Long term displacement observation of the Atatürk Dam, Turkey by multi-temporal InSAR analysis

Monitoring large infrastructures is vital for determining structural safety over time. Dams are structures that influence agricultural activities and have high economic contributions. The dams' structural safety was mainly addressed using conventional measurement techniques. However, these might not be time-efficient and practical, considering the large surfaces of dams. This paper presents a long-term InSAR analysis of the Atatürk Dam, Turkey's largest and one of the five biggest dams in Europe using ERS, ENVISAT, and Sentinel-1 satellites images. Since only Sentinel-1 data have acquisitions in ascending and descending orbits, we could estimate surface movements also in the vertical and east-west directions using both lines of sight (LOS) displacements. The results showed that the east-west movement is higher than vertical movement. As a result, we observe a maximum of 10 mm/yr displacement in the LOS direction at the dam's crest for period of 2003 and 2010, decreasing down the slope.