Mapping the Ice Zones of West Greenland using Multi-frequency Polarimetric SAR Data

Abstract:
Estimation of ice zones' extent and their temporal variations is fundamental for the retrieval of surface mass balance of glaciers and ice sheets. Several approaches have been proposed to map ice zones by means of Synthetic Aperture Radars (SARs), most of which are based on intensity measurements and their seasonal variations. Here, an alternative approach is investigated, which exploits co-polarimetric (co-pol) phase differences to detect the presence of firn. The approach is tested on a multi-frequency (X-, C- and L- band) dataset acquired by DLR’s airborne F-SAR sensor over Greenland and validated against available GPR data.