Evaluation of new spaceborne SAR sensors for sea-ice monitoring in the Baltic Sea

In this study, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data from the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) and the Envisat, RADARSAT-2, and TerraSAR-X satellites were compared to evaluate their usefulness for sea-ice monitoring in the Baltic Sea. Radar signature characteristics at different frequencies, p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing
Main Authors: Eriksson, Leif, Borenäs, Karin, Dierking, W., Berg, Anders, Santoro, M., Pemberton, Per, Lindh, Henrik, Karlson, Bengt
Language:unknown
Published: 2010
Subjects:
Aerospace Engineering
Agricultural Science
Oceanography
Hydrology
Water Resources
Gulf of Bothnia
SAR
Sea-ice
Sea ice
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5589/m10-020
https://research.chalmers.se/en/publication/126061
Description
Summary:In this study, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data from the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) and the Envisat, RADARSAT-2, and TerraSAR-X satellites were compared to evaluate their usefulness for sea-ice monitoring in the Baltic Sea. Radar signature characteristics at different frequencies, polarizations, and spatial resolutions are presented for three examples from 2009. C-band like-polarization data, which have been used for operational sea-ice mapping since the early 1990s, serve as a reference. Advantages and disadvantages were identified for the different SAR systems and imaging modes. One conclusion is that cross-polarized data improve the discrimination between sea ice and open water. Another observation is that it is easier to identify ice ridges in L-band data than in images from shorter wavelengths. The information content of X- and C-band images is largely equivalent, whereas L-band data provide complementary information. L-band SAR also seems to be less sensitive to wet snow cover on the ice.

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