Earthquake monitoring in australia using satellite radar interferometry

Are there any earthquakes in Australia? Although most Australians are not as familiar with earthquakes as citizens in countries such as Japan, there are some quakes on the Australian continent every year. Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (DInSAR) has been widely used in recent years for monitoring crustal deformation due to earthquakes, volcanoes, underground mining, oil extraction, and so on. Hence the follow-on question is, can repeat-pass satellite DInSAR be used in Australian regions to monitor earthquakes? Nine ERS-1 and ERS-2 radar images of the Burakin region in Western Australia were used to form the InSAR pairs. Twenty-two InSAR pairs were formed and were used to study the temporal decorrelation characteristics in the Burakin area. It was found that good coherence could be maintained all over the full scene for a pair spanning 211 d. The repeat cycles of RADARSAT and ERS (all C-band SAR missions) are 24 and 35 d respectively, Furthermore it is easier to maintain good coherence in L-band SAR images (e.g. the JERS-1 mission has a 44 d repeat cycle). Therefore the authors are confident that repeat-pass differential InSAR can be used to monitor ground deformation due to earthquakes in the Burakin region.