Giacomo Falorni, Marie-Josée Banwell, TRE Altamira Inc
InSAR is a remote sensing technique that uses radar satellite imagery to measure ground displacement. It has numerous characteristics that make it a useful tool in the CCUS monitoring toolbox, including coverage of large areas, high density of measurement points, millimetric measurement precision and high sampling in time of the measurements, and has been applied to numerous CCUS projects. Over the years the technology has evolved; where it was once used principally for historical analyses of past deformation it has morphed into an instrument capable of providing weekly updates of ground displacement. Although the output typically involves large volumes of data, new tools take advantage of cloud computing and machine learning to rapidly identify and highlight changes in ground behavior.
In CCUS, InSAR data is used to constrain/validate geomechanical models, to detect heave associated with CO₂ injection, to identify areas of anomalous ground behavior, such as potential fractures of the overburden, active faults and well failures. Furthermore, as a remote sensing technique, it typically does not require fieldwork and is able to provide measurements over inaccessible areas. The technique is widely used in the Oil & Gas sector, including for monitoring EOR and SAGD operations, in solution mining, geothermal applications, civil engineering and mining.
In this presentation we will give a very brief introduction to InSAR technology but focus mainly on CCUS case studies, to illustrate the characteristics of the technique, the different ways it has been employed and also, it’s limitations.