Automatic detection of snow avalanche debris in central Svalbard using C-band SAR data

Polar research

Eirik Malnes¹  Dieuwertje S. Wesselink²  Roderik C. Lindenbergh⁴  Markus Eckerstorfer⁴ 

[1] Norut, Northern Research Institute, Tromsø, NorwayCorrespondence;Department of Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands;Department of Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The NetherlandsView further author information;Norut, Northern Research Institute, Tromsø, NorwayView further author information

关键词: Radar remote sensing;    Radarsat-2;    Sentinel-1;    avalanche debris detection;    avalanche forecasting;    DEM: digital elevation model;    ESA: European Space Agency;    HH: S1A images in co-polarization;    HV: S1A images in cross-polarization;    RS2: Radarsat-2 satellite;    RS2 UF: RS2 data in ultrafine mode;    RSO: Remove Small Objects filter;    SAR: synthetic aperture radar;    S1A: Sentinel-1A satellite;    S1A EW: S1A extra-wide swath mode;    S1A IW: S1A interferometric wide swath mode;    VV: RS2 images in co-polarization;   

DOI  :  10.1080/17518369.2017.1333236

学科分类：自然科学（综合）

来源: Co-Action Publishing

【 摘 要 】

ABSTRACTSnow avalanches pose a threat to people and infrastructure in and around Svalbard’s main settlement Longyearbyen. Since January 2016, publically available regional avalanche warnings are issued daily for Nordenskiöld Land, the area around Longyearbyen. Avalanche warning services rely on information of when and where avalanches occur. Systematic field observations of avalanche activity are not feasible across all of the vast area (ca. 7200 km2) of Nordenskiöld Land. Svalbard also experiences over four months of polar night per year. However, using synthetic aperture radar (SAR), a weather- and light-independent technique, large areas can be monitored at once. We have developed a SAR-based automatic avalanche debris detection algorithm and tested it on satellite image pairs from Sentinel-1A at medium resolution and from Radarsat-2 at very high resolution. The detection algorithm uses a threshold value that distinguishes avalanche debris with increased backscatter from undisturbed snow with lower bac...

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC