Investigation of Polarimetric Phase Differences in Tandem-X Data Over Young and Undeformed Sea ICE

Single-pass interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) is an effective technique for sea ice topographic retrieval despite the dynamics of sea ice. Co-polarimetric phase differences (CPD) provide scattering information concerning the sea ice properties. This study estimates the observational CPD from the dual-polarimetric SAR images over young ice (YI) and undeformed ice (UI) in the Western Weddell Sea. The CPD is further modelled as a function of structural anisotropy, incidence angle, ice volume fracture, and volume thickness. The good agreement between the observational and modelled CPD indicates that CPD can be a promising indication for topographic characterization over the YI and UI.