Sea ice monitoring using spaceborne multi-polarization and polarimetric SAR imagery ...

• Main Author: Scheuchl, Bernd
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2010
• Subjects: Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0065869; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0065869

The imminent launch of RADARSAT-2, the most advanced of the second-generation spaceborne SARs, has stimulated renewed interest in polarization diversity for sea ice monitoring. The primary objective of this work is to assess the potential value of RADARSAT-2 multi-polarization and polarimetric C-band SAR imagery for classification of sea ice and to develop improved classifiers that account for the characteristics of such imagery. Our review of the ice information requirements of the Canadian Ice Service reveals the importance of daily revisit for operations. The need to determine the ice edge location, the ice concentration, and stage of development of ice can be addressed by accurate classification of ice types in SAP, imagery. Our application of target decomposition to AIRSAR airborne polarimetric imagery of sea ice reveals that surface scattering dominates the majority of the scene. Pixel by pixel application of target decomposition methods can be used to distinguish thin ice, first-year ice, and ...