InSAR Monitoring of Arctic Landfast Sea Ice Deformation Using L-Band ALOS-2, C-Band Radarsat-2 and Sentinel-1

Arctic amplification is accelerating changes in sea ice regimes in the Canadian Arctic with later freeze-up and earlier melt events, adversely affecting Arctic wildlife and communities that depend on the stability of sea ice conditions. To monitor both the rate and impact of such change, there is a need to accurately measure sea ice deformation, an important component for understanding ice motion and polar climate. The objective of this study is to determine the spatial-temporal pattern of deformation over landfast ice in the Arctic using time series SAR imagery. We present Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) monitoring of Arctic landfast sea ice deformation using C-band Radarsat-2, Sentinel-1 and L-band ALOS-2 in this paper. The small baseline subset (SBAS) approach was explored to process time series observations for retrieval of temporal deformation changes along a line-of-sight direction (LOS) over the winter. It was found that temporal and spatial patterns of deformation observed from different sensors were generally consistent. Horizontal and vertical deformations were also retrieved by a multi-dimensional SBAS technique using both ascending and descending Sentinel-1 observations. Results showed a horizontal deformation in the range of -95-85 cm, and vertical deformation in the range of -41-63 cm in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada during February-April 2019. High coherence over ice from C-band was maintained over a shorter time interval of acquisitions than L-band due to temporal decorrelation.

Automated summary

This study aims to monitor the spatial-temporal pattern of deformation over landfast ice in the Arctic using InSAR. Different sensors showed consistent temporal and spatial patterns of deformation, with horizontal and vertical deformations monitored using a multi-dimensional SBAS technique. The results demonstrated horizontal deformation ranging from -95 to 85 cm, and vertical deformation ranging from -41 to 63 cm in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada during February-April 2019. The coherence over ice from C-band was maintained over a shorter time interval compared to L-band due to temporal decorrelation.