Remote sensing of snow and ice

W. Gareth Rees0415298318, 9780415298315

Many advances in spaceborne instrumentation, remote sensing, and data analysis have occurred in recent years, but until now there has been no book that reflects these advances while delivering a uniform treatment of the remote sensing of frozen regions. Remote Sensing of Snow and Ice identifies unifying themes and ideas in these fields and presents them in a single volume.
This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the remote sensing of the Earth’s cryosphere. Explaining why cryospheric observations are important and why remote sensing observations are essential, it offers thorough surveys of the physical properties of ice and snow, and of current and emerging remote sensing techniques.
Presenting a technical review of how the properties of snow and ice relate to remote sensing observations, the book focuses on principles by which useful geophysical information becomes encoded into the electromagnetic radiation detected during the remote sensing process. The author then discusses in detail the application of remote sensing methods to snow, freshwater ice, glaciers, and icebergs. The book concludes with a summary that examines what remote sensing has revealed about the cryosphere, where major technical problems still exist, and how these problems can be addressed.

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Table of contents :
Front cover……Page 1
Preface……Page 8
Acknowledgments……Page 12
Author Biography……Page 14
Table of Contents……Page 16
1.2 SNOW COVER……Page 22
1.3 ICE SHEETS AND GLACIERS……Page 25
1.4 ICEBERGS……Page 32
1.5 SEA ICE……Page 35
1.6 FRESHWATER ICE……Page 40
1.7 PERMAFROST……Page 42
2.1 INTRODUCTION……Page 44
2.2.1 PHOTOGRAPHIC FILM……Page 47
2.2.2 LENS OPTICS……Page 49
2.2.4 MAPPING, RELIEF,……Page 50
2.2.5 EXAMPLES……Page 54
2.3 ELECTRO-OPTICAL SYSTEMS IN THE VISIBLE AND NEAR-INFRARED REGION……Page 55
2.3.1 SCANNING GEOMETRIES……Page 56
2.3.3 SPECTRAL RESOLUTION……Page 57
2.3.4 GEOMETRY……Page 58
2.3.5 EXAMPLES……Page 59
2.4 THERMAL INFRARED SYSTEMS……Page 60
2.4.1 SPATIAL RESOLUTION……Page 64
2.4.4 ATMOSPHERIC CORRECTION……Page 65
2.5 PASSIVE MICROWAVE SYSTEMS……Page 66
2.5.2 SPECTRAL RESOLUTION……Page 68
2.5.4 EXAMPLES……Page 69
2.5.5 SUMMARY……Page 70
2.6 LASER PROFILING……Page 71
2.6.1 SPATIAL RESOLUTION……Page 72
2.6.3 EXAMPLES……Page 74
2.6.4 SUMMARY……Page 75
2.7.1 SPATIAL RESOLUTION……Page 76
2.7.3 RESPONSE……Page 79
2.7.4 RESPONSE……Page 80
2.7.7 SUMMARY……Page 81
2.8 RADIO ECHO-SOUNDING……Page 83
2.9.1 IMAGING GEOMETRY……Page 84
2.9.2 DISTORTIONS……Page 87
2.9.4 SAR INTERFEROMETRY……Page 90
2.9.5 EXAMPLES……Page 92
2.9.6 SUMMARY……Page 93
3.1 INTRODUCTION……Page 96
3.2 PREPROCESSING……Page 97
3.3 IMAGE ENHANCEMENT……Page 98
3.3.1 CONTRAST MODIFICATION……Page 99
3.3.2 SPATIAL FILTERING……Page 100
3.3.3 BAND TRANSFORMATIONS……Page 104
3.4.1 DENSITY-SLICING……Page 106
3.4.2 MULTISPECTRAL CLASSIFICATION……Page 108
3.4.3 TEXTURE CLASSIFICATION……Page 111
3.4.4 NEURAL NETWORKS……Page 112
3.6 IMAGE SEGMENTATION……Page 114
3.7 CHANGE DETECTION……Page 116
4.2 SNOW 4.2.1 PHYSICAL CHARACTERIZATION……Page 120
4.2.2 SURFACE GEOMETRY……Page 122
4.2.3 THERMAL PROPERTIES……Page 125
4.2.4 ELECTROMAGNETIC PROPERTIES……Page 126
4.2.5 ELECTROMAGNETIC PROPERTIES……Page 129
4.2.6 ELECTROMAGNETIC PROPERTIES……Page 130
4.2.7 MICROWAVE BACKSCATTERING……Page 133
4.2.8 MICROWAVE EMISSION……Page 137
4.3 LAKE AND RIVER ICE 4.3.1 PHYSICAL CHARACTERIZATION……Page 139
4.3.4 ELECTROMAGNETIC PROPERTIES……Page 140
4.4 SEA ICE 4.4.1 PHYSICAL CHARACTERIZATION……Page 142
4.4.4 ELECTROMAGNETIC PROPERTIES……Page 144
4.5 GLACIERS 4.5.1 PHYSICAL CHARACTERIZATION……Page 148
4.5.2 ELECTROMAGNETIC PROPERTIES……Page 151
4.5.4 MICROWAVE PROPERTIES……Page 153
4.5.5 TRANSMISSION……Page 154
4.6 ICEBERGS 4.6.1 PHYSICAL CHARACTERIZATION……Page 156
4.6.3 ELECTROMAGNETIC PROPERTIES……Page 157
5.1 INTRODUCTION……Page 158
5.2.1 SMALL SCALE……Page 159
5.2.2 INTERMEDIATE SCALE……Page 163
5.2.3 GLOBAL SCALE……Page 166
5.3 SNOW WATER EQUIVALENT AND SNOW DEPTH 5.3.1 SMALL……Page 170
5.3.2 GLOBAL……Page 171
5.4 SNOW MELT AND RUNOFF MODELING……Page 173
5.5 PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF THE SNOW PACK 5.5.1 REFLECTANCE……Page 174
5.5.2 GRAIN SIZE……Page 175
5.5.3 TEMPERATURE……Page 176
5.5.4 RADAR PROPERTIES……Page 177
6.2 ICE EXTENT AND CONCENTRATION……Page 178
6.3 ICE TYPE……Page 188
6.4 MELT PONDS AND SURFACE ALBEDO……Page 192
6.5 ICE THICKNESS……Page 194
6.6 ICE DYNAMICS……Page 197
6.7 ICE TEMPERATURE……Page 202
7.2 EXTENT……Page 204
7.3 CLASSIFICATION OF ICE TYPE……Page 209
7.4 ICE THICKNESS……Page 211
7.5 ICE MOTION……Page 213
8.1 INTRODUCTION……Page 214
8.2 SPATIAL EXTENT AND SURFACE FEATURES……Page 215
8.3 SURFACE TOPOGRAPHY……Page 221
8.4 ICE THICKNESS AND BEDROCK TOPOGRAPHY……Page 226
8.5 SURFACE TEMPERATURE AND SURFACE MELTING……Page 227
8.6 ACCUMULATION RATE……Page 232
8.7 SURFACE FACIES……Page 233
8.8 ICE MOTION……Page 238
8.9 MASS BALANCE……Page 241
9.2 DETECTION AND MONITORING OF ICEBERGS 9.2.1 VISIBLE……Page 242
9.2.3 SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR……Page 245
9.3 ICEBERG THICKNESS……Page 250
10.1 WHAT HAS REMOTE SENSING REVEALED ABOUT THE CRYOSPHERE?……Page 252
10.2 WHAT ARE THE REMAINING TECHNICAL CHALLENGES? 10.2.1 GENERAL DIFFICULTIES……Page 253
10.2.2 SPECIFIC DIFFICULTIES……Page 255
10.3 RECENT TRENDS AND SCOPE FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT……Page 256
Bibliography……Page 260
Index……Page 298
Color Inserts……Page 308
Back cover……Page 324