Map of the sea ice on antartic peninsula using sentinel 1A images

Abstract

The sea ice acts as a thermal insulation and in its absence the ocean is free to emit heat to the atmosphere, causing changes in the oceanic circulation. Remote sensing of the sea ice cover comprises several techniques and operates over a wide range of frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum. This work proposes the classification and identification of free areas of sea ice by means of SAR images in the C band, through Sentinel 1A satellite, under HH polarization and IW imaging mode. The supervised classification was performed using the Random Forest method, with sample training through texture analysis with Sentinel 2 optical images, K-Means unsupervised classification and analysis of HH/HV co-polarizations in Sentinel 1B images under EW imaging. Backscatter coefficients were identified from -10.2 to -13.5 dB for young ice and/or first-year ice, -17.5 to -19.6 dB for new ice, and -23.7 to -26.8 dB to open water in the western region of the Antarctic Peninsula during the austral winter.