Lake Ladoga surface features in ERS-1/2 and RADARSAT synthetic aperture radar images

In order to study hydrophysical processes in Lake Ladoga (Russia) the RADARSAT & ERS-2 SAR images has been collected in 1997 and 1998, as a part of the ADRO Project 273 and ESA Project AO3-172. To support SAR imagery available NOAA AVHRR IR images have been also collected. The project objective is further study the surface manifestations of hydrological processes in large lake using SAR. The paper reports the results obtained from analysis of collected SAR images. The lake surface features visible on the SAR images include large-scale slick associated with specific temperature distribution, internal waves, oil slicks, features associated with variations of the wind speed and manifestations of atmospheric gravity waves. Examples of SAR images is presented to illustrate these phenomena.