RADARSAT-1 synthetic aperture radar iceberg detection performance ADRO-2 A223

Since the initial Canadian Space Agency (CSA) ADRO-1 program in 1997, C-CORE has been investigating the capabilities of the RADARSAT synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite for the detection of icebergs. This multiyear program has received support from a variety of sources including the CSA´s ADRO-1 and ADRO-2 programs, the Canadian Ice Service, and a consortium of oil and gas companies operating on the east coast of Newfoundland. During this program, various RADARSAT modes, including Wide2, Wide3 and ScanSAR Narrow-B have been validated. Threshold and probability of detection curves were generated for small, medium and large sized icebergs in various wind conditions. For these curves, the radar cross-section values from ocean clutter were modeled using the CMOD4 wind model and verified with point source wind measurements. The performance curves show a reasonable success rate for detecting icebergs whose size is on the order of the resolution cell, despite the significant effect of wind speed on detection.