Active Layer Thickness from Airborne L-band and P-band SAR, Version 3 : Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE)

• Main Authors: Chen, R.H., Michaelides, R.J., Chen, J., Chen, A.C., Clayton, L.K., Bakian-Dogaheh, K., Huang, L., Jafarov, E., Liu, L., Moghaddam, M., Parsekian, A.D., Sullivan, T.D., Tabatabaeenejad, A., Wig, E., Zebker, H.A., Zhao, Y.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ORNL Distributed Active Archive Center 2021
• Subjects: Arctic; Canada; Active layer thickness; permafrost; Alaska
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3334/ornldaac/2004; https://daac.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/dsviewer.pl?ds_id=2004

The Permafrost Dynamics Observatory (PDO) data product, version 3, uses synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to estimate seasonal subsidence, Active Layer Thickness (ALT), soil dielectric constant, soil Volumetric Water Content (VWC), and associated uncertainties. The PDO data product combines airborne airborne L-band and P-band SAR for 66 flight lines in 2017 in Alaska and Northwest Canada at a resolution of about 30 meters. P-band SAR data were collected by the Airborne Microwave Observatory of Subcanopy and Subsurface (AirMOSS) instrument and L-band data were collected by the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) instrument. The Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technique and the Remotely-Sensed Active Layer Thickness (ReSALT) algorithm on L-band data were used to estimate seasonal subsidence. The AirMOSS retrieval and P-band data were used to measure the soil dielectric constant from polarimetric backscatter. The combined L-band/P-band retrieval simultaneously estimates seasonal subsidence, dielectric constant, and VWC, along with uncertainties.