Surface roughness observation of arctic ice using low grazing angle radar

The surface roughness of Arctic ice is observed by calculating the correlation coefficient between the co-polarized and cross-polarized radar returns. The radar data is collected in the eastern Arctic by the Canadian Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) Henry Larsen, which is equipped with an X-band radar capable of measuring co-polarized and cross-polarized radar return signals. The correlation coefficient is calculated locally for each pixel at the center of a two-dimensional template window. To reduce the computational cost, the two-dimensional radar image is divided to smaller sub-windows, and the local correlation coefficient is obtained for each sub-window.