Cryosat-2 Interferometric SAR Altimetry

• Main Author: Verhoeven, Corné (author)
• Other Authors: Schrama, Ernst (mentor), Delft University of Technology (degree granting institution)
• Format: Bachelor Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Altimetry; SAR; Radar; Signal Processing; Swath; Ice; Petermann Glacier; Greenland; glacier; Ice Sheet; Petermann glacier
• Online Access: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:42467c49-06eb-4421-89ca-6dcc41ff6e37

Cryosat-2 altimetry helps to assess the state of the Cryosphere by measuring elevation and elevation change. The SARIn mode of the Cryosat-2 SIRAL instrument is specifically designed for rough topography that we encounter near ice sheet margins. Various SARIn data products (Full Bit Rate (FBR), Level 1b and Level 2) are provided by ESA, where the level denotes the amount of processing applied relative to the raw instrument data. Often research activities are based on L1b data; in this thesis, a new Cryosat-2 SARIn FBR-to-L1b processor is developed to evaluate whether elevation measurements improve when we reconstruct a L1b product from the FBR data. The L1b-to-L2 processing is performed by means of Swath Processing, by which an increase in amount of measurement points is achieved with respect to the amount in conventional L2 products. The analysis is limited to the Petermann glacier, located in the North-West of Greenland, which is known for its large calving events. The results are verified by comparing them to the ESA products. It is shown that the resulting elevations following from the FBR-to-L1b processor agree; we detect significant variability in topography as present in the Petermann Glacier region that can induce data gaps in the raw FBR data; with consequences for the L1b- and L2 products. Overall, it is shown that small improvements in terms of accuracy can be achieved with respect to the ESA L1b data; this conclusion follows from the consideration of independent IceBridge laser altimetry data in our study. Aerospace Engineering | Space Exploration