Polarimetric Behavior for the Derivation of Sea Ice Topographic Height From TanDEM-X Interferometric SAR Data ...

• Main Authors: Huang, Lanqing, Hajnsek, Irena
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2021
• Subjects: Polarimetry; sea ice topography; single-pass interferometry; TanDEM-X; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000466496; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/471002

Single-pass interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) is an effective technique for sea ice topographic retrieval despite the inherent dynamics of sea ice. However, the penetration of microwaves into snow-covered thick ice and the achievable height sensitivity for tens-of-centimeters thin ice are two major issues, which limit the accuracy of InSAR-derived sea ice topography. Polarimetry provides scattering information concerning the sea ice properties and has the potential, in combination with interferometry, to achieve an accurate reconstruction of a sea ice digital elevation model (DEM). This article studies the relation between polarimetric signatures and sea ice topography, and explores the possibility to compensate the penetration bias by merging copolar coherence into InSAR processing. The newly generated topographic map has a root-mean-square error under 0.3 m. For thin ice below 1 m, a positive relation between copolar phase phi(coPol) and surface height is observed, suggesting that fcoPol can ... : IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 14 ...