PSI - Issue 84

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

ScienceDirect

Procedia Structural Integrity 84 (2026) 859–866

III Fabre Conference: Existing Bridges, Viaducts, and Tunnels: Research, Innovation, and Applications Monitoring Vibrations of Buildings and Infrastructures over Large Areas by Advanced Micro-Doppler Analysis of Satellite SAR Data Mario Costantini a * , Carmine Frascella a , Federico Minati a , Francesco Trillo a , Francesco Vecchioli a , Matteo Albano b , Salvatore Stramondo b , Paolo Clemente c , Maurizio Pollino c , Filippo Ubertini d , Daniele Zonta e , Carmine Clemente f

a B-Open, V.le P. Togliatti 1639, Rome 00155, Italy b INGV, Via di Vigna Murata 605, Rome 00143, Italy c ENEA Casaccia Research Centre, Via Anguillarese 301, Rome 00123, Italy

d University of Perugia Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Via G. Duranti 93, Perugia 06125, Italy e University of Trento Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, Via Mesiano 77, Trento 38123, Italy f University of Strathclyde, Royal College Building, 204 George Street, Glasgow G1 1XW, UK

© 2026 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Conference Keywords: SAR Micro-Doppler; structural vibrations; building and infrastructure monitoring; disaster prevention. Abstract Very high-resolution SAR sensors, such as ICEYE, Umbra, Capella Space, COSMO-SkyMed, and TerraSAR-X, are enabling new algorithms and applications. Unlike an instantaneous snapshot, a SAR image is formed over acquisitions that can last up to tens of seconds along the satellite orbit, so targets are observed over a non-negligible time interval and from slightly different viewing angles. When this is exploited with advanced processing, a single SAR image can provide multiple types of information about the scene, including target motion (e.g., boat or vehicle speed), building height and 3D structure, and, most importantly here, the vibration frequencies and amplitudes of buildings and infrastructure. These capabilities open new perspectives for wide-area, relatively low-cost structural monitoring and for supporting disaster prevention activities. This paper explains the basic principles and recent developments in satellite SAR Micro-Doppler technology for measuring characteristic structural vibrations. It analyzes the range of measurable vibrations and the accuracy achievable with current satellite missions, and it presents initial tests and promising validation results. Finally, potential applications are discussed, also in the context of the EU Directive 2022/2557 on Critical Entities Resilience (CER).

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 335 870 4424. E-mail address: mario.costantini@bopen.eu

2452-3216 © 2026 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Conference 10.1016/j.prostr.2026.06.110