What Is Gained by Using an L-band Sar for Sea Ice Monitoring ?

RESUME For sea ice monitoring by means of radar remote sensing, systems operating at C-band are regarded as an optimal choice. In a number of studies that have been published since the early 90s it was found, however, that sea ice types can be better discriminated at L-band than at C-band provided that more than one polarization is available. For special tasks, such as imaging sea ice ridges and other deformation features, L-band has always been assessed superior. L-band SAR imagery from the Japanese PALSAR and potentially from other missions under discussion is hence an interesting complement to the C-band SAR data acquired by ENVISAT and RADARSAT. In this paper, examples from the literature and from measurement campaigns of the Danish EMISAR system over the Baltic Sea and around Svalbard will be used to demonstrate the pros and cons of L-band SAR for sea ice mapping.