Potential and Limits of Sentinel-1 Data for Small Alpine Glaciers Monitoring

In this paper, we present new results of the use of Sentinel-1 data to monitor Alpine glacier displacement by SAR differential interferometry (D-InSAR) in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc Valley. Two time series of Sentinel-1 A/B images acquired from October 2016 to early April 2017 (including 31 ascending and 25 descending acquisitions) are used to form 6-day interferograms and to evaluate their potential for displacement measurements over small fast moving Alpine glaciers. Results show that, even at low latitudes as in the French Alps, fringe patterns can be observed over the glaciers during the cold season with favorable anti-cyclonic meteorological conditions. Different processing steps to derive final displacement fields are presented and discussed and the results are compared with ERS-Tandem results obtained on the same glaciers in winter 1996.