Recently, the global science news service website EurekAlert! featured an article titled "Monitoring open-cast mines better than before—New radar satellites allow observation in almost real time", highlighting the research achievements of Tang Wei, a young faculty member from our School of Geosciences and Surveying Engineering. His research, titled "Monitoring active open-pit mine stability in the Rhenish coalfields of Germany using a coherence-based SBAS method," was published in the International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation. This recognition reflects the positive outcomes of our university's substantial research collaborations with top international research institutions.

This research was conducted by Tang Wei in collaboration with Professor Mahdi Motagh from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences. The study assessed the potential of using radar satellite data from the EU's Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites to monitor surface stability in mining areas. An advanced space observation technique, Interferometric synthetic aperture radar, abbreviated InSAR, was utilized to extract sub-centimeter precision surface deformation information from the radar satellite data. The study focused on the stability of waste dumps and open-pit slopes in a lignite mining area in Germany. With the Sentinel-1's six-day revisit cycle and short orbital baseline control, a more stable SAR data source was provided, enabling more detailed temporal and spatial observation of surface deformation safety risks in specific mining areas.