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We validate an absorption based radar retrieval algorithm of snow water equivalent (SWE) using X- and Ku-band backscatter with airborne SAR data. The bicontinuous dense media radiative transfer (Bic-DMRT) model is first applied to generate a look-up table of snow properties against backscattering at X- and Ku-bands. In the retrieval algorithm, the background scattering is subtracted from the total...
A feature tracking techniques for sea ice drift retrieval from a pair of sequential satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images are discussed. The Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT), its alternative called ORB and A-KAZE features are selected for the intercomparison. The experimental results obtained for dual polarized Sentinel-1 C-SAR Extended Wide Swath mode data showed high relevance...
In this paper we investigate interferometric pairs of SAR images acquired by Tandem-X with the monostatic pursuit and the alternative bistatic modes for sea ice segmentation. The individual SAR images are modelled as non-Gaussian, and from the modelled data different features are extracted, stacked together and clustered. The interferometric coherence is regarded as an additional feature and utilized...
In recent years SAR Polarimetry has become a valuable tool in space-borne SAR based sea ice analysis. This work compares the polarimetric backscatter behavior of sea ice in space-borne X-band C-band and L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery. Two sets of spatially and temporally near coincident fully polarimetric acquisitions from the TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X, RADARSAT-2 and ALOS-2 satellites are...
High resolution sea ice drift fields, the location and extend of converging and diverging zones as well as ice ridges are most important parameters for ship navigation in ice infested waters. In this paper, we present the prototype of a new processor which is aimed to derive the surface ice parameters on the basis of pairs of space-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data of the same and of different...
This study inter-compares observed Ku-, X- and C-band microwave backscatter from saline 14 cm, 8 cm, and 4 cm snow covers on smooth first-year sea ice. A surface-borne multi-frequency (Ku-, X- and C-bands) polarimetric microwave scatterometer system is used near-coincident with in situ snow geophysical measurements. The study investigated differences in scatterometer observations for all three frequencies,...
Mapping iceberg locations and geometrical parameters is important for marine operational applications and climate science. The innovative TanDEM-X mission (TDM) was used for 3D mapping of icebergs in sea ice with the single-pass SAR interferometry (InSAR) method. The extracted digital elevation model (DEM) from TDM InSAR data over icebergs in sea ice was compared to a DEM generated from very-high-resolution...
This work reviews and analyses potentially relevant technologies to ensure that the gaps and stakeholder needs for sea ice products are covered. Each variable related to sea ice that presenting gaps using the European EO infrastructure on the horizon (2020–2030) is revised according the stakeholder requirements, together with the feasibility of deploying available technologies on small satellites...
A fully coherent snowpack scattering and emission model is developed by numerically solving Maxwell's equations over the entire snowpack on a bottom half-space. The scattering matrix of the snowpack is directly obtained including both amplitude and phase. Both bistatic scattering coefficients and brightness temperatures of the snowpack are derived from full wave simulations. Simulation results demonstrate...
Traditionally, Radiative Transfer (RT) formulation has been used to simulate scattering from snow layer with the incorporation of phase matrix of scatterers in the formulation. Typically, spherical scatterers were assumed to represent the ice particles embedded inside the air medium and Mie phase matrix was applied. However, the real scatterers in the actual snow are generally more irregular than...
While dry snow is almost transparent to frequencies used by SAR satellites, a water content over 8% reduces penetration to a level that causes the backscattered component to come mostly from surface scattering. Snow metamorphosis is initiated by incoming solar radiation increase and depends on a number of parameters controlling heat exchanges within the snow layer. With variable surface slopes, net...
Synthetic aperture radar is used to identify and monitor oil spills. Separation from oil spill look-alikes is an important part of a fully automatic oil spill detection scheme. Here we investigate the polarimetric signatures for oil spills and newly formed sea ice (a well-known look-alike) in fully polarimetric Radarsat-2 satellite scenes. Using the fully polarimetric scenes we calculate four different...
Information on icebergs and ice islands is important for climate science and for various marine operations in Arctic and Antarctic. This work investigates capabilities of RADARSAT-2 polarimetric data for detection of icebergs in sea ice. Several iceberg detectors were analyzed with the full polarimetric data acquired in Fine Quad and Fine Quad Wide modes. The results of iceberg detection were validated...
Icebergs can cause a significant danger for shipping, offshore oil exploration, and undersea or subsea pipelines and production facilities. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is very valuable tool of detecting and monitoring icebergs in the often dark and cloud-covered polar regions. Detection of small icebergs floating in nonhomegeous sea clutter environments is a challenging task in remote sensing....
The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Proving Ground and Risk Reduction (PGRR) program facilitates initiatives to increase or improve the use and value of JPSS data products in user products, services, and application or service areas. Building on the success of the Fire and Smoke, River Ice and Flooding, Hydrology, and Sounding initiatives, the JPSS Arctic Initiative is the latest endeavor of the...
Estimation of sea ice motion at a fine scale is essential for climate modeling and naval operations in polar regions. This study proposes an approach for increasing the spatial resolution of the motion estimated from passive microwave satellite images. A hierarchical pattern matching approach, based on normalized cross-correlation and phase correlation, is applied to calculate sea ice drifts between...
L-band radiometers are used to retrieve sea surface salinity (SSS) and study the cryosphere. At high latitudes, it is frequent that both sea ice and water are present in the sensor's field of view. Accurately characterizing the scene is crucial for oceanographic and cryospheric applications. We present a model to derive the ice fraction affecting observations by the Aquarius and SMAP radiometers and...
The present work is oriented to analyze the backscattering signal generated by the X-band, when it is interacting with sea ice, located in the vicinity of Fildes Bay, King George Island (Southland Shetland Islands), from Antarctic. Radar images captured by TerraSAR-X satellite StripMap mode were used, whose emitted signal was polarized in Dual mode (HH-VV). The images were processed using the software...
Mapping sea ice and open water in the oceans is significant for many applications. Accurate and robust classification methods of sea ice and open water are in demand by ice services. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are becoming increasingly popular in many research communities due to availability of large image datasets and high-performance computing systems. As Convolutional networks (ConvNets)...
The research for the global climate changes call for high quality satellite data and imageries regarding Polar Regions. In recent years, the development of immerging Earth-Observation micro/nano satellite technology provides new data source for polar region observations. The STU-2A is a newly-developed nano satellite specializing in polar region observation activities. It is a 3U CubeSat of 2.9kg...
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