Accurate Insar Surface Deformation Mapping over the Oil-Producing Permian Basin with Automated Tropospheric Outlier Removal

摘要

Tropospheric noise is one of the most common factors that limits the accuracy of large-scale InSAR surface deformation mapping. In this study, we developed a new algorithm for detecting InSAR pixels that are corrupted by significant tropospheric noise associated with local extreme weather events. We applied this algorithm to measure surface deformation (Nov. 2014 - Jan. 2019) due to massive shale development over an 80,000 square kilometer oil-producing region in the Permian Basin. Based on independent validation at 13 GPS stations, we were able to reduce the measurement uncertainty by a factor of 2, and achieve basin-wide ~2 mm/year accuracy. The high quality InSAR surface deformation maps reveal numerous subsidence and uplift bowls in the vicinity of active production and disposal wells. The rate of deformation increased significantly in 2018 when peak production occurred in the region. The most important deformation signatures we observed are linear streaks that extend tens of kilometers near Pecos, TX, where a cluster of seismic events were catalogued by TexNet.