Predicting Melt Pond Fraction on Landfast Snow Covered First Year Sea Ice from Winter C-Band SAR Backscatter Utilizing Linear, Polarimetric and Texture Parameters

Early-summer melt pond fraction is predicted using late-winter C-band backscatter of snow-covered first-year sea ice. Aerial photographs were acquired during an early-summer 2012 field campaign in Resolute Passage, Nunavut, Canada, on smooth first-year sea ice to estimate the melt pond fraction. RADARSAT-2 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data were acquired over the study area in late winter prior to melt onset. Correlations between the melt pond...