Multi-spectral analysis of ice sheets using co-registered SAR and TM imagery

Landsat Thematic Mapper and airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery acquired over an area of south-western Greenland are co-registered and analysed. Significant corrections to the SAR data were required to account for range-darkening, non-square pixel dimensions, speckle, and relief distortion. In one area, exposed rock was available for use as co-registration control, while in another area it was absent and supraglacial lakes and streams were used. The co-registered scenes highlight many differences between the optical and radar signatures of ice sheets.