AUTOMATED POLAR ICE THICKNESS ESTIMATION FROM RADAR IMAGERY

• Main Authors: Myasia A. Reid, Christopher M. Gifford, Michael Jefferson, Eric L. Akers, Gladys Finyom, Arvin Agah
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Index Terms- Radar Data Processing; Polar Ice Thickness; Greenland; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.652.9302

This work focuses on automating the task of estimating Polar ice thickness from airborne radar data acquired over Greenland and Antarctica. This process involves the identification and accurate selection of the ice sheet's surface location and interface between the ice sheet and the underlying bedrock for each measurement. Identifying the surface and bedrock locations in the radar imagery enables the computation of ice sheet thickness, which is important for the study of ice sheets, their volume, and how they may contribute to global climate change. The time-consuming manual approach requires sparse hand-selection of surface and bedrock interfaces by several human experts, and interpolating between the selections to save time.