Discrimination of Arctic multi-year ice from first-year ice using SCATSAT-1 data

Abstract

The distinctive dielectric properties of multi-year ice that make it stand out from the first-year ice has been exploited in this study to discriminate the Arctic multi-year ice from the first-year ice. We have used the backscattering coefficient, the brightness temperature and the gamma-naught data from the ISRO's miniature satellite SCATSAT-1 for this study. Principal component analysis in conjunction with the ISODATA unsupervised classification technique has been used to achieve the goal of this study. The classification results so obtained have been compared with a well-established sea ice type data product from the EUMETSAT's Ocean & Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility. Moreover, we have employed a change detection technique to ascertain the changes in the Arctic multi-year ice for the SCATSAT-1 period 2016 through 2018 (autumn and spring changes).