Satellite SAR Remote Sensing of Great Lakes Ice Cover, Part 2. Ice Classification and Mapping

During the 1997 winter season, shipborne polarimetric backscatter measurements of Great Lakes (freshwater) ice types using the Jet Propulsion Laboratory C-band scatterometer, together with surface-based ice physical characterization measurements and environmental parameters, were acquired concurrently with Earth Resource Satellite 2 (ERS-2) and RADARSAT Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data. This polarimetric data set, composed of over 20 variations of different ice types measured at incident angles from 0° to 60° for all polarizations, was processed to radar cross-section to establish a library of signatures (look-up table) for different ice types. The library is used in the computer classification of calibrated satellite SAR data. Computer analysis of ERS-2 and RADARSAT ScanSAR images of Great Lakes ice cover using a supervised classification technique indicates that different ice types in the ice cover can be identified and mapped, and that wind speed and direction can have an influence on the classification of water as ice based on single frequency, single polarization data. Once satellite SAR data are classified into ice types, the ice map provides important and necessary input for environmental protection and management, ice control and ice breaking operations, and ice forecasting and modeling efforts. INDEX WORDS: Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Great Lakes, ice, classification, mapping, RADARSAT, ERS-2, satellite, remote sensing. J. Great Lakes Res. 33:736–750 Internat. Assoc. Great Lakes Res., 2007