Polarimetric analysis of oil contaminated laboratory grown saltwater ice imaged by a ground based SAR

Abstract

In this paper we present preliminary experimental results from a ground based SAR system imaging artificially grown saltwater ice induced with crude oil. The data is acquired from a large scale laboratory experiment conducted at the Arctic Environmental Test basin (AETB) at Hamburgische Schiffbau-Versuchsanstalt GmbH (HSVA) March 14 - April 4, 2017. Here two artificial ice types were generated with simulated seasonal variation consisting of an initial ice growth phase and a melting phase. Interpreting the uncalibrated full polarimetric intensity data acquired from the experiment show a potential for a more detailed polarimetric analysis for characterising the oil contaminated ice surface.