Radar Measurement of Slow Deformation in the Baekdusan Stratovolcano

Baekdusan is a Cenozoic stratovolcano in which a series of micro-seismic events and gaseous emissions have been reported in 1990s. Two-pass DInSAR technique was applied to determine displacement in the volcano by using 10 ERS SAR and 41 JERS-1 SAR datasets. Most interferometric phases out of 58 JERS-1 differential interferograms showed concentric fringe patterns that correlated with elevation. From an analysis of fringe-duration relation, the fringe patterns were found to be severely distorted specifically by stratified troposphere. To estimate the tropospheric delay, we used the data in the Sobaeksan located about 20 km away from the summit of Baekdusan. The maximum and mean magnitudes of the phase delay in the Baekdusan were respectively 13.8 cm and 3.8 cm over 1200 m in altitude. After removing tropospheric effects, a mean inflation rate was estimated to be about 3 mm per year from 1992 to 1998. Although the inflation rate of the volcano is inconclusive without ground truth data, the results indicate that there exists slow upward deformation in the Baekdusan volcano.