Retrieval of river ice thickness from C-band PolSAR data

Until now, existing models for retrieving river ice thickness are mostly based on environmental data. They require many inputs and indicate a global value of ice thickness for a large heterogeneous area. Studies have been performed intending to retrieve river ice thickness throughout remote sensing using monopolarized C-band radar data. But no reliable ice maps of ice thickness have been produced. In this paper, the information gain from polarimetric SAR data is demonstrated and a river ice thickness model is proposed. This model is applied and validated on Radarsat-2 images acquired at C-band in winter 2009 over the Saint-François River (Southern Quebec), the Kosoak River (Northern Quebec) and the Mackenzie River (Northwest Territories), in Canada. Field campaigns were carried out to obtain more than 70 samples of various river ice thickness. The optimal polarimetric parameter is chosen to retrieve both easily and rapidly river ice thickness. This approach offers reliable spatially distributed ice maps.