Monitoring Alpine glacier surface deformations with GB-SAR

We present methods and results from interferometric data processing of a long-lasting survey campaign monitoring the Planpincieux glacier, located on the Italian side of the Mont Blanc, using a ground-based synthetic aperture radar (GB-SAR). Monitoring a European Alpine glacier during the winter, wh...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Remote sensing letters 2017-10, Vol.8 (10), p.947-956
Main Authors: Dematteis, Niccolò, Luzi, Guido, Giordan, Daniele, Zucca, Francesco, Allasia, Paolo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alpine environments
Backscattering
Coherence
Data analysis
Data interpretation
Data processing
Deformation
Errors
Glaciers
Heterogeneity
Interferometry
Monitoring
Radar
Radar data
SAR (radar)
Surveying
Synthetic aperture radar
Two dimensional models
Velocity
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We present methods and results from interferometric data processing of a long-lasting survey campaign monitoring the Planpincieux glacier, located on the Italian side of the Mont Blanc, using a ground-based synthetic aperture radar (GB-SAR). Monitoring a European Alpine glacier during the winter, when the meteorological conditions are highly variable, presents some difficulties in radar data interpretation. The main issues to tackle in interferometric processing are unwrapping errors and high amplitude dispersion (DA), mainly due to the high velocity and dielectric heterogeneity of the backscattering surface. To improve the reliability of the results, a coherence-driven pixel-selection criterion for identifying the glacier area and a simple approach to reduce possible unwrapping errors in interferograms with low coherence are here proposed. The development of a new 2D polynomial regression model, as a function of elevation, for atmospheric phase screen (APS) estimation is also discussed. A comparison with the results obtained with a vision-based approach gave showed good agreement.
ISSN:2150-704X
2150-7058
DOI:10.1080/2150704X.2017.1335905