Abstract
Abstract. Single-pass interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) enables the possibility for sea ice topographic retrieval despite the inherent dynamics of sea ice. InSAR digital elevation models (DEMs) are measuring the radar scattering center height. The height bias induced by the penetration of electromagnetic waves into snow and ice leads to inaccuracies of the InSAR DEM, especially for thick and deformed sea ice with snow cover. In this study, an elevation difference between the satellite-measured InSAR DEM and the airborne-measured optical DEM is observed from a coordinated campaign over the western Weddell Sea in Antarctica. The objective is to correct the penetration bias and generate a precise sea ice topographic map from the single-pass InSAR data. With the potential of retrieving sea ice geophysical information by the polarimetric-interferometry (Pol-InSAR) technique, a two-layer-plus-volume model is proposed to represent the sea ice vertical structure and its scattering mechanisms. Furthermore, a simplified version of the model is derived, to allow its inversion with limited a priori knowledge, which is then applied to a topographic retrieval scheme. The experiments are performed across four polarizations: HH, VV, Pauli 1 (HH + VV), and Pauli 2 (HH − VV). The model-retrieved performance is validated with the optically derived DEM of the sea ice topography, showing an excellent performance with root-mean-square error as low as 0.26 m in Pauli-1 (HH + VV) polarization.
Highlights
Sea ice topography is defined as the elevation of the ice volume including the snow cover above the sea level
Note that the retrieved sea ice topography refers to the sea ice height including the snow depth above the local sea level
The potential to retrieve sea ice topography with the Pol-interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) technique was validated with single-pass interferometric Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data and airborne photogrammetric measurements over the thick (> 2 m) and deformed sea ice with snow cover in the western Weddell Sea
Summary
Sea ice topography is defined as the elevation of the ice volume including the snow cover above the sea level. Tin and Jeffries (2003) indicated that first-year ridges in the Antarctic are flatter and less massive than those in the Arctic. Sea ice ridging height is a crucial parameter to evaluate total ice mass in both polar regions (Hibler et al, 1974; Melling and Riedel, 1995; Lytle et al, 1998; Tin et al, 2003). In the Antarctic, the mean height of the ridges in the Weddell Sea was found to be ∼ 1.1 m, which is similar to the ridging statistics from the Ross Sea (Lytle and Ackley, 1991), whereas it is considerably less than in the Arctic (Lytle and Ackley, 1991; Dierking, 1995)
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