IceMotion: High resolution sea-ice motion from Synthetical Aperture Radar using pattern tracking and Doppler shift
IceMotion will provide new SAR-derived sea ice motion data based on combined use of
feature tracking and Doppler shift data for research and monitoring in ice-covered Polar seas.
Objectives
The IceMotion project will develop high-resolution sea ice motion algorithm and data sets based on SAR data from Sentinel-1 and Radarsat-2 SAR images in order to improve sea ice observation and modelling on regional and local scale as well as support to climate research in the polar regions.
Specific objectives are:
- Implement and test a pattern-tracking sea ice motion algorithm using co- and cross-polarisation images with rotation and quality estimation.
- Retrieve and evaluate range-oriented velocity fields from SAR Doppler shift analysis including combination with ice drift from pattern-tracking.
- Calculate ice deformation from the ice velocity fields in order to compare with elastic-brittle sea ice model of the SIMech project.
- Develop a sustainable processing system for ice drift retrieval to be operated under Copernicus.
- Exploitation of results towards user groups in polar regions such as sea ice modeller, operational ice services, navigation, offshore operation, climate research and environmental monitoring.
Project Summary
Sea-ice motion is an essential variable to observe from EO data, because it strongly influences the distribution of sea-ice on different spatial and temporal scales. Ice drift causes advection of ice from one region to another and export of ice from the Arctic Ocean to the sub-Arctic seas. The proposal will exploit Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data from Sentinel-1and Radarsat-2 for sea ice research and prepare for operational use of Sentinel-1 data. The main objective of IceMotion is to develop new SAR-derived sea ice motion data with high resolution (ca. 1 km) to observe and model sea ice dynamics, in particular ice deformation. The ice drift will be based on combined use of pattern tracking and Doppler shift data. Such high-resolution ice drift data are not yet provided and will be important for observation of ice divergence/convergence, leads, ridges and other regional and local ice processes. A long-term goal is to combine sea ice drift, including deformation, with ice type classification from SAR data to create innovative, high-resolution ice maps. The results will be exploited towards user groups in polar regions such as sea-ice modeller, operational ice forecasting services, ice navigation, offshore operation, climate research and environmental monitoring including tracking of pollution embedded in sea ice. The proposal will develop a sustainable rocessing system for ice drift retrieval from Sentinel-1 and Radarsat-2 data, to be operated under Copernicus marine services.
