Glacier motion estimation using SAR offset-tracking procedures

Two image-to-image patch offset techniques for estimating feature motion between satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images are discussed. Intensity tracking, based on patch intensity cross-correlation optimization, and coherence tracking, based on patch coherence optimization, are used to estimate the movement of glacier surfaces between two SAR images in both slant-range and azimuth direction. The accuracy and application range of the two methods are examined in the case of the surge of Monacobreen in Northern Svalbard between 1992 and 1996. Offset-tracking procedures of SAR images are an alternative to differential SAR interferometry for the estimation of glacier motion when differential SAR interferometry is limited by loss of coherence, i.e. in the case of rapid and incoherent flow and of large acquisition time intervals between the two SAR images. In addition, an offset-tracking procedure in the azimuth direction may be combined with differential SAR interferometry in the slant-range direction in order to retrieve a two-dimensional displacement map when SAR data of only one orbit configuration are available.

[1]  Dominique Derauw,et al.  DInSAR and Coherence Tracking Applied to Glaciology : The Example of Shirase , 1999 .

[2]  P. Vachon,et al.  InSAR results from the RADARSAT Antarctic Mapping Mission data: estimation of glacier motion using a simple registration procedure , 1998, IGARSS '98. Sensing and Managing the Environment. 1998 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing. Symposium Proceedings. (Cat. No.98CH36174).

[3]  R. Goldstein,et al.  Satellite Radar Interferometry for Monitoring Ice Sheet Motion: Application to an Antarctic Ice Stream , 1993, Science.

[4]  Søren Nørvang Madsen,et al.  Error analysis for interferometric SAR measurements of ice sheet flow , 1999, IEEE 1999 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. IGARSS'99 (Cat. No.99CH36293).

[5]  GAMMA SAR AND INTERFEROMETRIC PROCESSING SOFTWARE , 2000 .

[6]  Ian R. Joughin,et al.  Interferometric estimation of three-dimensional ice-flow using ascending and descending passes , 1998, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[7]  B. D. Smith.  North and Northeast Greenland Ice Discharge from Satellite Radar Interferometry , 1997 .

[8]  Jon Ove Hagen,et al.  Glacier atlas of Svalbard and Jan Mayen , 1993 .

[9]  R. Armstrong,et al.  The Physics of Glaciers , 1981 .

[10]  Thierry Rabaute,et al.  Radar interferometry: limits and potential , 1993, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[11]  Ron Kwok,et al.  A Mini-Surge on the Ryder Glacier, Greenland, Observed by Satellite Radar Interferometry , 1996, Science.

[12]  Helmut Rott,et al.  Mass fluxes and dynamics of Moreno Glacier, Southern Patagonia Icefield , 1998 .

[13]  Urs Wegmüller,et al.  Mapping wet snowcovers with SAR interferometry , 1999 .

[14]  Fuk K. Li,et al.  Synthetic aperture radar interferometry , 2000, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[15]  Karim E. Mattar,et al.  Influence of ionospheric electron density fluctuations on satellite radar interferometry , 2000 .

[16]  K. Jezek,et al.  Velocities and Flux of the Filchner Ice Shelf and its Tributaries Determined from Speckle Tracking Interferometry , 2001 .

[17]  R. Michel,et al.  Flow of Glaciar Moreno, Argentina, from repeat-pass Shuttle Imaging Radar images: comparison of the phase correlation method with radar interferometry , 1999, Journal of Glaciology.

[18]  Johan J. Mohr,et al.  Three-dimensional glacial flow and surface elevation measured with radar interferometry , 1998, Nature.

[19]  Ron Kwok,et al.  Estimation of ice-sheet motion using satellite radar interferometry: method and error analysis with application to Humboldt Glacier, Greenland , 1996, Journal of Glaciology.

[20]  Ron Kwok,et al.  Measurement of ice-sheet topography using satellite-radar interferometry , 1996 .