On Using Bistatic TanDEM-X Data For Volcano Monitoring

TanDEM-X is an innovative satellite mission, formed by two radar satellites that build a large synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometer. As they simultaneously acquire images of the same place on the Earth's surface from slightly different positions (bistatic mode), high resolution digital surface models (DSMs) of the area of investigation can be generated. We use the bistatic TanDEM-X data to observe large topographic changes at active dome-building volcanoes by means of double differential InSAR. In the present study, we generate a time series of DSMs of Volcan de Colima, Mexico. To test the applicability of the TanDEM-X data for volcano monitoring we compare the received volcano dome changes to a study in which photographs were used to derive high resolution DSMs of the volcano summit.