Evaluation of a sea ice algorithm for SAR data from the Bay of Bothnia

A sea ice drift algorithm published by M. Thomas et. al.(2008) has been implemented and evaluated. Input tothe algorithm is Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)images, which are processed using phase correlation ina multi-resolution processing system. The algorithm hasbeen tested with horizontally co-polarized (HH)ENVISAT ASAR Wide Swath images andRADARSAT-2 ScanSAR images. The possible benefitsof using cross-polarized (HV) RADARSAT-2 ScanSARdata are investigated, and initial testing of the algorithmfor L-band SAR data from ALOS PALSAR has beendone.The validity of the produced motion fields has beentested in three different ways. Most of the SAR imagesin this analysis were acquired over the Bay of Bothnia.Five meteorological stations located in this region havebeen collecting wind data with a temporal resolution ofthree hours. It is confirmed that the wind data correlateswith the derived sea ice motion. Another source ofvalidation data that has been used is the daily ice chartspublished by the Swedish Meteorological andHydrological Institute (SMHI). The third method usedfor validation is straightforward, visual tracking of seaice features.The algorithm is facing some difficulties when it comesto ice tracking close to the shoreline, in archipelagoesetc, since the motionless solution will be favoured. Itcan however be suppressed by filtering areas of land.This addition gives a more robust algorithm