Comparison of Electromagnetic Sea Ice Thickness Measurements with RADARSAT Imagery in the Gulf of St Lawrence

• Main Authors: I. K. Peterson, S. J. Prinsenberg, J. S. Holladay
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Pancake; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.511.3872; http://starfish.mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/ocean/seaice/Publications/peterson02.pdf

Ice-plus-snow thickness profiles collected using a helicopter-borne electromagnetic sensor (Ice Probe) in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in early March 1996 are used to validate SAR signatures of ice observed in RADARSAT imagery. The ice thickness and RADARSAT data were co-registered using SLAR imagery and satellite-tracked ice beacons deployed on drifting ice floes. The ice thickness measurements obtained with the Ice Probe are consistent with traditional interpretation of SAR imagery: dark-toned floes are associated with low ice thickness variability and represent smooth undeformed ice, while the surrounding brighter areas are associated with high ice thickness variability. Distributions of EM-measured ice thicknesses from dark-toned areas are in good agreement with distributions of ice thickness measured through augered holes in undeformed ice. The brightest area in the SAR image corresponds to young ice (< 30 cm) consisting largely of pancake and consolidated pancake ice.