Lake and Fjord Ice Imaging Using a Multifrequency Ground-Based Tomographic SAR System
Abstract
The radar backscatter response of snow covered lake and fjord ice is investigated using a ground based multifrequency synthetic aperture radar system operated in a tomographic configuration. Direct imaging of the snow and ice layering is achieved by focusing the signal from a two-dimensional (2-D) synthetic array in the 3-D space. A mathematical derivation describing the propagation of electromagnetic waves across a dense and multilayered complex medium with arbitrary but finite number of layers is presented. It is used to estimate the depth and refractive indices of the snow and ice layers from the tomograms employing a simple least-square optimization scheme. The lake and fjord ice datasets are compared with respect to their vertical stratification and estimated refractive indices. The vertical structure of the reflectivity of the snow-covered lake ice is investigated and compared at two different frequencies, X-, and C-band. It is found that snow and ice volume responses at C-band are very low compared to the corresponding responses at X-band. At both frequencies, backscattering from surface and interface structures dominate volume contributions.