Regional Assessments of Surface Ice Elevations from Swath-Processed CryoSat-2 SARIn Data
The Arctic responds rapidly to climate change, and the melting of land ice is a major contributor to the observed present-day sea-level rise. The coastal regions of these ice-covered areas are showing the most dramatic changes in the form of widespread thinning. Therefore, it is vital to improve the...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-06-01
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| Series: | Remote Sensing |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/11/2213 |
| _version_ | 1797531253314945024 |
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| author | Natalia Havelund Andersen Sebastian Bjerregaard Simonsen Mai Winstrup Johan Nilsson Louise Sandberg Sørensen |
| author_facet | Natalia Havelund Andersen Sebastian Bjerregaard Simonsen Mai Winstrup Johan Nilsson Louise Sandberg Sørensen |
| author_sort | Natalia Havelund Andersen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The Arctic responds rapidly to climate change, and the melting of land ice is a major contributor to the observed present-day sea-level rise. The coastal regions of these ice-covered areas are showing the most dramatic changes in the form of widespread thinning. Therefore, it is vital to improve the monitoring of these areas to help us better understand their contribution to present-day sea levels. In this study, we derive ice-surface elevations from the swath processing of CryoSat-2 SARIn data, and evaluate the results in several Arctic regions. In contrast to the conventional retracking of radar data, swath processing greatly enhances spatial coverage as it uses the majority of information in the radar waveform to create a swath of elevation measurements. However, detailed validation procedures for swath-processed data are important to assess the performance of the method. Therefore, a range of validation activities were carried out to evaluate the performance of the swath processor in four different regions in the Arctic. We assessed accuracy by investigating both intramission crossover elevation differences, and comparisons to independent elevation data. The validation data consisted of both air- and spaceborne laser altimetry, and airborne X-band radar data. There were varying elevation biases between CryoSat-2 and the validation datasets. The best agreement was found for CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2 over the Helheim region in June 2019. To test the stability of the swath processor, we applied two different coherence thresholds. The number of data points was increased by approximately 25% when decreasing the coherence threshold in the processor from 0.8 to 0.6. However, depending on the region, this came with the cost of an increase of 33–65% in standard deviation of the intramission differences. Our study highlights the importance of selecting an appropriate coherence threshold for the swath processor. Coherence threshold should be chosen on a case-specific basis depending on the need for enhanced spatial coverage or accuracy. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T10:41:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a2823572f31741b486e925d9f8cfd1b1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T10:41:13Z |
| publishDate | 2021-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj.art-a2823572f31741b486e925d9f8cfd1b12023-11-21T22:55:07ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922021-06-011311221310.3390/rs13112213Regional Assessments of Surface Ice Elevations from Swath-Processed CryoSat-2 SARIn DataNatalia Havelund Andersen0Sebastian Bjerregaard Simonsen1Mai Winstrup2Johan Nilsson3Louise Sandberg Sørensen4DTU Space, National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, DenmarkDTU Space, National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, DenmarkDTU Space, National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, DenmarkJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USADTU Space, National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, DenmarkThe Arctic responds rapidly to climate change, and the melting of land ice is a major contributor to the observed present-day sea-level rise. The coastal regions of these ice-covered areas are showing the most dramatic changes in the form of widespread thinning. Therefore, it is vital to improve the monitoring of these areas to help us better understand their contribution to present-day sea levels. In this study, we derive ice-surface elevations from the swath processing of CryoSat-2 SARIn data, and evaluate the results in several Arctic regions. In contrast to the conventional retracking of radar data, swath processing greatly enhances spatial coverage as it uses the majority of information in the radar waveform to create a swath of elevation measurements. However, detailed validation procedures for swath-processed data are important to assess the performance of the method. Therefore, a range of validation activities were carried out to evaluate the performance of the swath processor in four different regions in the Arctic. We assessed accuracy by investigating both intramission crossover elevation differences, and comparisons to independent elevation data. The validation data consisted of both air- and spaceborne laser altimetry, and airborne X-band radar data. There were varying elevation biases between CryoSat-2 and the validation datasets. The best agreement was found for CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2 over the Helheim region in June 2019. To test the stability of the swath processor, we applied two different coherence thresholds. The number of data points was increased by approximately 25% when decreasing the coherence threshold in the processor from 0.8 to 0.6. However, depending on the region, this came with the cost of an increase of 33–65% in standard deviation of the intramission differences. Our study highlights the importance of selecting an appropriate coherence threshold for the swath processor. Coherence threshold should be chosen on a case-specific basis depending on the need for enhanced spatial coverage or accuracy.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/11/2213swath processingice elevationsCS2validation |
| spellingShingle | Natalia Havelund Andersen Sebastian Bjerregaard Simonsen Mai Winstrup Johan Nilsson Louise Sandberg Sørensen Regional Assessments of Surface Ice Elevations from Swath-Processed CryoSat-2 SARIn Data Remote Sensing swath processing ice elevations CS2 validation |
| title | Regional Assessments of Surface Ice Elevations from Swath-Processed CryoSat-2 SARIn Data |
| title_full | Regional Assessments of Surface Ice Elevations from Swath-Processed CryoSat-2 SARIn Data |
| title_fullStr | Regional Assessments of Surface Ice Elevations from Swath-Processed CryoSat-2 SARIn Data |
| title_full_unstemmed | Regional Assessments of Surface Ice Elevations from Swath-Processed CryoSat-2 SARIn Data |
| title_short | Regional Assessments of Surface Ice Elevations from Swath-Processed CryoSat-2 SARIn Data |
| title_sort | regional assessments of surface ice elevations from swath processed cryosat 2 sarin data |
| topic | swath processing ice elevations CS2 validation |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/11/2213 |
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