Lake Lop Nur evolution analysis based on radar polarimetric decomposition technology

Lop Nur is a salt lake in the central part of Eurasia continent. The lake occupied an area of 10,000 km² at the beginning of holocene epoch and totally dried up in the last century. The study of L-band radar backscattering indicates significant signal penetrating under ground surface. Thus, subsurface information can be extracted from radar images. This paper presents polarimetric decomposition results using ALOS PALSAR data, and established an empirical relationship between multiple scattering and subsurface salinity. Combined with ground surface calcium content retrieved from hyperspectral imaging, as well as precise topographic data from GLAS, some interesting deposition features formed during the evolution is discussed.