Electromagnetic Modelling for the Active and Passive Remote Sensing of Polar Ice Sheet and Signal of Opportunity (SoOp) Land Observation

• Main Author: Xu, Haokui
• Other Authors: Tsang, Leung, Ruf, Christopher S, Eid, Aline, Mortazawi, Amir, Ann Arbor
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: Micorwave remote sensing; Electrical Engineering; Engineering; Aks; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/193383; https://doi.org/10.7302/23028

Climate has been changing dramatically over the past several decades. Terrestrial snow and polar ice sheets have been studied intensively as indicators of climate change. The following research supports two major objectives. The first objective is to use a new microwave remote sensing technique, P-band GNSS-SAR interferometry, to characterize the Snow Water Equivalent of Terrestrial. The second objective is to assist in estimating polar ice sheet mass balance using active and passive microwave remote sensing data. To support the GNSS-SAR remote sensing of terrestrial snow, my research focused on simulating the P-band near specular bistatic scattering coefficients of mountainous areas. Given that reliable measurement of the near specular scattering coefficients of land surface in the P-band Signal of Opportunity concept will only be available in the future, simulation work is currently the only way to understand the near specular bistatic scattering in the P-band. The bistatic scattering coefficient of variance fields, denoted by γ_v, is calculated at various scattering azimuth angles. Simulations using AKS show that the γ_v can exceed 10 dB across a range of azimuth angles, ϕ_s. The values are much larger than those of radar backscattering, suggesting potential support for employing a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) concept based on Signals of Opportunity, particularly with data acquisition near the forward direction. The much stronger surface scattering ability loosens the requirements of receiving antenna gain. Large swath sensing of terrestrial snow is thus possible. Two subtopics are covered in my research to support the mass balance study. The first subtopic involved the density variation properties in the dry zone, while the second subtopic focused on the modeling work for the perennial firn aquifer. Fluctuation of firn density near the surface is a major uncertainty in characterizing mass balance. Previous research has shown that firn density profiles can be represented using three processes: “long” and ...