Study on Use and Characteristics of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) for Land Snow and Ice Applications

摘要

Synthetic aperture radar systems for snow and land ice monitoring were investigated to define a land observation satellite mission. Applications and requirements for remote sensing of land cryosphere parameters are discussed. The physical background on scattering from snow and ice is discussed and results of backscattering measurements are compared with other investigations. Examples for spaceborne and airborne SAR data on snow and glaciers are provided and information for the interpretation of the radar image data is given. Synthetic radar images were generated for two test areas with different topography to define the optimum antenna look angle. Simulations based on real SAR data provided information on spatial resolution and signal to noise ratio. Promising applications and preliminary specifications for a SAR system on land cryosphere monitoring are presented.