Iceberg Detection in Open and Ice-Infested Waters Using C-Band Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar

Abstract

Icebergs can cause a significant threat to shipping, offshore oil and gas production facilities, and subsea pipelines. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a well-established tool for detecting and monitoring sea-ice objects in the often dark and cloud-covered polar regions. However, detection of small icebergs floating in nonhomegeous sea clutter environments is still a challenging task. We propose a new methodology for automatic identification of potential icebergs in high-resolution polarimetric SAR images. The algorithm adopts to various sea-ice conditions and it tackles high iceberg density situations and heterogeneous background conditions in the marginal ice zone. Results from a time series of RADARSAT-2 data containing numerous icebergs broken off from glaciers in Kongsfjorden on Svalbard demonstrate that the approach is viable.