Measurement of glacier geophysical properties from InSAR wrapped phase

A method is presented for calculating longitudinal glacier strain rates directly from the wrapped phase of an interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) interferogram assuming the ice flow path is known. This technique enables strain rates to be calculated for scenes lacking any velocity control points or areas within a scene where the phase is not continuously unwrappable from a velocity control point. The contributions to the error in the estimate of the strain rate are evaluated, and recommendations for appropriate SAR and InSAR parameters are presented. An example using Radarsat-1 InSAR data of an East Antarctic ice stream demonstrates the technique for calculating longitudinal strain rate profiles and estimating tensile strength of ice (186–215 kPa) from locations of crevasse initiation. The strain rate error was found to be 17% corresponding to a tensile strength of ice error of 5.3%