to ds can be done by solving the geometric relationship ERS ascending pairs and FDL-7), and (ii) descending geometry

Table 3
List of symbols used in converting LOS measurements to the downslope direction.
Symbol Description Symbol Description

E-N-Up East-North-Up coordinates ds FDL downslope movement

dlos Projection of ds in satellite LOS direction, or InSAR mapped displacement ds′ Projection of ds in the plane defined by satellite range and up direction
ds, g Projection of ds in the N-E plane α Satellite heading angle (from north direction to satellite flight direction (α
∈(−π, π])
αx Angle between ds and ds′ αx ′ Projection of αx in N-E plane
αs Slope orientation angle (or slope heading angle) relative to the north direction θlocal Local incidence angle
(αs ∈(−π, π])
θs Slope angle, between slope and N-E flat surface) Rg Ground range direction
Vs Satellite flight direction Vs, g Projection of the satellite flying direction into the N-E plane.
λ Radar signal wavelength ⎯⎯⎯→
N1 Local surface normal
⎯⎯⎯→ Vector normal to the satellite LOS direction
N2

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Fig. 4. Demonstration of viewing geometry of downslope displacement and InSAR satellite viewing direction. (a) An overview in a 3-dimensional (E-N-Up co-
ordinate) presentation, assuming an ascending orbit; (b) projecting the geometry into the plane of vertical direction-range direction; (c) a view of the geometry
relationship in N-E coordinates, also assuming an ascending orbit. Symbol definitions are provided in Table 3.

and−π < αs ≤ 0 (e.g., ERS descending pairs and FDL-A, -B, -C, -D, -4,
-5, and -11). Eq. (3b) is used for (i) ascending geometry and−π <
αs ≤ 0, and (ii) descending geometry and 0 < αs ≤ π.
We evaluated these geometry parameters for each image pixel using
InSAR satellite parameter files and the input DEM for each pixel. The
local incidence angle maps and heading angle maps were generated
based on the input DEM data and satellite orbit information. To reduce
noise in the local incidence angle map, we applied a low-pass filter with
a pass-band width of 5% of the sampling bandwidth of the original
DEM. We chose this filter because we were only interested in movement
along the general downslope direction; thus we wanted to keep the
overall slope topography rather than the subtle surface features con-
tained in the high resolution IfSAR DEM.
5. InSAR measurements, displacement results, and analysis
Based on the interferogram selection and displacement reconstruc-
tion strategy discussed above, next we discuss the processed ERS and
PALSAR interferograms that are used to analyze temporal and spatial
evolution of the moving FDLs.
5.1. Delineating the active FDLs during the winter period using ALOS
PALSAR InSAR
Fig. 5a contains a segment of the selected wrapped PALSAR inter-
ferometric pair (15/12/2010 to 30/01/2011) covering areas along the
Dalton Highway. Multiple moving features can be identified along the
adjacent slopes, distinguished by their dense (colorful) fringe patterns
in contrast to the more homogeneous background; these fringes in-
dicate ground movement during this interferogram acquisition period.
Fig. 5b–e provide a closer look at eight targeted FDLs (outlined with
yellow polygons). While most FDLs show significant motion, FDL-11 is
an exception, as this PALSAR pair did not record any evidence of its
movement during this time of year; its approximate location is denoted
with yellow dotted lines in Fig. 5b. The other 25 FDL-like features
identified via this PALSAR interferogram in this region are outlined
with white polygons. Also, there is evidence of movement along the
Dietrich River (blue line in Fig. 5). We suspect that this movement is
due to winter aufeis and wet snow along the riverbed because: (a) the
location of this signal overlaps the river bed in the valley bottom; (b) we
have observed aufeis formation along the Dietrich River in this area
during multiple winters; and (c) as indicated by (Li Shusun et al., 1997),
aufeis deposits form every year on many rivers in northern Alaska and
their growth causes phase changes in interferograms. InSAR satellite
geometry errors in areas with steep topography are mostly masked out

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(b)
(a)

(b)

(c)

(c) (d)

(d)

(e)

(e)

Fig. 5. Outline map of FDLs for a segment of the Dalton Highway from a wrapped PALSAR differential interferogram (a); (b)–(e) correspond to larger scale images of
red boxes in (a). The SAR images were acquired on 15/12/2010 and 30/01/2011. FDLs are outlined by yellow polygons, except FDL-11, whose approximate location
is denoted with a yellow dotted line in subplot (b). White polygons denote the other FDL-like active areas that are not currently studied. All images share the same
color bar and legend. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

in Fig. 5 and appear as white areas.
5.2. Spatial deformation patterns on FDL surfaces from ERS interferograms
Following the scheme described in Section 3.2, two descending
tandem pairs, one acquired on 04/10/1995 and 05/10/1995 and an-
other on 21/02/1996 and 22/02/1996, were selected for FDLs located
on the east side of the valley (FDL-A, -B, -C, -D, -4, -5, and -11). Two
ascending ERS tandem pairs, one acquired on 14/10/1995 and 15/10/
1995 and another one on 12/02/1996 and 13/02/1996, were used for
FDL-7 located on the west side of the valley. We calculated the down-
slope displacement following the strategy presented in Section 4.2.
Table 4 summarizes the slope orientation parameters used in dis-
placement reconstruction, which we determined from the satellite
viewing geometry and the DEM. Fig. 6 contains the displacement fields
of the eight FDLs calculated from the ERS tandem pairs. For each
subfigure, we overlaid color-coded displacement maps onto IfSAR
DEMs for visualization. Note that we only show InSAR measurements
for the area with similar slope geometry at each FDL location, and
discard measurements over water bodies (i.e., river or lake) or with
significantly different terrain conditions. We calculated the area of the
outlined moving zone, and the maximum and mean daily displacement
rates for the two acquisition time intervals (Table 4). Red circles (Fig. 6)
denote the local reference zones used for the individual interferograms,
whose sizes are about 50 by 125 m on the ground. Any negative values
in the interferometric displacement maps are masked and not displayed
in Fig. 6. These negative values were most likely due to an unstable
reference zone, or the impact from freeze/thaw processes on the ground

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Table 4
Slope geometry parameters, size measurements, and maximum displacement rates for eight FDLs.
ID Acquisition dates Average θlocal Average α αs Area of moving zone (m2) Maximum displacement (mm/day) Mean displacement (mm/day)

A 04/10/1995–05/10/1995 44.0° −162.1° −116.3° 194,795 27.7 15.1

21/02/1996–22/02/1996 199,426 7.1 2.9
B 04/10/1995–05/10/1995 44.0° −162.1° −116.3° 49,091 56.0 18.2
21/02/1996–22/02/1996 32,307 3.2 1.2
C 04/10/1995–05/10/1995 44.0° −162.1° −116.3° 178,452 11.9 3.1
21/02/1996–22/02/1996 113,201 3.0 0.8
D 04/10/1995–05/10/1995 45.1° −162.0° −130.7° 89,935 37.7 14.6
21/02/1996–22/02/1996 52,407 5.0 1.7
4 04/10/1995–05/10/1995 45.7° −162.0° −135.6° 47,087 15.8 5.6
21/02/1996–22/02/1996 31,491 4.1 1.0
5 04/10/1995–05/10/1995 45.7° −162.0° −135.6° 82,351 33.1 7.0
21/02/1996–22/02/1996 69,075 6.2 2.0
11 04/10/1995–05/10/1995 48.0° −162.1° −101.8° 24,940 14.0 7.3
21/02/1996–22/02/1996 / / /
7 14/10/1995–15/10/1995 41.7° −17.5° −83.4° 83,392 52.3 27.8
12/02/1996–13/02/1996 108,425 16.7 8.2

surface. This is especially obvious in the winter time when there is less
displacement signal and potentially active ground deformation through
frost heave. This may be improved for future work by adding ground
control measurements, e.g., continuous GPS in the study area.
The reconstructed deformation maps for FDL-A, -B, and -C from
1995 October and 1996 February are shown in Fig. 6a and b, respec-
tively. Note that these FDLs share the same values of slope orientation
geometry parameters and spatial reference zone as they are located in
close proximity to each other. The reference zone was located to the
west of the Dalton Highway due to FDL-A's close proximity to the east.
Movement in the catchment for FDL-A and -B is more obvious than for
the other FDLs. We outlined the active portions of their catchments for
these months (dashed blue lines in the figures) based on the measured
displacement maps. We did not see similar displacement above FDL-C,
which is supported by Darrow et al.'s (2016) supposition that FDL-C is
formed from the accumulation of loose colluvium from the above slope.
As the spatial extent of FDL-C is the second largest in this study, we
suspect that its relatively lower movement rate is related to its limited
water supply (Darrow et al., 2016). The data indicate that the max-
imum displacement occurred in October (Fig. 6a). The largest dis-
placement was near the toe of the FDL-B, with a rate of 56.0 mm/day.
At the same time, the maximum displacement on the surface of FDL-A
was approximately 27.7 mm/day and located along its center line. The
displacement of FDL-C was much smaller than its neighbors, with a
maximum value of about 11.9 mm/day. Fig. 6b demonstrates the one-
day displacement of the same region in early 1996 February. The de-
forming areas of FDL-B and -C shrank significantly whereas the spatial
extent of FDL-A's deforming area increased slightly from October to
February. The movement rate of FDL-A decreased, especially in its
catchment, while FDL-A's toe remained relatively active with a max-
imum observed displacement of about 7.1 mm/day. The movement rate
of FDL-B dropped significantly from October to February.
The same scheme described above was used to calculate the
downslope displacement of FDL-D (Fig. 6c and d). In October, the upper
lobe near the catchment demonstrated a higher rate (maximum of
37.7 mm/day and mean rate of 14.6 mm/day), while in February only
part of this area indicated displacement, with its lower extent being
more active. As with FDL-A, -B, and -C, the deformation rate decreased
in February with a maximum observed displacement of 5.0 mm/day.
The signal-to-noise ratio in the area surrounding FDL-4 and -5
(Fig. 6e and f) was much smaller than for the previous four FDLs. This is
because the overall displacement rates and spatial extents of FDL-4 and
-5 were smaller than those previously discussed. Nevertheless, their
deforming areas can be isolated from the background, with mean dis-
placements of 5.6 mm/day in October and 1.0 mm/day in February for
FDL-4, and 7.0 mm/day in October and 2.0 mm/day in February for
FDL-5. With the background DEM, we outlined the deforming
catchment areas of FDL-4 and -5, both of which are well-defined. Note
that north of FDL-5, there is a steep slope that created geometry errors
and compromised our InSAR estimation; this area has been masked in
Fig. 6e and f.
Fig. 6g and h contain the displacement field data for FDL-11. For
October, FDL-11's maximum displacement was approximately
14.0 mm/day (Fig. 6e); however, no downslope deformation was pre-
sent on FDL-11 in 1996 February. This confirms our finding from Fig. 5
that there was no apparent movement of FDL-11 at this time during
deep winter.
Finally, the displacement maps for FDL-7 are presented in Fig. 6i
and j. The catchment of FDL-7 is an open slope (Darrow et al., 2016),
which did not demonstrate deformation during this period; however,
the lower tongue-shaped portion of FDL-7 demonstrated significant
deformation (52.3 mm/day) in October. The displacement pattern
changed significantly in February, when the inner part of the lobe de-
monstrated the strongest motion with maximum observed displacement
of 16.7 mm/day (Fig. 6j). Similar to FDL-A, the overall size of the
moving area increased from October to February, which may be related
to its fast progressive downward movement and expansion of its body
coverage. Among the eight studied features, FDL-7 had the largest mean
displacement rate during this time period.
Overall, the data in Fig. 6 demonstrate that the internal deformation
field of every FDL changed spatially from 1995 October to 1996 Feb-
ruary. FDL-A, -B, and -7 demonstrated greater displacements in October
as compared to the other lobes. The most active lobe during this period
was FDL-7, whereas the ERS tandem data did not record evidence of
movement of FDL-11 in 1996 February. All of these measurements were
the result of a single date. In other words, the displacement mapped
using ERS tandem pairs is a spontaneous one-day displacement rather
than an average daily measurement. Thus, the displacement values may
vary slightly from date to date, which will be discussed in the next
subsection. Additionally, it must be stressed that these values were
derived by converting the satellite's LOS direction into the downslope
motion and also were relative to each selected spatial reference area,
potentially resulting in inaccuracy in the absolute movement rates.
Relative rates of deformation produced from this analysis, however, are
valid.
5.3. Seasonal variation of FDL velocity derived from ERS interferograms
With the strategy presented in Section 3.2, we analyzed month-to-
month changes of seven FDLs' movement from 1995 October to 1996
May; FDL-7 was excluded from this study. We analyzed a set of ERS
tandem pairs acquired in the descending orbit direction and compared
temporal changes in their displacements. Since this data set covered
two thirds of the year, it captured some seasonal changes in FDL

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(a) FDL-B, -A, -C, 04/10/1995 - 05/10/1995
(c) FDL-D, 04/10/1995 - 05/10/1995
Fig. 6. Deformation field in the downslope direction reconstructed from ERS tandem pairs for (a and b) FDL-A, -B, and -C; (c and d) FDL-D; (e and f) FDL-4 and -5; (g
and h) FDL-11; and (i and j) FDL-7. The displacement periods are as indicated in each sub-figure title. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure, the
reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
movement. Fig. 7 illustrates the DGPS measurement locations (red dots)
on top of the DEM. Note that the DGPS measurements at these GCPs
were collected beginning in 2012 for FDL-A and in 2013 for the other
investigated FDLs, while the ERS tandem pairs were acquired in 1995
and 1996. We only used the points inside the FDL outlines based on the
1995 October movement maps as GCPs. Despite the difference in time
between the InSAR and DGPS data, the benefit of using the same GCPs
was to record displacement conditions at consistent locations. Ana-
lyzing the spatial distribution of these DGPS points, we found that FDL-
D moved the most downslope from 1995 to 2012, accelerating at some
point after 1995. This is supported by the historical remote sensing
results, field observations between 2009 and 2012, and DGPS ob-
servations by Darrow et al. (2016).
Considering the observed large movement at the toe of FDL-B, we
added two extra GCPs (a1 and a2) in this area for analysis. For each
GCP location, the displacement was calculated by merging three pixels
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Remote Sensing of Environment 221 (2019) 722–740
(b) FDL-B, -A, -C, 21/02/1996 - 21/02/1996
(d) FDL-D, 21/02/1996 - 21/02/1996
in the geocoded displacements maps. Pixels in the north direction were
averaged, so every merged pixel group used for comparison represented
a ground size of about 50 m by 50 m. The standard deviation of these
three pixels was computed and used as error bounds of the deformation
measurement at each location. In this way, the averaged measurement
represented the movement of the corresponding segment of FDLs, as-
suming that the spatial variation of the displacement field was rela-
tively small within every merged region.
Time series information was extracted for GCP locations for these
seven FDLs. Fig. 8 contains point-wise time series examples for FDL-A
and FDL-B. We selected six GCPs with better signal-to-noise ratios for
both locations for demonstration. Note that some GCPs (e.g., P1, P2,
and P4 on FDL-B) indicated negative displacement from December to
March. This most likely indicates that their deformation rates were too
small at that time, leading to substantial noise in the raw estimates.
Based on these data, FDL-A moved the fastest in early October, followed
W. Gong et al. Remote Sensing of Environment 221 (2019) 722–740

(e) FDL-5, -4, 04/10/1995 - 05/10/1995 (shadowed (f) FDL-5, -4, 21/02/1996 - 21/02/1996
area denotes a low confidence zone impacted by a (shadowed area denotes a low confidence zone
steep terrain change) impacted by a steep terrain change)

(g) FDL-11 04/10/1995 - 05/10/1995 (h) FDL-11, 21/02/1996 - 21/02/1996

(i) FDL-7, 14/10/1995-15/10/1995 (j) FDL-7, 12/02/1996-13/02/1996

Fig. 6. (continued)
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Fig. 7. Spatial distribution of ground control points (GCPs) at seven FDLs: (a) FDL-11; (b) FDL-B, -A and -C; (c) FDL-D; (d) FDL-5 and -4. The red dots indicate the
locations of DGPS measurements. Red polygons are the FDL outlines based on 1995 October data, which is the same as in Fig. 6. The background image is the color-
coded DEM. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

by a drop in motion with a minimum around late February/early
March. The temporal change in motion of FDL-B demonstrated some
similarity, although its rate drop from October was much more rapid.
Additionally, FDL-B was the most active FDL in October, especially at
its toe; however, the displacement rate at the toe dropped faster than
the rest of the lobe (e.g., a1 and a2 in Fig. 8b). Considering the per-
pendicular baseline of the interferogram pair 04/10/1995–05/10/1995
is the largest among those listed in Table 1, we suspect that this toe
activity at FDL-B maybe related to the height difference between the
IfSAR DEM and real terrain conditions in 1995 as discussed in Section
4.1. Therefore, we did not include any GCPs at the toe zone for the rest
of the seasonal variation analysis.
We averaged the displacement for all of the GCPs at the seven FDLs
to obtain their average motion time series (Fig. 9). The monthly average

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W. Gong et al.
(a) Example of GCPs for FDL-A
Fig. 8. Examples of deformation time series at GCPs for FDL-A and FDL-B from the period of 1995 October to 1996 May.
Fig. 9. Time series of averaged deformation from the period of 1995 October to
1996 May for seven FDLs, and air temperature data from Wiseman, Alaska
(https://wrcc.dri.edu).
temperature from 1997 and the 1981–2010 average temperature from
the Wiseman weather station in Alaska (about 70 km south of the study
area) is presented at the top of Fig. 9. We displayed both data sets
because neither 1995 nor 1996 were complete records.
For this time period, FDLs demonstrated minimum movement be-
tween February and March, which occurred after the minimum yearly
temperature by two to three months (Fig. 9). This suggests that there is
a lag in the response of FDLs to air temperature. Additionally, although
the average air temperature in October was already below 0 °C, the
FDLs remained active for another six to seven months, and quickly
became active again as the temperature rose in the spring. Taking into
account the late response of FDL movement to air temperature, we
suspect that the maximum movement rate of FDLs lags behind the time
of maximum air temperature (typically June or July) by a few months,
and the overall rate change cycle has wavelength of 6 months. This
hypothesis is supported by Darrow et al. (2017), who found FDL-A's
peak strain rate to occur in early October, an offset of about 90 days to
the peak air temperature. Unfortunately, the necessary ERS data to
complete the full year of analysis was not available.
Nevertheless, we can still model this seasonal displacement rate
using a modified cosine function:
t−ϕ
D = S1·cos ⎛ ·2π ⎞ + S2
⎝ 365 ⎠ (4)
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Remote Sensing of Environment 221 (2019) 722–740
(b) Example of GCPs for FDL-B
where S1 is the amplitude of rate fluctuation through a single year, t is
the observation date, ϕ indicates the date when the displacement rate
reaches the maximum for the year, and S2 is the average rate for the
year 1995–1996.
Different to FDL-A, the displacement rates for the other six FDLs
displayed in Fig. 9 reached zero around February to March in 1996.
Thus, we modified Eq. (4), setting S2 = S1 for these six FDLs to force
their minimum rate to zero; we also assumed that the maximum/
minimum rate of these six FDLs occurred at the same time. Moreover,
with the same period length (6 months), the ϕ of these six FDLs is
earlier than that of FDL-A. Note that our ERS results do not cover a full
year cycle and only provide us with ten samples from 1995 October to
1996 May. These assumptions helped us to simplify the non-linear in-
version and to evaluate the estimation quality.
Overall, we conducted parameter estimation by linearizing Eq. (4):
(1) we stepped ϕ through September and October 1995 with a step of
5 days, and (2) conducted the estimation in a grid search manner by
maximizing goodness-of-fit using the Coefficient of Determination (R2).
With each value of ϕ, we estimated the corresponding S1 and S2 and
calculated the R2 value (Fig. 10). This grid search scheme was applied
to InSAR measurements for FDL-A, -B, and -D because they moved
faster than the rest (as shown in Fig. 9), and thus likely produced less
noise. The estimation results indicate that the peak rate for FDL-A and
-B occurred on 25 September 1995 (solid vertical line in Fig. 10), while
for FDL-D the peak occurred on 5 September 1995 (dashed vertical line
in Fig. 10). For FDL-A, there are several days difference between the
InSAR inverted peak time and strain rate result in Darrow et al. (2017),
which suggests the peak occurred around early October. This incon-
sistency is likely due to the drawback from the short temporal coverage
Fig. 10. Comparison of R2 against the maximum rate date. The solid vertical
line indicates 25/09/1995, and dashed vertical line indicates 05/09/1995.
W. Gong et al.
Table 5
Summary of estimated seasonal model parameters for FDL-A, -B, -C, -D, -4, -5
and -11.
FDL index S1 (m/yr) S2 (m/yr) R2 Model
A 1.84 ± 0.19 3.30 ± 0.14 0.92
S1·cos ( t−ϕ
365
·2π
B 2.47 ± 0.15 / 0.88
S ·cos (
t−ϕ
1 ·2π
C 0.8 ± 0.12 / 0.33 365
D 2.84 ± 0.23 / 0.77
4 1.13 ± 0.17 / 0.31
5 1.91 ± 0.26 / 0.62
11 0.47 ± 0.11 / 0.46
Fig. 11. Modeled seasonal displacement rate change.
of the ERS dataset. We picked the mean value of 15 September 1995 as
the date when these FDLs' displacement rates reached the maximum.
Table 5 is a summary of the inversion results of seven FDLs, and Fig. 11
is the modeled seasonal displacement rate change. Based on the R2
values, the applied model fits the data well for FDL-A, -B, -D, and -5;
however, the goodness-of-fit for FDL-C, -4, and -11 is poor, most likely
because these FDLs have smaller displacement rates. Residual noise
from ERS displacement measurements does cause difficulties in the
model parameter estimation, but it does not hamper the discrimination
of the maximum/minimum periods from 1995 October to 1996 May.
Based on the displacement results produced from these ERS tandem
pairs, the seven FDLs can be organized into two groups from the most to
least active during the 1995–1996 period: (1) FDL-A, -B, -D, and -5; and
(2) FDL-4, -C, and FDL-11, which demonstrated minimal movement
from November to May (Fig. 9). As suggested by Darrow et al. (2017),
water pressure and temperature are components contributing to FDL
movement. We hypothesize that (1) the other main component in the
seasonal variation of FDL movement rates is the active layer depth; and
(2) most FDLs that experience faster movement demonstrate deeper
active layers due to surface disturbance (forming a feedback loop). As
demonstrated by all of the studied FDLs, the movement rate decreases
in October as the active layer begins to freeze, providing increased
frictional resistance along the lateral levees and at the toe. Likewise,
movement rates increase as the active layer deepens, reducing the re-
sistance between the moving lobe and the stable levees in the lateral
shear zones.
FDL-A was the most active of these features overall throughout the
1995–1996 measurement period; from ERS results, its minimum
movement rate occurred about one month later than the other FDLs. It
remained active during the 1995–1996 winter, while the other six FDLs
reached stable states in late February 1996. This shows a shift in the
movement mechanics for FDLs from active layer instability (seasonal)
to shear zone movement (annual) deeper below the surface. FDL-A has
the largest spatial extent and greatest length (Table 4). As detailed in
Darrow et al. (2017), as the snow melts in May, meltwater enters into
Remote Sensing of Environment 221 (2019) 722–740
cracks open at the surface, and penetrates to the shear zone at depth. It
takes several months for the water pressure to increase, reaching a
maximum in October, which corresponds to FDL-A's peak movement
rate. The InSAR data indicate that the area of maximum movement rate
also shifted from the catchment area to the toe from October to Feb-
)+S
2 ruary (Fig. 6a–b), possibly indicating the downslope progression of
water pressure throughout the fall and winter months. FDL-D fluctuated
)+S
1
the most through the year, with the largest estimated amplitude. As
reported in Darrow et al. (2016), beginning in 2002, FDL-D progressed
to an advanced stage of destabilization; their study also suggests that an
RTS formed in FDL-D's catchment sometime between 1993 and 2001.
We suspect that FDL-D's rapid summer movement rate was caused by
the developing RTS. As the RTS exposed massive ice, it supplied water
and debris to the downslope surface of the debris lobe, further changing
surface conditions and increasing its movement rate. FDL-B and FDL-5
also were active during this study period. Their spatial extents are
smaller compared to FDL-A and -D (as shown in Table 4), which sug-
gests that the size of FDLs is related to the storage capacity for water
within their shear zones. This is also supported by FDL-11, which shows
the minimum movement rate and smallest spatial extent among those
studied. In contrast, FDL-C has one of the largest spatial extents, and yet
it demonstrated small movement rates over the study period. As dis-
cussed previously, FDL-C formed at the base of a slope rather than
flowing from a catchment (Darrow et al., 2016); thus, it has a reduced
water supply at all times of the year.
5.4. Multi-year variation of FDL movement rates
5.4.1. Rate estimation of FDL-C with PALSAR data from 2006 to 2011
We used PALSAR interferograms to analyze the long-term dis-
placement variation of FDL-C. The selected PALSAR interferograms
measured cumulative displacement over 46 days, which is ideal to
study FDL-C with its slower displacement rate. FDL-11 also demon-
strated a slower displacement rate; however, as indicated in Section
5.1, no movement was captured by the PALSAR winter scenes for this
FDL. The remaining FDLs were decorrelated and encountered un-
wrapping errors as a result of excessive displacement during this 46-day
temporal baseline.
Using the same GCPs for FDL-C (Fig. 7) and the method described in
Section 3.2, we calculated its average deformation rate using PALSAR
interferograms acquired from October to March from both descending
and ascending satellite orbits. Fig. 12 is the average displacement rate
map from 2006 to 2011, also depicting the deforming zone as indicated
by the brown polygon. As discussed in Section 5.2, negative values are
masked in Fig. 12. The measured active zone of FDL-C was
~171,532 m2 with a maximum displacement rate of 5.2 mm/day. The
overall size of the active zone during 2006–2011 was similar to that
measured from 1995 October ERS data (Table 4).
Based on the GCPs, the average mean rate of nine PALSAR dis-
placement maps from 2006 to 2011 was 3.18 mm/day, which is slightly
larger than the average of the mean rate from 1995 October to 1996
February (2.54 mm/day) estimated from ERS. PALSAR recorded the
accumulative displacement during a 46-day period, whereas the ERS
tandem pair measurements were daily values; thus, PALSAR data had a
higher signal-to-noise ratio. This observed rate increase between 1995
and 2006–2011 also could be an indication of year-to-year fluctuations
in FDL-C's movement rate.
5.4.2. Long-term temporal variation of FDLs with measurements from
multiple sources
We compared our results estimated from InSAR with the measure-
ments from historical optical remote sensing images from the 1970s to
2010s published by Darrow et al. (2016), and averaged DGPS yearly
measurements from 2013 to 2016, in order to achieve a more com-
prehensive understanding of FDL rates and movement dynamics. Note
that for each individual FDL, we averaged ERS results discussed above
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W. Gong et al.
Fig. 12. Average displacement rate map for FDL-C, measured from PALSAR
interferograms and overlaid on the DEM. (For interpretation of the references to
color in this figure, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
to represent their corresponding overall rate conditions for the year
1995–1996. Therefore, the multi-source dataset used in this study is
dominated by long-term rate change trends. Fig. 13 contains graphs of
FDL rates from historic imagery, DGPS measurements, and InSAR
analysis for the investigated FDLs. FDL-7 is not included due to InSAR
data limitation, but PALSAR measurements are added for FDL-C. We
also estimated the overall long-term linear trends (gray lines in Fig. 13)
of these seven FDLs by integrating all of the different types of mea-
surements. In the linear models summarized in Table 6, P1 denotes the
annual change in rate, and P2 denotes the movement rate between 1955
and 1970 (or when the first historical imagery for the study area was
collected).
The R2 values for FDL-A, -C, and -11 are larger than 0.5, indicating
that their long-term movement rate changes have a better linear fit than
the remaining FDLs. For all of the FDLs, however, the 1995 movement
rates derived from the InSAR analysis fit the long-term trends. There is
a general increasing movement rate trend based on this multi-source
analysis, except for FDL-11 and FDL-C; however, recent DGPS mea-
surements indicate an increase in their short-term movement rates. For
FDL-C, both ERS and PALSAR InSAR measurements agree with the es-
timated linear model. The plots also demonstrate some amount of
scatter for the historic imagery, which is most likely due to the lack of
temporal resolution. Notable among the plots is the nearly linear in-
creasing trend for FDL-A since 1970, with an R2 value of 0.76. The
recent DGPS measurements demonstrate an increased rate for FDL-A,
which may indicate deviation from the long-term linear trend or they
may be demonstrating some of the year-to-year variability that is not
captured by the other data sets. Also notable is FDL-D's rapid accel-
eration since 1995, causing its movement rate to increase in a non-
linear manner. Since leaving its catchment, FDL-D has undergone de-
stabilization as is evident even to the casual observer driving along the
Dalton Highway (Fig. 2a). It must be stressed that although the InSAR
values were converted into the FDL motion directions from the sa-
tellite's LOS, uncertainty still remains in the calculation of absolute
rates. Despite this uncertainty, the resulting values seem reasonable and
in good accordance with measurements from other sources.
737
Remote Sensing of Environment 221 (2019) 722–740
6. Conclusion
In this study, we used ERS and PALSAR interferograms to study the
deformation history of eight frozen debris lobes (FDLs) along the Dalton
Highway within the Alaskan Brooks Range. Small-baseline inter-
ferograms were carefully processed and analyzed to retrieve the dis-
placement fields of the selected FDLs. From our data analysis, we can
draw the following conclusions:
(1) The existence of significant FDL winter movement was suspected
based on field observations, a few DGPS measurements, and sub-
surface instrumentation data (Daanen et al., 2012; Simpson et al.,
2016; Darrow et al., 2017). In this study, we confirm that FDLs
move throughout the winter period. FDL-11, however, demon-
strated little movement during the study period.
(2) Using ERS tandem pairs, we delineated actively-moving portions of
the FDLs and their catchment areas during 1995 October and 1996
February. The spatial characteristics of the deformation field of
every studied FDL changed significantly during this time frame.
FDL-A, -B, and -7 demonstrated greater displacements in October
than the other FDLs.
(3) Also using these ERS tandem pairs, we analyzed the seasonal var-
iation of FDL surface movement and determined that their de-
formation rates are at a maximum in October and reach a minimum
during the February or March time frame. Our results indicate a lag
of two to three months between the minimum annual air tem-
perature and the minimum observed movement rate in spring. This
is consistent with subsurface strain data acquired from FDL-A,
which demonstrated a lag of about 90 days. A cosine function can
be used to model the seasonal displacement of these FDLs. Seven
FDLs for which we had sufficient ERS tandem pair coverage can be
grouped from the most to least active during the 1995–1996 period
according to their movement rates: (i) FDL-A, -B, -D and -5; and (ii)
FDL-4, -C and FDL-11, which demonstrated minimal movement
during the winter. The modeled amplitude of FDL-D is the largest
among those studied, which may be the result of progressive RTS
development in FDL-D's catchment sometime after 1993. We hy-
pothesize that the seasonal variation and magnitude of movement
rate is tied to the presence of liquid water pressure in a basal shear
zone and active layer depth. Larger lobes, like FDL-A, continue to
move with significant movement rates throughout the winter;
whereas a small lobe, like FDL-11, has insufficient storage capacity
for liquid water, greatly reducing any movement in its shear zone.
As a result, it demonstrates negligible movement during the winter.
Our PALSAR and ERS InSAR results indicate that FDL-C has moved
at a similar rate since 1995.
(4) Integrating InSAR, historical remote sensing images, and DGPS
measurements, we conducted an analysis of the multi-year de-
formation rates of seven of the FDLs. The 1995 movement rates
derived from the InSAR analysis fit well into long-term trends,
suggesting that the methodology presented here is reasonable to
derive slope movement rates. The InSAR-derived rates also help to
bracket when FDL-D began to destabilize within its catchment and
move rapidly downslope.
Through this study, we have gained experience studying these
moving features using satellite radar interferometry. The main limita-
tion we identified in reconstructing displacement maps is that FDLs are
susceptible to decorrelation. This is because they are fast-moving tar-
gets, moving at one to tens of meters per year. The significant motion
affects the quality of results in three ways:
• First, it leads to localized mis-registration between the two InSAR
partner images that are hard to remedy due to the limited extent of
the affected area, resulting in decorrelation.
• Second, strong motion and related surface slumping leads to
W. Gong et al. Remote Sensing of Environment 221 (2019) 722–740

(a) FDL-11 (b) FDL-B (c) FDL-A

(e) FDL-D
(d) FDL-C (f) FDL-5

(g) FDL-4 (h)

Fig. 13. Integrated FDL rates and modeled linear trend from InSAR analysis, historic imagery, and DGPS measurements. Rates are listed for FDLs north to south: (a)
FDL-11, (b) FDL-B, (c) FDL-A, (d) FDL-C (with both ERS and PALSAR results), (e) FDL-D, (f) FDL-5, and (g) FDL-4. Sub-plot (h) is the detailed PALSAR results for FDL-
C. FDL-7 is not included due to lack of InSAR coverage.

Table 6 duration, it is unlikely that there will be similar C-band data pairs for
Summary of estimated linear trend parameters for seven FDLs. future FDL monitoring. As mentioned in Section 3, Time Series InSAR
FDL index P1 (m/yr2) P2 (m/yr) R2 Model
analysis methods (e.g., Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) and Persistent
Scatterer (PS) Interferometry) are not suitable here, because the co-
A 0.08 ± 0.04 1.64 ± 1.44 0.72 P1 · t + P2 herent interferograms are not enough to build multi-master or single-
B 0.02 ± 0.34 2.04 ± 1.94 0.08 master networks that are needed in these solutions. In the future, if a
C −0.05 ± 0.03 2.98 ± 1.17 0.61
D 0.47 ± 0.33 −2.47 ± 11.66 0.54
satellite SAR sensor could revisit these FDLs within only one to a few
5 0.01 ± 0.07 1.20 ± 2.62 0.29 days allowing the development of a single or multiple interferogram
4 0.07 ± 0.10 0.35 ± 3.54 0.02 networks, one may be able to apply multi-master SBAS approaches to
11 −0.16 ± 0.07 7.49 ± 2.62 0.76 investigate FDLs. Also, advanced unwrapping solutions (e.g., 3D) is
required to reconstruct the deformation field properly. Additionally,
given that the FDLs' geomorphology change with their progressive
changes in ground cover, exacerbating coherence loss.
movement, deploying targets in the field may be useful as artificial PS
• Third, the fast deformation will change the terrain thus causing targets, which also may help with the offset tracking method to monitor
DEM differences that further contribute to phase errors in InSAR
FDLs continuously. Moreover, using an up-to-date DEM is important in
measurements. This can be reduced by minimizing the perpendi-
the accurate estimation of FDL displacement condition with inter-
cular baseline or using an updated DEM.
ferometry approaches.
We also faced difficulties in processing and analyzing FDLs due to
The study area is in an Arctic environment with fast-changing
their small spatial extents. Thus, InSAR techniques using these medium-
ground coverage, which is especially impacted by snow/ice and freeze/
resolution images (e.g., PALSAR and ERS) are ideal to study FDLs with
thaw processes. In our study, we took advantage of the ERS tandem
larger sizes (e.g., FDL-A and -C). For those FDLs with similar sizes and
missions; however, given this was a scientific experiment of limited
similar or smaller displacement rates to FDL-C, PALSAR interferograms

738
W. Gong et al.
with a 46-day temporal baseline can be used to recover the average
deformation rate in a stacking manner. Otherwise, one can use wrapped
differential interferograms to map the spatial extent of the deforming
area, and evaluate the changes in an FDL's size through time that then
can be used for downslope rate estimation. Although PALSAR pairs are
better in maintaining coherence, fast-moving FDLs (e.g., FDL-A) face
severe difficulties in phase unwrapping, because the heterogeneous
spatial deformation field inside the FDL causes leaning – and even split
– trees. Overall, for future studies, the ideal SAR data is the L-band data
from the current ALOS2-PALSAR2 or future NISAR and TanDEM-L
sensors, whose shorter repeat cycles (ALOS2: 14 days; NISAR and
TanDEM-L: 12 days) will help to preserve coherence for most of the
studied FDLs. Potentially, C-band SAR imagery from the Sentinel-1 A/B
constellation would be useful to study slow-moving FDLs in the future,
if the 6-day or 12-day temporal baseline interferogram pairs become
available over this area of interest.
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by US Department of Transportation
grant: OASRTRS-14-H-UAF-Project B. We would like to acknowledge
the ongoing support provided by the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company
and the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. The
first author was also partial funded by National Natural Science
Foundation of China grant: 41604008. Thanks to Dr. Ran Li from the
National Geomatics Center of China for his significant support and in-
struction in cartography. Thanks to Drs. Tazio Strozzi from GAMMA
Remote Sensing Company and Guido Grosse from Alfred Wegener
Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research for their
thoughtful discussions and willingness to share data. SAR data is
available from the Alaska Satellite Facility, University of Alaska
Fairbanks. IfSAR data is available from the U.S. Geological Survey and
the Geographic Information Network of Alaska, University of Alaska
Fairbanks. Open street map data (OSM data) was used to annotate
Fig. 5.
Disclaimer
The views, opinions, findings, and conclusions reflected in this
paper are solely those of the authors and do not represent the official
policy or position of the USDOT/OST-R, or any State or other entity.
USDOT/OST-R does not endorse any third party products or services
that may be included in this publication or associated materials.
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