Analyzing the “Ear” feature of a dried up lake based on volume scattering modelling

This paper presents the volume scattering mechanism of subsurface and analyzes the fundamental cause of “Ear” feature of Lop Nur on SAR images. ALOS PALSAR image acquired in 2007 was collected, and the Cloude decomposition method was conducted on the calibrated image to extract the volume scattering component. Two field investigations were conducted in 2006 and 2008 respectively, and lots of precise soil samples were gathered for the parameters analysis. Validation of the model is also conducted based on the surveying parameter and the image processing results, and the fitting effect is relatively good. According to the analysis on the parameters of the model, it is found that salinity at subsurface is the fundamental reason to “Ear” feature, which is strongly correlated with Lop Nur evolution.