insar-management-system-v2/experiments/isce2_sbas_timeseries/notes/PHASE2_MINTPY_SBAS_SMOKETEST.md

Phase 2 MintPy SBAS Smoke Test

Updated: 2026-04-05

Follow-up note:

• publish-style geocode/export continuation is now recorded separately in:
  • notes/PHASE3_PUBLISH_EXPORT_SMOKETEST.md

Goal

Validate that the LT-1 sample stack can continue from stripmapStack interferogram products into MintPy SBAS outputs under Ubuntu-24.04.

Sample

• group key:
  • LT1A|STRIP1|HH|DESCENDING|E123.3_N46.1
• dates:
  • 20250118
  • 20250315
  • 20250510
  • 20250705
  • 20250830
• pair count:
  • 10
• reference date:
  • 20250510
• reference point:
  • y/x = 1994,52

Successful Run

Successful SBAS smoke-test work directory:

• /mnt/z/Code/Insar_management_system_v2/experiments/isce2_sbas_timeseries/scratch/lt1a_strip1_hh_descending_e123p3_n46p1/stack_work/mintpy_sbas_v5

Successful WSL command:

wsl -d Ubuntu-24.04 bash /mnt/z/Code/Insar_management_system_v2/experiments/isce2_sbas_timeseries/scripts/run_mintpy_sbas_smoketest_ubuntu2404.sh /mnt/z/Code/Insar_management_system_v2/experiments/isce2_sbas_timeseries/configs/sample_smallbaseline_lt1_e123p3_n46p1.cfg /mnt/z/Code/Insar_management_system_v2/experiments/isce2_sbas_timeseries/scratch/lt1a_strip1_hh_descending_e123p3_n46p1/stack_work/mintpy_sbas_v5

This run completed through:

• load_data
• modify_network
• reference_point
• quick_overview
• invert_network
• reference_date
• velocity

Disabled for this first offline smoke test:

• unwrap-error correction
• solid-earth-tide correction
• ionosphere correction
• troposphere correction
• deramp
• topographic residual correction
• geocode

Output Snapshot

Generated under mintpy_sbas_v5/:

• timeseries.h5
  • size: 82576752 bytes
• velocity.h5
  • size: 83086408 bytes
• temporalCoherence.h5
  • size: 16632424 bytes
• maskTempCoh.h5
  • size: 4136792 bytes
• avgSpatialCoh.h5
  • size: 16631784 bytes
• numTriNonzeroIntAmbiguity.h5
  • size: 16632000 bytes
• numTriNonzeroIntAmbiguity.png
  • size: 232878 bytes

Quality summary from the successful run:

• strict valid pixels for inversion:
  • 1219001 / 4076199
  • 29.91%
• reliable pixels in maskTempCoh.h5 with threshold 0.7:
  • 62987

Required Runtime Decisions

1. Keep MintPy separate from ISCE2

• keep stack processing in WSL conda env:
  • isce2
• keep MintPy in WSL conda env:
  • mintpy

Reason:

• avoids mutating the already working ISCE2 processing env on the development machine

2. Bridge only the top-level isce package

Required helper:

• scripts/run_mintpy_with_isce_ubuntu2404.sh

Current rule:

• do not add the entire isce2 site-packages into PYTHONPATH
• only bridge the top-level isce package into a cache directory

Reason:

• adding the whole site-packages caused MintPy to import h5py from the wrong env and fail during load_data

3. Do not load wrapPhase for this LT-1 smoke test

Current config rule:

• mintpy.load.intFile = None

Reason:

• loading filt_*.int into MintPy wrapPhase caused HDF5 type-conversion failure during load_data

4. Build a strict maskAllValid.h5 before inversion

Required helper:

• scripts/create_mintpy_all_ifgram_mask.py

Current rule:

• keep only pixels that are finite and non-zero in all unwrapped interferograms
• also require non-zero connected components in all interferograms

Reason:

• this reduces unstable partial-network pixels before SBAS inversion

5. Use the repo-local patched launcher

Required helper:

• scripts/run_smallbaselineApp_patched.py

Current workaround:

• patch mintpy.ifgram_inversion.estimate_timeseries() at runtime
• coerce shape-(1,) inversion-quality output into a scalar for the single-pixel partial-network branch

Reason:

• MintPy 1.6.2 hit a ValueError: setting an array element with a sequence
• failure point:
  • mintpy/ifgram_inversion.py
  • partial-network pixel branch inside run_ifgram_inversion_patch()

Current judgment:

• this is a MintPy runtime issue in the current environment
• it is better to keep the workaround in repo-local launcher code than silently editing the third-party env

Current Boundary

This smoke test now confirms:

• LT-1 stripmapStack outputs can be loaded by MintPy in the dedicated mintpy env
• the LT-1 sample stack can be inverted into radar-coordinate timeseries.h5
• the LT-1 sample stack can generate radar-coordinate velocity.h5
• the current repo-local workaround chain is reproducible in Ubuntu-24.04

This smoke test does not yet confirm:

• geocoded SBAS exports
• atmospheric or DEM-residual correction quality
• product publishing into backend psinsar catalog
• frontend rendering of published SBAS products

System Embedding Implications

The current experiment suggests the future backend runtime contract should be:

1. Run ISCE2 stack workflow in WSL isce2.
2. Run MintPy through the repo-controlled bridge runner instead of calling upstream smallbaselineApp.py directly.
3. Generate a strict inversion mask after load_data.
4. Persist the following files as first-class workflow artifacts:
   • timeseries.h5
   • velocity.h5
   • temporalCoherence.h5
   • maskTempCoh.h5
   • numTriNonzeroIntAmbiguity.h5
   • numTriNonzeroIntAmbiguity.png
5. Convert these into a stable publish manifest before catalog registration.

Current sample publish-manifest draft:

• configs/sample_psinsar_manifest_lt1_e123p3_n46p1.json