InSAR monitoring of the Brest Arsenal | France

The Brest Arsenal is a complex of military and naval installations located on the banks of the Penfeld river at Brest. This port is the second military naval base in the country, after Toulon.

City within a city, nearly 15 000 people work there, especially in ship building and repair.

During the execution of various works, Sixense carried out the monitoring of dikes using the satellite radar interferometry method (ATLAS).

This monitoring required the installation of artificial corner reflectors.

The Atlas monitoring solution using satellite radar interferometry (InSAR), developed by Sixense in partnership with IGN, is based on the use of natural or artificial reflectors present in radar images to detect and characterize map movements with an accuracy of ± 3 mm.

The installation of artificial reflectors ensures measurements in areas with a low density of natural reflectors.

With the new generation satellites, it is possible to reach a density of around 8,000 points per km² in a port area.

The existence of archival footage also allows for a retro-analysis to establish the state before works.

This instrumentation solution was deployed to complement traditional in-situ methods of geotechnical and hydrogeological monitoring.