Ground Motion Service
A fundamental part of the GAF service portfolio is the production of various products and services based on SAR data. Over the years, an expert team has been built up that integrates profound technical competence in SAR processing, SAR interferometry, in particular ground deformation analysis, and evaluation for a wide range of uses and user requirements. This expertise results directly from GAF AG’s practical project work and experience and is reflected in the production environment, which has been designed and implemented during the provision of operational ground motion services.
GAF AG has scalable IT infrastructure, with a quality-assured, efficient and industrial production environment at its disposal. This uses state-of-the-art processing methodology for PSI and DSI, supported by a well-established development team.Â
Over a period of more than ten years, various research and development projects for PSI and DSI evaluation have been carried out, validated and industrialised. They have also been used in a wide variety of application projects, e.g. monitoring railway infrastructure, stability assessment of structures and construction measures, such as bridges and tunnels, risk assessment in connection with soil deformation, and evaluation of aquifers and natural gas storage facilities. In addition to advising customers on the basis of our experience with the interferometric evaluation of SAR data from different systems and with various evaluation methods, we focus on the use, adaptation and further development of the methods in order to provide optimum service for customers with regard to their practical requirements.
GAF AG uses and distributes data from the following current systems, which are suitable for interferometric data evaluation and especially InSAR ground motion analyses:
- TerraSAR-X, TanDEM-X, PAZÂ
- COSMO-SkyMEDÂ
- Sentinel-1Â
- upcoming, suitable NewSAR missions
Selected recent examples from the GAF AG portfolio
- The European Ground Motion Service (EGMS) is a complete geo-data service with implementation, operation and production of ground motion information, which is used to support policy decisions and user communities at the European and national levels. It covers the complete land area of all EEA participating and cooperating countries.
- The Ground Motion Service Germany update (BBD) continues from the first national Ground Motion Service Germany produced in 2017, 2018, 2019 for the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources by DLR in cooperation with GAF AG.  GAF AG processed the BBD update for the entire federal territory using its high-performance and automated processing environment.
- For EO4Infrastructures, in its role as an established EO service provider GAF AG performs engineering, product development and production tasks to provide interferometric deformation measurements based on Sentinel-1 and TerraSAR-X in northern Germany. The products are specifically tailored to the needs of the user. In Germany this is DB Netze, the operator of the railway infrastructure in Germany, which also validates the products.
- In SUMO4Rail, GAF AG is responsible for the further processing and adaptation of BBD basic data, in particular component decomposition, determination of areas of active movement as well as classification based on the use of geological, hydrological and topographical basic data for the assessment of risks in logistics chains, especially regarding railway and port infrastructure. In this project, the Federal Railway Authority, as the controlling authority for railway infrastructure, validates all the products and services that are provided.
