ESA - Eduspace EN - Global Change - Worksheet introduction

Coastal change

Danube Delta change detection Oil spills

Deforestation

Bardia National Park Congo River Basin Kameng-Sonitpur Elephant Reserve Kilimanjaro Rondonia Shillong and Guwahati

Ice

Antarctica 2003 Climate change and glaciers Glacier analysis using radar imagery Glacial retreat in the Alps Glacier Ice Flow Monitoring of glaciers in the Himalayas Remote sensing of ice and snow

Urbanisation

Cairo City of Kathmandu Córdoba Himalayas Kathmandu Valley Lagos

Vegetation

Annapurna Conservation Area Lost in the Andes Ngorongoro Conservation Area Niger Inland Delta Vegetation in South America


Landsat TM true-colour combination image of 23 July 2006 over Kronebreen and Brøggerhalvøya

Worksheet introduction

Familiarise yourself with the archipelago of Svalbard (Spitsbergen), which can be found at the GoogleEarth file location 3.1. This image is a so-called true-colour combination of the visible Landsat channels over Brøggerhalvøya and Ny Ålesund, the area of this exercise.

The Ny Ålesund village and its airstrip are seen in the centre-left of the image. The big glacier system to the right is the Kronebreen. Kronebreen and its connected neighbours have an icefront in the sea. The Kronebreen glacier is one of the largest and fastest-flowing glaciers of Svalbard. Close to its calving front in the sea the ice flows a distance of up to 800 m per year, which is several metres per day. Besides this large glacier system, a number of small glaciers are situated on the peninsula to the left, close to Ny Ålesund.

Purpose of the exercises

You will use three radar images of the area (Images_Glaciers.zip): one was taken in winter, one in spring, and one in late summer. By comparing these three images you will see how snow and ice differently reflect radar signals depending on their current conditions. You will then be able to assess if it is possible to map snow and ice properties from radar images.

You can also use a Landsat image of the area, but the data does not perfectly overlap because the ASAR and Landsat sensors have a different sensor geometry. ASAR uses a radar antenna, whereas Landsat uses a scanning digital camera.

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Glacier analysis using radar imagery

Introduction

Background

Radar Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)

Exercises

Exercise 1: Multitemporal radar and multispectral optical data Exercise 2: The influence of weather conditions on radar imagery Conclusions

Eduspace - Software

LEOWorks 4 (MacOS)LEOWorks 4 (Windows)LEOWorks 4 (Linux)

Eduspace - Download

Images_Glaciers.zip GoogleEarth file