GRSG 34th Conference 2023

Title: Long term, wide area monitoring of CO2 containment in CCS using spaceborne InSAR

Author: Nick Dodds

Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) can be an effective part of an active Reservoir Management Strategy for Underground CO₂ storage. The integration of a high volume of high precision remote sensing InSAR data with other sub-surface datasets can be a cost-effective, operationally effective component to monitoring CO₂ containment, with no environmental impact. Reliable, effective monitoring is an important contribution to a social license to operate.

There is ongoing work to determine to what extent this remote sensing technology can be used for reservoir conformance monitoring, based on characterization of surface dynamics with millimetre precision. In order to successfully use the InSAR dataset, it requires careful separation of surface motion that is geomechanically relevant,  from motion that is real but is geomechanically irrelevant noise, for example, seasonal signals. Thus a careful characterisation of surface reflectivity using natural and artificial reflections, understanding of the potential spatial distribution of InSAR data points, and estimation of the magnitude of surface deformation is crucial for a successful monitoring program.

The presentation will discuss the value of correctly used InSAR methodology and provide case examples of how we apply this methodology.