Measuring surface displacement using winter SAR

Régions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area

étiquettes: physical sciences, active layer, permafrost, remote sensing, snow water equivalence

chercheur principal: Rabus, Bernhard (2)
Nᵒ de permis: 17092
Organisation: Simon Fraser University
Année(s) de permis: 2023 2022
Délivré: juil. 20, 2022
Équipe de projet: Allison Plourde

Objectif(s): To determine the accuracy of existing physical models of the InSAR dry snow signal and if the snow signature can be removed to enable accurate measurement of heave from winter refreezing in the active layer.

Description du projet: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.5270. The objective of this research is to determine the accuracy of existing physical models of the InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) dry snow signal; and, if the snow signature can be removed to enable accurate measurement of heave from winter refreezing in the active layer. There are currently three research sites installed in 2018 and 2019 with the aim of installing an additional 3 sites. Instrumentation includes two ground-based sensors: one tilt logger permafrost motion sensor and one snow height sonic ranger. There are also two corner reflectors (CR) at each research locations. One CR is deeply anchored into the permafrost to serve as a stable reference and the second CR is fixed to a soil surface raft and is slightly elevated to sit above the snow layer. Measurements of snow depth change as well as displacement of the surface due to active layer freezeback will be used to establish their contribution to the InSAR based displacement measurements. The research will be shared within the PermafrostNetwork along with open communication between SARLab and NWT stakeholders at the Aurora Research Institute and Northwest Territories Geological Survey. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from July 20, 2022 August 31, 2022.