Potential of Multi-temporal InSAR for Detecting Retrogressive Thaw Slumps: A Case of the Beiluhe Region of the Tibetan Plateau

Abstract Permafrost degradation due to climate warming is severely reducing slope stability by increasing soil pore water pressure and decreasing shear strength. Retrogressive thaw slumps (RTSs) are among the most dynamic landforms in permafrost areas, which can result instability of landscape ecosystem. However, spatiotemporal characteristics surface deformation RTSs still unclear, potentials properties mapping large-scale need be further assessed. In this study, we applied a multi-temporal Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (MT-InSAR) method map variations Beiluhe region Tibetan Plateau using 112 scenes Sentinel-1 SAR data acquired from 2017 2021. The rates ranged − 35 20 mm/year, three typical motion stages were inferred analyzing variation trend headwall RTSs: stable, abrupt thaw, linear subsidence. A total 375 identified Mati Hill combining InSAR-based results with visual interpretation optical remote sensing images. Among them, 76 newly developed, 26% more than inventory derived images alone. This study demonstrated that combination InSAR-derived has significant potential for detecting high accuracy efficiency at regional scale.