Sea Ice Mapping With Satellite L-Band SAR and Unfocussed SAR

Multiple satellite sensors, including synthetic aperture radars (SAR), microwave scatterometers and radiometers, and multispectral radiometers, have been used for sea ice observations with different resolution and coverage in time and in space. Here we investigate the use of satellite L-band SAR such as ALOS and unfocussed SAR such as SMAP and QuikSCAT radar for synergistic mapping of sea ice classes. The results demonstrate that both ice-water identification and sea ice classification can be improved to detect multiple ice classes such as thin young ice, level first-year ice, deformed first-year ice, and multi-year ice.