Water and Environmental Research Center
Seminars
6 November 2009
Using Synthetic Aperture Radar Imagery to Estimate Lake Water Volumes on Alaska's North Slope
Celine van Breukelen
ASF SAR Imagery from October 2001.
Comparison of bathymetry and SAR image of Lake S0902 (69.58°N, 148.64°W)
Abstract
Winter water resources on Alaska North Slope are limited, and are necessary as an aquatic habitat and as a source of water for building and maintaining ice roads for oil and gas exploration.
The project's objective is to determine whether Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data can be used to monitor lakes on the North Slope through the winter, with special attention paid to whether SAR can be used to determine if lakes are grounded (frozen to the ground). This work is building on work done by other researchers in Alaska and Canada. This project is an appropriate application of remote sensing for remote and hostile environments.
Six Lakes were chosen to be drilled to evaluate ice thickness and water chemistry in April 2009, and three of them were visited again in July to map bathymetry.
This study concluded that it's possible to see phase changes in North Slope Lakes, from open water to varying degrees of ice thickness. It is also possible to determine whether a lake grounds.
This information is being used to set parameters for a program called the "Image Stack Correlator" (ISC) which will be able to estimate water volumes for very large areas of interest. This analysis will address some of the input parameters necessary to make the ISC run efficiently.