Radar backscatter measurements from RADARSAT SAR imagery of South Pole Station, Antarctica

Author

Hong-Gyoo Suhn ; Jezek, Kenneth ; Baumgartner, Francois ; Forster, Richard ; Mosley-Thompson, Ellen

Author_Institution

Byrd Polar Res. Center, Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH, USA

Volume

5

fYear

1999

fDate

1999

Firstpage

2360

Abstract

Ice sheet backscatter around South Pole Station was measured from several different azimuthal angles using RADARSAT-1 SAR data. The authors observed strong azimuthal anisotropy (3-4 dB) between radar look directions across and along the prevailing wind direction. They speculate that the azimuthal variation of backscatter around the South Pole area may be largely attributed to systematically oriented sastrugi and buried sastrugi. Radar backscatter is well correlated with surface topography over a spatial wavelength band of 15 to 20 km. They propose that grain size variations control backscatter patterns associated with undulating surface topography

Keywords

atmospheric techniques; backscatter; glaciology; hydrological techniques; meteorological radar; radar cross-sections; radar imaging; remote sensing by radar; snow; spaceborne radar; synthetic aperture radar; wind; Antarctica; RADARSAT; SAR imagery; South Pole Station; atmosphere; azimuthal anisotropy; backscatter; boundary layer; grain size; hydrology; irregular ridge; measurement technique; polar ice sheet; radar look direction; radar remote sensing; radsar scattering; sastrugi; snow cover; snow ridge; snowcover; snowpack; spaceborne radar; synthetic aperture radar; undulating surface topography; wind direction; wind feature; Anisotropic magnetoresistance; Backscatter; Grain size; Ice; Radar imaging; Radar measurements; South Pole; Surface topography; Surface waves; Synthetic aperture radar;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 1999. IGARSS '99 Proceedings. IEEE 1999 International

Conference_Location

Hamburg

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5207-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.1999.771509

Filename

771509