Measuring Deformed Sea Ice in Seasonal Ice Zones Using L-Band SAR Images

In order to improve the understanding of the dynamical deformation processes of sea ice in the seasonal ice zone (SIZ), measures to detect deformed ice were developed and validated using satellite L-band synthetic aperture radar (ScanSAR) images for the southern Sea of Okhotsk. To approach, sea ice was categorized into three ice types, typical of the sea ice in this region: nilas (thin level), pancake ice (thin rough), and deformed ice (thick rough), and then the measures to classify into these categories were developed using ALOS/Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) as a function of backscatter coefficients at HH polarization (
$\sigma _{\text {HH}}^{0}$
) and incidence angle (
$\theta _{i}$
), based on the field observations. Comparative analysis confirmed that PALSAR can detect deformed ice more efficiently than RADARSAT-2 (C-band SAR). The temporal evolution of the area, judged as deformed ice from these measures, shows significant variability with both time and space, and deformed ice regions appear in relatively linear alignments with a width of a few tens of kilometers in the inner ice pack region, consistent with ice drift convergence. To confirm the results, PALSAR-2 images at HH and HV polarizations were examined as a function of
$\theta _{i}$
, based on the four-year field observations in the same area. The results revealed that
$\sigma _{\text {HH}}^{0}$
and
$\sigma _{\text{HV}}^{0}$
are both subject to floe sizes as well as deformed ice, and
$\sigma _{\text{HV}}^{0}$
is more sensitive. This indicates that care should be taken when applying these measures to the ice areas where significantly small floes are dominant like the marginal ice zone.