InSAR historical analysis
Reveal how your ground and infrastructure has moved over time
Understand ground and infrastructure movement from 2014 onwards using satellite radar data. Our InSAR historical analysis uncovers long-term trends, establishes baseline conditions, and helps you interpret current risk with clarity and confidence.
Why it matters
Ground movement does not start today - it builds over time.
Subsidence, settlement, slope creep, and structural displacement often develop gradually over years or decades, driven by geological processes, groundwater changes, nearby construction, or the cumulative effects of loading and weathering.
Understanding this history is essential for interpreting current conditions and predicting future behaviour.
InSAR historical analysis transforms the question from "what is happening now?" to "what has been happening all along?"
Ground and infrastructure movement can vary significantly, even across small distances.
Each persistent scatterer tells its own story - for every coloured point in the image, we can examine a time-series graph to explore historical movements.
Example of a persistent scatterer time-series graph, for 2017-2019 (location is anonymised).
Sentinel-1 archives extend back to 2014, enabling historical time-series analysis.
Each point represents a new satellite radar image. Whilst the movement is variable, the red line shows a gradual heave trend.
Data sources
We use Sentinel-1 satellite data, provided by the European Space Agency as part of the Copernicus programme, with global coverage since 2014.
Regular revisit times of 6-12 days allow us to build reliable, detailed and long-term movement histories.
Our in-house processing ensures consistent, high-quality analysis, making it ideal for both historical analysis and ongoing monitoring programmes.
Deliverables
Typical historical analysis deliverables include displacement maps showing the spatial pattern of ground movement across the study area, time-series plots illustrating how specific locations have moved over the analysis period, and a technical report interpreting the results.
We identify areas of stability and instability, characterise movement rates and patterns, and highlight any anomalies or features requiring further investigation.
Data can be provided in GIS-compatible formats for integration with your own systems.
For complex sites or high-value decisions, we can present findings directly to your technical team and answer questions about the analysis.
Applications
Historical analysis supports a wide range of engineering and commercial decisions:
Pre-acquisition due diligence: reveals historic movement risk before you invest.
Infrastructure monitoring: understand whether current movement is new or long-term.
Disputes and insurance: provide objective evidence of when movements began.
Major projects: reveal hidden ground conditions and risks not visible from site inspections.
Our approach
Every project starts with your specific questions.
What do you need to know about this site? What decisions will the analysis inform?
We assess data availability and likely measurement point density for your area of interest.
Our proprietary processing extracts displacement measurements from the Sentinel-1 data, applying rigorous quality control to ensure reliable results.
The outputs are interpreted by our in-house geotechnical experts, who understand the geological and engineering context, not just the remote sensing techniques.
The result: clear and reliable insight you can act on.
Limitations and expectations
InSAR historical analysis works best in areas with abundant radar-reflective surfaces - buildings, infrastructure, rock outcrops, and other hard targets that return consistent signals over time.
Vegetated areas, water bodies, and surfaces that change between acquisitions yield fewer measurement points.
Sentinel-1 data provides coverage from 2014 onwards, so analysis of earlier periods is not currently available through our service.
We assess data availability and likely point density before commencing any project, ensuring you understand what the analysis can and cannot deliver.