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Dataset

 

Surface velocity map of the Afar Rift Zone from 2014-19

Latest Data Update: 2021-09-17
Status: Completed
Online Status: ONLINE
Publication State: Citable
Publication Date: 2021-09-29
DOI Publication Date: 2021-10-01
Download Stats: last 12 months
Dataset Size: 2 Files | 3GB

Abstract

This dataset contains a map of ground movements covering the Afar Rift Zone in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti for the time period between October 2014 and August 2019. The Afar region is located where three tectonic plates are pulling apart, creating rift segments which are 50-100 km long. Surface deformation on these segments is not constant in time, with episodes of rifting occurring periodically and magma intrusions causing sudden ground movements. We use frequent Sentinel-1 satellite Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) observations to measure surface displacements through time across the whole region. We relate these to ground based Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) observations and combine data from different satellite tracks to produce maps of the average surface velocity in three directions (perpendicular to the rift zone, parallel to the rift zone, and vertical). The continued observation of these time-varying ground movements is important for understanding how continents break up, with data here providing evidence of how tightly focussed extension is around the rift segments and of the subsurface magma movement at several volcanic centres.

Citable as:  Moore, C.; Wright, T.; Hooper, A. (2021): Surface velocity map of the Afar Rift Zone from 2014-19. NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis, 01 October 2021. doi:10.5285/ac43cee2bf5e4942970492209ba95e49. https://dx.doi.org/10.5285/ac43cee2bf5e4942970492209ba95e49
Abbreviation: Not defined
Keywords: Sentinel-1, InSAR, GNSS, velocity, map

Details

Previous Info:
No news update for this record
Previously used record identifiers:
No related previous identifiers.
Access rules:
Public data: access to these data is available to both registered and non-registered users.
Use of these data is covered by the following licence(s):
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.
Data lineage:

Sentinel-1 Single Look Complex (SLC) data were sourced from the European Space Agency (ESA) Copernicus Hub, and processed using LiCSAR software (Lazecky et al., 2020). Processing and analysis was then performed by the authors (University of Leeds, COMET) in MATLAB to account for atmospheric effects, estimate uncertainties, create deformation time series and average velocity maps, reference surface velocities to the regional GNSS network (King et al., 2019), and convert velocities from the satellite look direction into rift-perpendicular and rift-parallel horizontal and vertical components. Final velocity maps and variance estimates were exported to NetCDF format for archiving. Data were produced by the project team and supplied for archiving at the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA).

Data Quality:
Data are as given by the data provider with quality control flags defined within each file. No quality control has been performed by the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)
File Format:
Data are netCDF formatted.

Process overview

This dataset was generated by a combination of instruments deployed on platforms and computations as detailed below.

Instrument/Platform pairings

Sentinel 1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Deployed on: Sentinel 1A

Computation Element: 1

Title Surface velocity map of the Afar Rift Zone from 2014-19
Abstract We used frequent Sentinel-1 satellite Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) observations to measure surface displacements through time across the whole region. We related these to ground based Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) observations and combine data from different satellite tracks to produce maps of the average surface velocity in three directions (perpendicular to the rift zone, parallel to the rift zone, and vertical).
Input Description None
Output Description None
Software Reference None
Output Description

None

  • var_id: var_h1
  • var_id: var_h2
  • var_id: var_z
  • var_id: vel_h1
  • var_id: vel_h2
  • var_id: vel_z

Co-ordinate Variables

Coverage
Temporal Range
Start time:
2014-10-11T00:00:00
End time:
2019-08-17T23:59:59
Geographic Extent

 
17.0000°
 
38.0000°
 
45.0000°
 
8.0000°