Mapping aurora activity with SAR — a case study

Auroral physics is an exceedingly rich and complex subject. However, due to a lack of high resolution data of ionospheric activity during auroral events, not all phenomena in the high latitude ionosphere are fully understood. Recent research has proven that L-band SAR data is significantly affected by the ionosphere and can be used for mapping its activity. With this paper we will prove and unambiguously verify the potential of L-band SAR to capture auroral activity. We will present examples of aurora signatures mapped from ALOS PALSAR data and will verify the results from SAR with observations provided from ground based measurements.