CNR(ISMAR-IREA)

The Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) is the main public research entity in Italy with more than 100 Institutes grouped in 11 Departments. The aim of CNR is to carry out, promote, spread, transfer and improve research activities in the main sectors of knowledge growth and of its applications for the scientific, technological, economic and social development of the Country. The Institute for Electromagnetic Sensing of the Environment (IREA), a CNR institute, incorporates a Microwave Remote Sensing Group that is active since 1987. Their main research interest is Differential SAR interferometry (DInSAR), with two main aims: (1) development of effective tools for detecting and monitoring of earth surface deformations; (2) demonstration of applicability of the proposed techniques in real scenarios. IREA-CNR is the initiator of the well-known Small BAseline Subset (SBAS) processing technique for generating deformation time series starting from SAR data. This technique has successfully been applied over the last decade on different volcanic and seismogenetic areas in the world (Mt. Vesuvius and Etna, Campi Flegrei and Long Valley calderas, Tenerife, San Andreas Fault, Abruzzi region, Athens, Hayward Fault). IREA-CNR has a high level expertise in scientific SAR and DInSAR algorithm development, as demonstrated by its large number of scientific publications in international ranked journals. Finally, IREA-CNR has been involved in a number of National and International Project in the SAR related field, as coordinator or participant. ISMAR-CNR (Istituto di Scienze Marine) is the main CNR Institute for marine research. ISMAR conducts research in polar, oceanic and Mediterranean regions, focusing on the following themes: the evolution of oceans and their continental margins, studying submarine volcanoes, faults and slides and their potential impacts onshore the influence of climate change on oceanic circulation, acidification, bio-geochemical cycles and marine productivity submarine habitats and ecology, and the increasing pollution of coastal and deep-sea environments the evolution of fish stocks with a view to keeping commercial fishing within sustainable limits and improving mariculture and aquaculture practices natural and anthropogenic factors impacting economically and socially on coastal systems from pre-history to the industrial epoch. With its Marine Geology department (Bologna) and the ship Urania, ISMAR conducted 5 marine-geological cruises in the Sea of Marmara, since 2000, to study the effects of the 1999 Izmit earthquake, applying the pioneering methods of the Submarine Paleoseismology. It also took part, in cooperation with INGV to the deployment of the SN-4 seafloor observatory in the Izmit Gulf.