Radar interferometry (InSAR)
Radar satellites image the Earth on a fixed repeat cycle and record the phase of the returned signal. Comparing the phase between passes over the same ground resolves changes in distance at a fraction of the radar wavelength. Stacking hundreds of scenes over years turns this into a time series of ground motion with millimeter scale sensitivity, for millions of measurement points at once.
The public radar archive over the Gulf is continuous since 2015. This is the core of what we do: the history of ground behavior already exists, for every parcel, before any instrument is installed on site.
Why the Gulf is a strong environment for this technique
Radar interferometry performs best on dry, stable, built surfaces. Concrete, asphalt, and rock are excellent reflectors, and arid climates minimize the vegetation change that degrades the signal elsewhere. Dense urban districts in the Gulf yield measurement point densities well above global averages.
The supervised AI pipeline
Our agent system operates the full analysis chain: archive screening and scene selection, interferometric processing in the cloud, atmospheric correction, time series inversion, and quality control. Each step produces an auditable record. Work that traditionally requires specialist teams for weeks completes in hours.
Quality gates
No result reaches a client unless it passes explicit thresholds, including temporal coherence, network coherence, velocity plausibility, minimum time series length, and reference point stability. Results near a threshold are escalated for expert review rather than passed automatically. Every reported velocity carries a confidence interval.
Expert review and signature
Automation provides scale; it does not provide assurance on its own. Every client report is reviewed and signed by our geodesy scientific advisor, and alarm thresholds for monitoring engagements are calibrated together with the client's own geotechnical team during onboarding.
Published precedent
The technique is not experimental. Peer reviewed studies have applied the same satellite interferometry to reclaimed land and arid terrain, validated against ground truth:
- Remah, UAE. Sentinel-1 persistent scatterer analysis produced dense measurements over sandy terrain and resolved a groundwater driven subsidence bowl, validated against well records (Science of the Total Environment, 2021).
- Mokpo, South Korea. 79 Sentinel-1 scenes over a city built largely on reclaimed land; 12,000+ measurement points, all above the 0.70 coherence bar we also apply (2025).
- Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Interferometric results cross validated against 18 GNSS stations; subsidence concentrated in reclamation zones and shallow foundation buildings (2019).
- Beijing. InSAR verified against precise leveling at a mean error of 1.4 mm/yr across 26 benchmarks (ENVISAT era study, 2016).
- Busan New Port, South Korea. Long term satellite monitoring of reclaimed port land settling for more than 15 years after placement (2022).
Honest limits
- Open water and bare, loose sand cannot be measured reliably. Sparse areas are marked as low confidence zones in every report.
- Coastal humidity gradients add atmospheric noise. We correct with weather model data and network filtering, and the residual uncertainty is reflected in the reported confidence intervals.
- Satellite measurement complements ground investigation; it does not replace it. Our reports are decision support data, not a geotechnical design service. They tell you where to look, and where to drill.
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