This lecture was jointly sponsored by the Permanent Way Institution and DRES.

Professor Tim Wright (Professor of Satellite Geodesy at the University of Leeds and Co-founder / Director of SatSense) described the advanced processing of satellite radar data using a technique known as InSAR. This technology is providing innovative new ground movement data that has the potential to help railway asset managers by reducing monitoring costs and identifying areas at risk of failure.

InSAR is a technology that uses satellite-borne radar instruments to measure how the distance to the ground changes with time. These measurements can tell us if the ground is subsiding or moving laterally, with mm/year accuracy. SatSense is working with Network Rail to understand the potential and limitations of the proprietary InSAR algorithms and UK-wide dataset for monitoring hazardous ground movements that can impact the UK rail network.

During this talk, Professor Tim Wright explained how the technology works and discussed the potential applications for asset management of railway infrastructure by using examples from the UK rail network. Though InSAR is not a perfect solution that can replace all existing technologies, it is a powerful tool that can augment existing techniques, potentially saving monitoring costs and preventing costly and damaging failures. 

The lecture took place on Thursday 25th Nov 2021 at 17:30.

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