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While feature tracking of sea ice using cross-correlation methods on pairs of satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images has been extensively carried out in the Arctic, this is not the case in the Antarctic. This is due to the dynamic nature of Antarctic pack ice, its microwave signature, the tendency for SAR swath paths to be poorly aligned with the often narrow sea ice zone around the continent and inadequate satellite sampling. A semi-automated system, known as IPADS (IMCORR [IMageCORRelation] Processing, Analysis and Display System), has been developed to map fast ice and pack ice in Antarctica using multiple pairs of SAR images. The software processing pipeline uses overlapping image pairswhich are geocoded and roughly registered using only data contained in the image headers. Next, fast icemaps are rapidly generated using zeromotion features located within ocean regions. This also provides precise image registration. Finally, the same image pairs are re-examined for pack ice motion in a slower off-line batch process. The pack and fast ice are identified using a cluster-based search method which compares both location and motion information. Each image pair generates a NetCDF file which adds to a growing database of Antarctic sea ice motion and ice roughness. Five image-pair examples are presented to illustrate themethods used aswell as their strengths and limitations. Substantial pack icemotion can often be detected in the marginal ice zone on SAR images only a few days apart.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	Tracking East Antarctic Sea Ice Satellite Envisat
Research Division:	Earth Sciences
Research Group:	Physical geography and environmental geoscience
Research Field:	Glaciology
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding knowledge in the earth sciences
UTAS Author:	Giles, AB (Dr Barry Giles)
UTAS Author:	Massom, RA (Dr Robert Massom)
UTAS Author:	Heil, P (Dr Petra Heil)
UTAS Author:	Hyland, G (Dr Glenn Hyland)
ID Code:	76076
Year Published:	2011
Web of Science® Times Cited:	14
Deposited By:	CRC-Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems
Deposited On:	2012-02-27
Last Modified:	2012-05-14
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