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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
Tomographic Imaging of Fjord Ice Using a Very
High Resolution Ground-Based SAR System
Temesgen Gebrie Yitayew, Student Member, IEEE, Laurent Ferro-Famil, Member, IEEE,
Torbjørn Eltoft, Member, IEEE, and Stefano Tebaldini, Member, IEEE
Abstract— This paper presents new experimental results of
3-D imaging using tomographic techniques over a snow covered
sea ice medium, sensed with an X-band radar system. The
available data are from a ground-based synthetic aperture radar
data collection campaign carried out over Kattfjord, Tromsø,
Norway. Direct imaging of the vertical structures of the radar
reflectivity of the snow and sea ice layers is achieved by focusing
the signal from a 2-D synthetic array in the 3-D space. The
effect of a change in propagation velocity of the wave inside
the considered medium is investigated in the focusing process,
and the tomograms are effectively corrected for this effect.
The distribution of the scattering contributions in the vertical
direction reveals a strong response from the sea ice cover.
Tomograms at two different polarizations are investigated and
compared. The results and the interpretations are also supported
by the simulated data from the same system.
Index Terms— Ground-based SAR (GB-SAR), SAR polarime-
try, SAR tomography, sea ice, synthetic aperture radar (SAR).
I. I NTRODUCTION
T HE characterization of sea ice and its snow cover plays a
pivotal role in understanding and monitoring changes in
the global climate and ecosystem. The physical and electrical
properties of the ice and its snow cover control the amount of
solar radiation reflected to the atmosphere, absorbed within
snow and ice, and transmitted into the ocean beneath the
ice [1]. The precise analysis of the local distribution of the
scatterers in snow and sea ice requires the use of imaging
techniques describing this complex volumetric medium in a
3-D space. Vertical sections of such 3-D images can be used
to reveal the vertical layering structures formed as a result of
changes in the amount of impurities (brine and air) trapped
in sea ice, an important information that can be linked to the
growth rate of the ice [2].
Snow and sea ice characteristics have been studied using
electromagnetic (EM) remote sensing techniques with passive
or active sensors at frequencies ranging from metric wave-
lengths to the visible domain. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
is among the most widely used measurement techniques,
Manuscript received July 24, 2015; revised August 19, 2016; accepted
September 11, 2016.
T. G. Yitayew and T. Eltoft are with the University of Tromsø-The Arctic
University of Norway, 9019 Tromsø, Norway.
L. Ferro-Famil is with the University of Rennes 1, 35000 Rennes, France.
S. Tebaldini is with the Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TGRS.2016.2613900
0196-2892 © 2016 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
1
due to its low sensitivity to weather conditions, to its
high-resolution imaging capabilities as well as to its
sensitivity to volumetric scattering effects. This last feature
of SAR is linked to the penetrating capability of microwave
frequencies deep into semitransparent volumetric media.
A few examples of studies addressing the interaction of radar
waves with snow and sea ice, and the exploitation of SAR
data for sea ice remote sensing applications may be found
in [3]–[5]. One main application of SAR data for Cryosphere
characterization concerns the retrieval of different physical
and electrical properties of snow and sea ice. The refractive
index of snow and sea ice is one such parameter which has
a major role in determining the interaction of radar waves
with the medium. The estimation of this quantity for sea ice
is a challenge due to the fact that sea ice is a very complex
medium containing water, salt, brine, and air bubbles.
Examples of previous studies concerning the estimation of
the refractive indices of snow and sea are found in [6]–[8].
Volumetric information of snow and sea ice, such as snow
depth, ice thickness, and snow and ice layering, is important
inputs to ecological process modeling, and understanding
and monitoring changes in the ecosystem [9], [10]. In [11],
we demonstrated the use of a very high resolution (VHR)
ground-based SAR (GB-SAR) measurement system in a tomo-
graphic configuration for the 3-D characterization of snow
covered fjord ice. A fundamental advantage of this approach
compared with the classical 2-D SAR imaging is its capability
of direct imaging of the vertical structure of the reflectiv-
ity of the scene. This is due to the fact that the classical
SAR system is inherently a 2-D imaging system, where the
3-D scene scattering properties are projected onto the
2-D azimuth-range plane.
SAR tomography is the extension of the conventional
2-D SAR imaging to three dimensions, and is achieved by
the formation of an additional synthetic aperture in elevation.
The coherent combination of images acquired from several
parallel flight tracks using multibaseline SAR interferometric
techniques allows direct imaging of the volume, and therefore,
it is a promising technique for the study of volumetric proper-
ties and improved estimation of geophysical parameters. It was
first demonstrated in 2000 using L-band multibaseline airborne
SAR data over forested area [12]. It has been recently applied
for forest vertical reflectivity retrieval [13], [14] and the
3-D characterization of buildings in urban areas [15], [16].
Very recently, the technique has been applied for the
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2 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING

3-D imaging of snowpack [17] and sea ice [11], [18].

A similar technique called tomographic profiling has been used
in [19] for snow pack application. However, the system does
not employ a 2-D synthetic array.
In this paper, we present the experimental results from the
3-D imaging of snow covered sea ice using a GB-SAR system
and investigate the vertical distribution of the radar reflectivity
in the volume. One of the main objectives is to illustrate
the important potential of coherent 3-D imaging in providing
information such as the number and location of the main
contributions that cannot be accessed through the 2-D imaging.
A related objective is to provide a quantitative description
of the scattering contributions made by the snow and ice
layers, and show how such an analysis can be used to explain
the information contained in the 2-D SAR images acquired
with other airborne or space-borne SAR sensors operating
with the same frequency as the one used here. In addition,
we aim to analyze the polarization aspect of the response
from the considered medium and compare the measurements
at two different polarizations. The data sets considered here
are acquired by a GB-SAR system, developed at the IETR,
University of Rennes 1, over Kattfjord, Tromsø, Norway. Fig. 1. Setup of the GB-SAR system.
It consists of multiple X-band measurements at VV and HV
polarizations.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows.
In Section II, a brief description of the GB-SAR system is
provided. This section also introduces the test site where mea-
surements were collected, and the 3-D SAR focusing approach
used in this paper together with some of the processed results.
Section III covers the investigation of the effects of change
in propagation velocity of the wave inside the considered
3-D complex medium. Section IV is devoted to the charac-
terization of the scene in terms of the scattering mechanisms
based on tomographic measurements. Finally, the concluding
remarks are made in Section V.

II. E XPERIMENTAL S ETUP AND DATA P ROCESSING

A. Ground-Based Tomographic SAR System
The system used for this paper is a GB-SAR system, named
Pocket SAR (PoSAR), developed at the IETR, University of
Rennes 1. The setup of the system is shown in Fig. 1. A vector
network analyzer, which accurately controls the transmission
and reception of the radar signals, and a set of four horn
antennas are contained in a metallic box, which in turn is
mounted on a long linear rail, whose effective aperture length Fig. 2. Aperture synthesis from a single pass. An unevenly spaced antenna
is 3 m. A stepped motor is used to displace the metallic array, shifted in both azimuth and elevation (top and middle), produces a
box along the rail parallel to the observed scene to acquire six-element uniformly spaced equivalent antenna array (bottom).
multiple images exploiting the SAR technique. The rail is
fixed on two vertical supports (poles). The PoSAR system
can operate at different frequency bands, including C-, X-, The antenna array can be manually shifted to increase the
and Ku-bands, and over different polarization channels. The vertical aperture in the repeat-pass mode. Fig. 4(a) shows a
four horn antennas are displaced in the azimuth and elevation simplified geometrical configuration of the acquisition system
direction. They are also unevenly spaced for the purpose of for three passes, which is equivalent to 18 acquisition posi-
achieving a uniformly spaced equivalent antenna array [20]. tions in the vertical direction. The revisit time between two
Each antenna can be operated either as transmitter or receiver. consecutive passes may vary from 10 to 20 min.
As a result, six equivalent monostatic phase centers with a The GB-SAR system employs a stepped frequency con-
vertical offset can be achieved in a single pass (see Fig. 2). tinuous wave (SFCW) form. The system parameters are
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YITAYEW et al.: TOMOGRAPHIC IMAGING OF FJORD ICE USING A VHR GB-SAR SYSTEM 3

TABLE I
GB-SAR S YSTEM PARAMETERS

summarized in Table I. The setup considered in this paper

operates at X-band with the center frequency fc of 10 GHz
and the bandwidth B f of 4 GHz. The slant range resolution δr
that corresponds to this bandwidth is 3.75 cm [see Fig. 4(b)].
Referring to Fig. 4, azimuth and elevation resolutions are
determined by the synthetic aperture length L x and L z ,
respectively. For L x = 3 m, the azimuth resolution δx at
θ = 45° is 1.73 cm. The vertical synthetic aperture length
is dependent on the number of parallel acquisition tracks in
the vertical direction. For example, for 18 acquisitions that
correspond to a 34-cm vertical baseline [see Fig. 4(a)], the
vertical resolution δz at θ = 45° is 14 cm. Therefore, the
instrument is a VHR system. Table I summarizes the different
components of the resolution of the system. Typical scene
dimensions that can be imaged using the system are 6 and 8 m
in the azimuth and ground range directions, respectively. Even
though the illuminated scene is limited to a few square meters,
the VHR capability of the instrument allows to reveal fine
details of the considered 3-D medium.
B. Data Collection
Using the system described earlier, a GB-SAR data
collection campaign was carried out by a team from
the IETR, University of Rennes 1, in collaboration with the
members of the EO lab at the University of Tromsø, in 2013 in
Tromsø, Norway. Two sets of tomographic measurements are
considered in this paper. The first constitutes 36 measurements
acquired at VV polarization. The second set contains a pair of
15 measurements acquired at VV and HV polarizations. Since
the set containing 36 VV measurements provides a better
resolution than the 15 VV measurements of the second set,
it will be used for most of the investigations of the scene in
this paper. The 15 dual polarization measurements that were
taken at the same time will only be used to investigate and
compare the response of the scene at the two polarizations.
The sea ice formed at Kattfjord is seasonal ice that can have
a life of up to three to four months depending on the season.
Here, we would like to note that throughout this paper, the term
“sea ice” and “fjord ice” are used interchangeably. On the day
which the data were collected, the weather was cold and dry,
with a light, dry, and intermittent snowfall. The temperature
reading, as it is obtained from the Norwegian Meteorological
Institute, was −8 °C for the minimum and −2 °C for the
maximum. Snow depth on top of the ice at the location of the
test site was about 24 cm, and the depth of the sea ice as it
was measured by drilling a hole into the ice using a hand drill
Fig. 3. Ice cores and the depth of snow and ice covers at the test site.
(a) Sketch of the depth of snow and ice at the test site. (b) Photos of ice
cores showing irregularly shaped, randomly oriented air bubbles.
was about 28 cm [see Fig. 3(a)]. The seawater at the fjord
was fresh, and therefore, the ice formed can be seen under the
framework of low salinity sea ice. This is mainly attributed to
the fresh water coming from the surrounding mountains during
the early periods of the winter. The ice contains the significant
amounts of air bubbles of size in the order of few millimeters
(ranging from 0.5 to 7 mm) (see Fig. 3b). The snow cover on
top of the ice was dry.
C. Tomographic Data Processing
A simplified geometry of the tomographic imaging system
is shown in Fig. 4(a). It consists of M vertically shifted
acquisition positions (from now on, we call them M parallel
tracks), which form a second aperture in the elevation direc-
tion. Fig. 4(b) shows how the construction of this second
aperture makes the direct imaging of the vertical structures
of the reflectivity of a stratified volumetric medium possible.
In contrast, the classical 2-D SAR system has limitations in
imaging such environments. This is due to the fact that, as it is
shown in the same figure, the 3-D scene scattering properties
are projected onto the 2-D azimuth-slant range plane.
It is demonstrated elsewhere that 3-D SAR focusing can
be formulated as a spectral estimation problem, where both
nonparametric approaches such as beamforming and Capon,
and parametric spectral estimation techniques such as MUSIC
can be applied [21], [22]. All the spectral estimation tech-
niques for tomographic focusing share one common step that
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4 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
Fig. 4. Geometry of the tomographic SAR measurement system. x, y, and z
are azimuth, ground range, and elevation directions, respectively, whereas
r and n are slant range and cross-range directions, respectively. (a) Simpli-
fied geometry of the tomographic SAR acquisition system. (b) 2-D versus
3-D resolution cell.
a 2-D azimuth-range SAR focusing should first be applied
separately to the acquired signal from each of the available
parallel tracks by synchronizing them to a common elevation
position. Then, the spectral estimation techniques will be
applied to the stack of the 2-D azimuth-range focused images
to reconstruct the scene information in the third dimension.
However, the formulation is based on the assumption that the
transmitted wave is a narrowband signal. The ground-based
tomographic SAR system considered here uses a wideband
wave form, and operates from a few meters of altitude.
This latter feature of the system might cause a nonnegligible
variation of incidence angles for vertical displacements of the
sensor. In contrast, for space-borne and airborne tomographic
SAR systems, this variation of incidence angle is so small that
it is safe to assume that the radar is always looking at the same
resolution cell despite making small vertical displacements.
Therefore, for the acquisition system considered here, other
accurate tomographic SAR focusing techniques should be
considered.
In this paper, the 3-D signal focusing was achieved by
jointly processing multiple SAR acquisitions through time-
domain backprojection (TDBP) [23], [24]. The signal received
by the considered SFCW radar system can be formulated
as follows. The 2-D synthetic array shown in Fig. 4(a) is
formed from N acquisition positions in azimuth and M par-
allel tracks in the elevation direction. Let the antenna posi-
tion of each transmitted pulse be denoted by am,n , where
m = 1, . . . , M, and n = 1, . . . , N. In the SFCW, the
selected frequency bandwidth of the system is sampled at
frequencies f k , where k = 1, . . . , K . Hence, for each antenna
position, the received signal, sr ( am,n , fk ), in the frequency
domain can be modeled as the sum of the responses due to
each individual scatterer in the 3-D scene

4π f k
sr (
am,n , f k ) = ρ(r )e− j c ||an,m −r || d r (1)
V
where V ∈ R3
represents the 3-D space in the considered
volume, r is the scatterer position in the volume,
ρ(r ) represents frequency- and aspect angle-dependent
complex reflectivity of the medium, and || am,n − r||
represents the sensor-scatterer distance.
The 3-D matched filter response of a target at a given
focusing position r0 (x 0 , y0 , z 0 ) in a 3-D focusing grid can be
written as

K
4π f k
||
am,n −r0 ||
A(r0 ) = sr (
am,n , fk )e j c . (2)
M N k=1
In the TDBP focusing using (2), inverse Fourier transfor-
mation is applied on the frequency domain measurements of
the target’s spectral profile sr (
am,n , f k ). Then, for each 3-D
location on the focusing grid, the contributions from each of
the parallel tracks are summed together to reconstruct the full
3-D scene information. The 3-D focused signal can then be
written as

M
A(r0 ) = si (r0 )e j φi (r0 ) (3)
i=1
where si (r0 ) is the i th focused signal from each of the
M parallel tracks at each 3-D location r0 of the focusing grid,
and φi (r0 ) is the phase compensation term used in the TDBP
algorithm.
This focusing technique is very accurate as it is based on
computing the correct radar-scatterer distances. However, it is
also important to note that vacuum propagation velocity c is
assumed in the focusing process.
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YITAYEW et al.: TOMOGRAPHIC IMAGING OF FJORD ICE USING A VHR GB-SAR SYSTEM
Fig. 5. Two-dimensional SAR images and intensity tomograms
based on a different number of acquisitions. (a) Two-dimensional
SAR image and intensity tomogram from 36 acquisitions at VV.
(b) Two-dimensional SAR image and intensity tomogram from
15 acquisitions at HV.
D. Tomograms
In this section, the processed data sets from the tomographic
acquisition system described in Section II-A will be intro-
duced. Throughout this paper, the 3-D information of the scene
is presented in the form of tomograms (2-D sectional images)
by vertically sectioning the 3-D focused image of the medium.
Fig. 5(a) shows a 2-D SAR image (top) from one of the
36 acquisitions, focused on an azimuth-ground range plane,
and a multilooked intensity tomogram (bottom) displayed
as a height-ground range section, from 36 acquisitions at
VV polarization. Fig. 5(b) shows a similar presentation from
a different data set, which consists of 15 acquisitions at
HV polarization. The 3-D intensity I (r0 ) is computed from (3)
as I (r0 ) = |A(r0 )|2 . All the tomograms in this paper are
5
obtained by averaging 37 azimuth looks. Here, we would
like to note that I (r0 ) is computed from the radiometrically
corrected data, and hence, it represents the backscattering
coefficients of the medium. Details regarding the correction
procedures applied to the data can be found in Section III-B.
Referring to the 2-D SAR images of Fig. 5, as a conse-
quence of projecting all the contributions of the 3-D volume
on a 2-D focusing plane (inherent in classical 2-D SAR
imaging), it is difficult to associate the information to any of
the characteristics of the scene. However, from the tomograms,
it can be clearly seen that the reconstructed volumetric medium
is characterized by a complex multilayered vertical structure.
By looking at the intensity tomograms of Fig. 5, and compar-
ing them with the ground truth information of Fig. 3(a), it is
difficult to associate those structures, having strong backscatter
power, to either the layers or to the interfaces between the
layers. This is due to the fact that the structures are displaced
from their actual positions. Referring to Fig. 3(a), the snow
plus ice medium under investigation is about 52 cm thick.
However, from the tomograms of Fig. 5, the reconstructed
medium appears dilated at near range and contracted at far
range. As it is shown in Section III, this geometrical distortion
is due to wave refraction phenomena and the associated change
in propagation velocity of the wave in the observed medium.
III. I NVESTIGATION OF WAVE P ROPAGATION I NSIDE
A D ENSE M EDIUM OF S NOW AND I CE
As it is observed from the tomograms [see Fig. 5(a)],
all the structures in the tomograms appear tilted with a positive
slope from near range to far range, and this tilting effect is
more pronounced at the bottom layers. As a result of this
distortion, the different layers and interfaces are displaced
from their actual positions. This phenomenon is due to vari-
ations of propagation velocity of the transmitted wave and
the associated change in its propagation direction in the ana-
lyzed stratified medium as it is described by the well-known
Snell’s law [25]. In the TDBP focusing using (2), vacuum
propagation velocity c was assumed despite the fact that the
radar wave is propagating in a dense medium (snow and ice).
In this section, this variation of wave propagation velocity
will be investigated in detail. For a simple demonstration,
homogeneous and perfectly horizontal snow and ice layers
are considered. Let the propagation velocity (and refractive
index) of the snow and ice layers be v s (n s ) and v ice (n ice ),
respectively. The air–snow and snow–ice interfaces are consid-
ered, and the principle of wave propagation across interfaces
of media with differing permittivity is applied. The following
derivation is an extension of the derivation given in [26] for
one interface to two interfaces.
Fig. 6 shows the path followed by a wave transmitted
from an antenna elevation position H under two conditions.
The first one is when the wave is assumed to continue
propagating inside the snow and ice with vacuum propagation
velocity c (shown in black), and the second one is when
the wave experiences a change in wave propagation velocity
and direction due to a change in the medium from air-to-
snow and snow-to-ice (shown in red). Inside the considered
medium, the apparent positions of the scatterers are designated
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6 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING

this interface. Here again, θ0 , θ1 , and θ2 are related to each

other by Snell’s law.
Similar to the case of the snow layer, a relationship between
the actual z ice and the apparent z ice elevation positions of a
scatterer in the ice layer can be established by the following:
1) replacing (τ/2) in (7) with ((τ0 )/2) − ((z ice  )/

(c(cos θ0 ))), which is obtained from (4);

2) replacing ((τds )/2) in (7) with ((τ0 )/2) + ((ds )/
(v s cos θ1 )), which is obtained from (5) after replacing z s
with −ds .
After the above replacements, a relationship between
 can be obtained from (7), and can be written as
z ice and z ice

z ice cos θ2 n s cos θ2
Fig. 6. Apparent target height resulting from a change in propagation velocity z ice = + ds − ds (8)
of the transmitted wave inside the snow and ice. B is the apparent position n ice cos θ0 n ice cos θ1
of target A when c is used for focusing.
where Snell’s law is used again in replacing the velocity ratios
with refractive index ratios.
Investigating (6) and (8) reveals that the targets at near
by (yk , z k ), and the corresponding actual positions are desig-
range appear at a larger depth whereas those at far range
nated by (yk , z k ), where the subscript “k” stands for either the
appear at a smaller depth than their actual depth if vacuum
snow layer “s” or the ice layer “ice.”
propagation velocity is erroneously used for focusing. This
From Fig. 6, ds and dice are positive constants, which
is also shown in Fig. 7. The top panel of the figure shows
represent the thickness of the snow and ice layers, respec-
a plot of the actual and corresponding apparent position of
tively. For a certain pair of incidence angle and delay (θ0 , τ )
the interfaces. From the ground truth information of Fig. 3(a),
(see Fig. 6), the apparent location of a target inside the medium
the actual positions of the interfaces are known. The air–snow
(kth layer) assuming propagation in air is given by
interface is located at z = 0 cm, the snow–ice interface is
cτ c located at z = −24 cm, and the ice–seawater interface is
z k = H − cos θ0 = − (τ − τ0 ) cos θ0
 2  2 located at z = −52 cm. These interfaces are represented
yk = H − z k tan θ0 (4) by horizontal lines and are plotted in red. Using (5) and (6)
where τ0 is the delay corresponding to a target at z = 0, and for the snow–ice interface, and (7) and (8) for the ice–water
θ0 = arctan(y/H ) at z = 0. Accounting for wave propagation interface, their corresponding apparent positions (y  , z  ) are
inside the snow layer (k = s), the actual location of a scatterer computed and plotted in black. The plots clearly show the
inside this layer (ys , z s ) will be given by deformation undergone by horizontal interfaces in a medium
of propagation velocity v, when vacuum propagation velocity c
−v s
zs = (τ − τ0 ) cos θ1 is used for focusing. These apparent interface position plots
2 are superimposed on the intensity tomogram (see the bottom
ys = H tan θ0 − z s tan θ1 (5)
panel of Fig. 7). It is interesting to note from the figure that
where θ0 and θ1 are related to each other by Snell’s law. the apparent positions of the interfaces which are derived from
After replacing (τ/2) in (5) with ((τ0 )/2) − ((z s )/(c(cos θ0 ))) the model approximately follow the shape of the structures
which is obtained from (4), the following relationship between with strong backscatter power in the tomograms. Therefore,
the actual (z s ) and the apparent (z s ) elevation positions of a the dilation at near range and contraction at far range of the
scatterer in the snow layer can be obtained as tomograms is indeed due to the change in propagation velocity
of the wave inside the snow and ice layers. This distortion of
v s cos θ1 n 0 cos θ1 z  cos θ1
z s = z s = z s = s (6) the tomograms can also be easily simulated (see Section IV-A).
c cos θ0 n s cos θ0 n s cos θ0 Summing up, using the horizontal and homogeneous snow and
where Snell’s law is used in replacing the velocity ratios with ice layers hypothesis stated earlier, we have shown that the
refractive index ratios. In this paper, n 0 , the refractive index distortion in the tomograms can be explained to be due to
of air, is assumed to be unity. changes in wave propagation velocity in the analyzed medium.
Similarly, accounting wave propagation inside the ice layer Therefore, for a proper interpretation of the tomograms, the
(k = ice), the actual location of a scatterer inside the ice layer effect of propagation velocity has to be taken into account for
(yice , z ice ) will be given by in the focusing process.
−v ice
z ice = (τ − τds ) cos θ2 − ds
2 A. Estimation of Refractive Indices of Snow and Fjord Ice
yice = H tan θ0 + ds tan θ1 − (ds + z ice ) tan θ2 (7)
As it is stated elsewhere [27], [28], there are two sets of
where ds is the thickness of the snow layer, θ2 is the angle parameters that influence the strength of the radar backscatter
of refraction at the interface between the snow and ice layers, signal from natural media. The first set is the sensor para-
and τds is the two way propagation delay from the antenna to meters, such as frequency, polarization, and incidence angle,
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YITAYEW et al.: TOMOGRAPHIC IMAGING OF FJORD ICE USING A VHR GB-SAR SYSTEM
Fig. 7. Actual (red) and apparent (black) locations of the interfaces.
and the second set is the physical properties of the observed
medium. The two most important physical properties are the
surface roughness and the dielectric constant of the medium
under consideration. Much of the early works on sea ice
type mapping using SAR data have been relied on these two
important parameters [3], [4]. The dielectric constant is a key
parameter of wave scattering in dense media as it affects
scattering from volumes as well as surfaces. This section deals
with the estimation of the dielectric constants of the snow
and ice layers from the deformation of the tomograms of the
Kattfjord data.
From the model derived in Section III and the discussion
therein, (6) and (8) can be used to estimate the refractive
indices of the medium. Approximate readings of the apparent
interface positions (ys , z s ) and (yice
 , z  ) can be obtained from
ice
the distorted tomograms. Then, the refractive index of the
snow can be estimated by looking for a value of n s in (6)
that makes the slop of (ys , z s ) matches with the slop of the
snow–ice interface in the tomogram. Referring to Fig. 7, the
idea is to find a black line for the corresponding red line,
which matches the interfaces in the tomogram. In the figure,
the approximate fit for the snow–ice interface is found for a
value of n s = 1.4±17%. Similarly, (8) can be used to estimate
the refractive index of the ice. An approximate fit for the
ice–seawater interface was found for a value of n ice =
1.7 ± 20%. The errors reported here are associated with the
uncertainties of locating the apparent interfaces in the distorted
tomograms. Here, it is important to emphasize that the esti-
mation technique just presented is based on the assumption
that the snow and ice layers are homogeneous and can be
represented by their respective bulk dielectric constant values.
In other words, local inhomogeneities are ignored, and as
a result, the estimated refractive index values can only be
considered as approximate.
Estimation of refractive index and/or dielectric constant of
sea ice and snow has been studied by different authors. In this
text, the values of refractive indices of snow and sea ice are
either directly reported as appeared in the respective literature
or obtained from the dielectric constant as the two are related
by n = (())(1/2) , where () is the real part of the dielectric
7
constant  of the medium. In [29], a waveguide apparatus was
used to measure the dielectric constant of low salinity sea
ice from the Baltic sea at 10 GHz. It is reported that about
28 samples with different ranges of salinity and temperature
values are used for the experiment. The reported refractive
index values vary from 1.73 to 2.12. Another experimental
study in [30] was conducted to investigate the dielectric prop-
erties of both fresh ice and sea ice at microwave frequencies.
Depending on temperature, salinity, and density of the ice,
the reported values of the refractive indices of sea ice show
a wide range of variation (from 1.58 to 1.95). Therefore, our
estimated value, n ice = 1.7 ± 20%, for fjord ice, which is
expected to be low saline, is within the range of the reported
values in the works just mentioned.
Depending on the wetness, density, age, and grain size
of the snow, the refractive index values of snow at
microwave frequencies reported in the literature show a big
scatter [8], [31]–[33]. However, for dry snow, the refractive
index at microwave frequencies is mainly dependent on the
snow density [34], [35]. Typical refractive index values of
dry snow reported in these two previous studies vary between
1.1 and 1.4, where the higher values correspond to aged
seasonal snow. Depending on the density, the refractive index
values of dry snow at 9.375 GHz are reported to vary
between 1.18 and 1.73 [33]. A data set acquired by the
same tomographic SAR system as used here has been used
in [36] for snowpack permittivity retrieval. The reported snow
refractive index values vary between 1.1 and 1.7. Therefore,
our estimated value of 1.4 ± 17% for the refractive index of
dry and seasonal snow corresponds well to the values reported
in the aforementioned previous works.
Another parameter that signifies the knowledge of the
dielectric constant of snow is snow density. The real part of
the dielectric constant of dry snow is a sole function of its
density. There are a number of models that can be used to
relate the dielectric constant of dry snow with its density [32],
[34], [37]. Therefore, once the refractive index of the snow is
estimated from the tomograms, the density of the snow layer
may also be estimated.
B. Correction of Tomograms for Propagation Delay
We have seen from the preceding investigation that the
tomograms are distorted as a result of the radar waves having
a different propagation velocity inside the considered dense
medium than in vacuum. Once the refractive indices of the
snow and ice are estimated, this distortion can be corrected.
The correction can be done in two ways. The first one is by
refocusing the data after replacing the distance || am,n − r0 ||
in (2) of the TDBP focusing with the electrical distance com-
puted using the estimated refractive indices [36], [38]. The sec-
ond method is a postfocusing approach where once the data are
focused using the assumption of vacuum propagation velocity,
the tomograms are corrected by interpolating them from the
apparent to the true positions. In this paper, for simplicity rea-
sons, the latter approach is used. For each scatterer’s apparent
position (y  , z  ) in the distorted tomogram, (4), (6), and (8)
are used to compute the corresponding actual posi-
tions (y, z) by making use of the estimated refractive indices.
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8 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
Fig. 8. Correction of VV tomograms for propagation delay inside the
considered medium. (a) Before antenna pattern and range spread loss
correction. (b) After antenna pattern and range spread loss correction.
(c) After propagation delay correction.
Then, the tomograms are corrected by interpolating the data
from the apparent to the true positions. However, before the
interpolation process is applied to correct for propagation
delay, radiometric correction is applied to the data. This
includes an antenna pattern correction, range spread loss
correction and radiometric calibration of the data in reference
to a TerraSAR-X image acquired over the fjord on the same
date. The antenna pattern correction is a postfocusing imple-
mentation applied after computing the angles by which each
apparent position in the tomogram is observed by the system,
i.e., θ0 of Fig. 6. All the intensity tomograms in this paper
are obtained after the aforementioned radiometric correction
procedures are applied to the data. Tomograms before and
after antenna pattern correction are shown in Fig. 8(a) and (b),
respectively. Finally, the correction for the distortion due
to propagation delay is applied and the result is shown
in Fig. 8(c). As it can be seen from Fig. 8(c), the upper
surface of the snow is at zero elevation position, and the snow–
ice and ice–water interfaces are at around −24 and −52 cm,
respectively, which agrees with the ground truth measurements
of Fig. 3(a). It can also be observed that, after the correction,
all the interfaces are approximately horizontal.
Fig. 9. Multilooked tomograms based on 36 acquisitions. (a) Intensity
tomogram. (b) CR tomogram.
IV. C HARACTERIZATION OF S CATTERING M ECHANISMS
This section is devoted to the analysis of the collected
tomographic data sets. From the result in Section III-B [see
Fig. 8(c)], one can make a general statement that the portion
of the tomogram at or around the interfaces is character-
ized by a relatively strong response than the portion of the
tomogram farther away from the interfaces. To highlight the
dominant scattering mechanism in the different sections of the
tomogram, a second quantity called coherence ratio (CR) is
defined in (9). The CR depicts, for each 3-D bin, the coherent
to incoherent focusing amplitude ratio. The numerator of
CR is the modulus of the matched filter response given
by (3), whereas the denominator represents the incoherent
sum of the amplitudes sampled over the M multibaseline
acquisitions
 M 
 j φi (r0 ) 
i=1 si (r0 )e |A(r0 )|
CR(r0 ) = M = M . (9)
i=1 |si (r0 )| i=1 |si (r0 )|
From the nature of this definition, the quantity CR will have
the tendency to enhance the amount of correlated information
contained within the M echoes at location r0 . Therefore,
CR values will be higher for point-like scatterers, for which
the phase variation over the M images exactly follows
the model used to perform 3-D focusing. In other words,
if φi (r0 ) ≈ φk (r0 ) for k = 1, 2, . . . , M, which is a char-
acteristics of isolated scatterers, CR values will be very
close to unity. If the medium is relatively well localized, but
its phase variation does not exactly follow the model used
for 3-D focusing, the CR values will still be relatively high but
not close to unity. In other words, for a relatively well localized
media, similar to the one investigated here, higher CR values
at a given location indicate the presence of a dominant contri-
bution at that point compared with other points, which are at
the same range inside a given resolution cell. This is clearly
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YITAYEW et al.: TOMOGRAPHIC IMAGING OF FJORD ICE USING A VHR GB-SAR SYSTEM 9

depicted in the CR tomogram of Fig. 9(b). Both the corrected

intensity and CR tomograms obtained from 36 acquisition at
VV polarization are shown in Fig. 9. Therefore, in analyzing
tomograms, the CR can be used to enhance the dominant
contributions within the limits of the tomographic resolution
cell. Further discussions on the CR response are given at the
end of this section.
Referring to the intensity tomogram of Fig. 9(a), it can
be clearly seen that the regions around the interfaces are
characterized by a stronger intensity response than the regions
farther away from the interfaces. The backscatter from a
snow covered sea ice medium is generally considered as a
sum of several contributing backscattering sources. These are
surface/interface backscattering from air–snow, snow–ice and
ice–water interfaces, and volume scattering contributions from
inhomogeneities within the snow and the ice layers [27]. The
examples of inhomogeneities in sea ice include brine pockets,
air bubbles, and drainage structures. The relative strength of
the backscatter power at the interfaces is dependent on the
roughness of the surfaces with respect to the wavelength used
and the level of dielectric mismatch between the two media
forming the interface. On the other hand, the relative strength
of the backscatter power from volume inhomogeneities is
a function of the dielectric contrast between volume inho-
mogeneities and the background, size (with respect to the
wavelength), shape, orientation, and correlations in positions
of the inhomogeneities within the volume. Fig. 10. Dry snow layer from top to bottom. It is also homogenous across
the whole snow layer except at the top where there is about 5 mm snow
The relatively strong air–snow interface backscattering, crust. (a) Thin layer of snow crust (about 5 mm) at the top of the snow layer.
compared with the snow volume response, can be interpreted (b) Dry and homogeneous (except at the very top) snow layer.
to be related to the condition of the snow at the test site.
During data collection, it was observed that the snow layer
was dry from top to bottom [see Fig. 10(b)]. Moreover, it was relationship between radar backscatter cross section of slightly
observed that the snow layer is homogeneous (filled with dry rough natural surfaces and incidence angle for monostatic
powder of snow grains) except at the top. As it can be seen radar measurements [35].
from Fig. 10(a), there is a thin snow crust of about 5 mm thick, Apart from the thin crust and the small-scale roughness
formed at the top surface of the snow layer. This is a relatively structures at the top, the rest of the snow layer appears dry
hard, upper layer of compacted snow. Such structures can be and homogeneous. At X-band, volume scattering from dry
formed as a result of melting and refreezing of the top layer snow is very low [17], [41], [42]. Therefore, the backscattering
of the powder in response to variations in temperature and contribution from the rest of the snow volume is expected to
wind conditions [39]. The sources of temperature variation be very low. The space (volume) between the first and the
at the air–snow interface are thermodynamic process in the second interfaces is characterized by a relatively low response
surrounding atmosphere and the snow and ice layers [40]. [see Fig. 9(a)]. Therefore, the backscatter contribution from the
Therefore, scattering from this thin, relatively hard crust will snow cover is mostly due to the crust at the top and the small-
contribute to the observed strong response at and around the scale roughness from the upper surface of the snow cover. This
air–snow interface. is clearly depicted in the intensity tomogram of Fig. 9(a) and
Another snow property that could possibly contribute to the intensity plot of Fig. 17(b) by the relatively strong response
the relatively strong response from the air–snow interface is around the zero elevation position.
the scattering due to the small-scale roughness of the top From the intensity tomogram of Fig. 9(a), it is noticed
surface of the snow layer. Fig. 11 shows the top surface of that the ice layer has a stronger response at and around the
the snow layer. Even though the roughness is not analyzed snow–ice interface, compared with the response from the
quantitatively, a closer look at the surface in Fig. 11(b) reveals section of the ice layer farther away from this interface. This is
that it is far from being plain and perfectly smooth. The more pronounced for ground range values greater than 2.5 m.
small scale structures can easily be noticed from the photo. The strong backscatter response at and around the snow–ice
Therefore, these structures could cause surface scattering from interface is mainly attributed to the dielectric contrast between
the top of the snow layer. One indication for this, as it can snow and sea ice, the roughness of the top surface of the ice,
be clearly seen from the intensity tomogram of Fig. 9(a), and the air bubbles close to the top surface of the ice layer.
is the relatively low response of the air–snow interface at Fig. 12 shows a photograph of the top surface of the ice layer.
large incidence angles. This is due to the well-known inverse As it can be seen from the figure, the ice surface contains
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10
Fig. 11. Photographs of the top surface of the snow layer. (a) Top surface
of the snow layer. (b) Closer look of the top surface of the snow layer.
small patches of connected snow grains that are sticked to the
ice surface, and these structures will act as roughness elements.
Such structures can be formed as a result of melting and
refreezing of the top surface of the ice layer [27]. Moreover,
the ice cores from Fig. 3b reveal that the ice layer contains
enormous amount of air bubbles embedded inside the ice layer.
These bubbles will contribute to the stronger backscatter signal
around the interface by creating more dielectric discontinuity
in the region. Therefore, the strong response at and around the
snow–ice interface can be interpreted as a combined effect of
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
Fig. 12. Roughness of the top surface of the ice layer due to small patches
of snow sticked to the surface.
the roughness of the top surface of the ice and the bubbles in
the region. However, quantifying the individual contributions
of these components needs further investigation. The relative
weakening of the response of the ice layer as a function of
depth of the ice can be interpreted to be associated with
the volume extinction phenomenon caused by the increased
involvement of the air bubbles deep in the ice layer in multiple
scattering processes. Finally, the ice–water interface response
at the bottom is associated with the big dielectric contrast
between ice and seawater, and the facets observed at the
bottom face of the ice layer (see Fig. 19).
It is stated in many sea ice studies in the literature that
first year sea ice contains significant amount of brine pockets
but fewer air bubbles [27], [41], [43]. As a result, in such
types of sea ice, it is suggested that the brine pockets are the
main inhomogeneities that have significant contribution to the
backscatter signal. On the contrary, multiyear sea ice is char-
acterized by its significant amount of air bubbles, fewer brine
pockets, and high level of surface deformation. Therefore, in
such types of sea ice, it is generally agreed that the air bubbles
are the main sources of volume backscatter. The physical
description of both first and multiyear sea ice is discussed
in detail in [2] and [27]. In our scene, it is pointed out in
Section II-B that the ice at Kattfjord is seasonal ice having
only a few months of life time, with low salinity characteristics
and containing significant amounts of air bubbles (see Fig. 3b).
The contribution of these bubbles is depicted by the rela-
tively strong response of the ice medium in the intensity
tomogram.
Another observation that can be made from Fig. 9(a) is
the difference in the level of response among the different
interfaces. As it can be seen from the figure, compared with the
air–snow and ice–seawater interface backscattering, the snow–
ice interface backscattering is significantly stronger. This is
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YITAYEW et al.: TOMOGRAPHIC IMAGING OF FJORD ICE USING A VHR GB-SAR SYSTEM
Fig. 13. Local incidence angles at the three interfaces.
mainly due to the difference in the scale of roughness among
the three interfaces and the way radar backscatter behaves with
respect to a change in wavelength and local incidence angle.
Due to the refraction phenomenon discussed in Section III, the
range of local incidence angles varies at the interfaces. This
variation depends on the rate at which the refractive indices
of adjacent layers changes, and it is governed by Snell’s law.
Fig. 13 shows a plot of local incidence angles versus ground
range at the three interfaces. As it can be observed from
the figure, the range of local incidence angles decreases as a
function of depth of the interfaces. In general, this would mean
that, for a relatively similar roughness scale of the interfaces,
the response from the deeper interfaces at a given ground range
position would be stronger than the corresponding response
from the shallower ones [36]. In the context of our obser-
vations, this will have an enhancing effect on the response of
the snow–ice and ice–water interfaces, compared the air–snow
interface.
One more phenomenon, which causes enhancement of the
responses from the deeper interfaces compared with the shal-
lower ones, is the shift in wavenumber due to the presence
of the upper layers. In [44]–[46], it is demonstrated that the
response from the ground is higher when there is a snow cover
on top of the ground than when it is snow free. This is because
of the shift in wavenumber experienced by the wave while it
travels through the snow cover. Due to the relatively higher
refractive index of the snow compared with that of air, the
wavelength of the propagating wave will be shortened. This
shortening of the wavelength experienced by the wave, while it
travels through the snow layer will make the deeper interfaces
appear rougher for the radar compared with the shallower ones.
The same argument is valid for the ice layer versus the ice–
water interface. This will have an enhancement effect on the
response of the deeper interfaces than the shallower ones. In
summary, the effect of the two enhancing phenomena just dis-
cussed will be more pronounced at the already rougher snow–
ice interface. This is clearly depicted in the intensity tomogram
of Fig. 9(a).
11
Fig. 14. Variation of CR across the tomogram is linked to the characteristics
of the CR response in enhancing dominant contributions within the limits of
the tomographic resolution cells.
The difference in the level of responses from the interfaces
is also reflected in the CR tomogram of Fig. 9(b), which
agrees with the intensity tomogram. However, there are some
notable differences between Fig. 9(a) and (b). For example,
the air–snow interface has a higher CR response at near range
than at far range, whereas the ice–water interface has a higher
CR response at far range than at near range. In contrast, the
CR response from the middle interface is fairly constant for
longer ground range extent. This is linked to the nature of
CR as discussed at the beginning of this section. The CR
enhances the dominant contributions within the limits of the
tomographic resolution cells. This is illustrated by a simple
sketch in Fig. 14. Sample points “A” to “D” are chosen
at different points within cells “1,” “2,” and “3.” From the
intensity tomogram, sample point “C” is more dominant
than points “B” and “D” inside cell “2.” As a result, the
CR enhanced point “C” than points “B” and “D.” Similarly,
Points “A” and “E” are the dominant sample points inside
cell “1” and cell “3,” respectively. As a result, the CR has an
enhancement effect at these two points than any other point in
their respective cells. In summary, a relatively high CR value
at a given point implies that, at that point, there is a strong
response corresponding to a relatively well localized medium
whose response is significantly higher than the response
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12 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING

Referring to Fig. 15 and assuming homogeneous and per-

fectly horizontal layers, y can be computed as
Hβ z 1 n 0 β
y=  + (11)
1 − β2 n0
1− n1 β2
z 2 n 0 β z 3 n 0 β
+ +
n0 n0
1− n2 β2 1− n3 β2

where β = sin θ0 , n i and z i for i = 1, 2, 3 are the refractive

Fig. 15. Radar-scatterer distance computation by taking into account the
variations in propagation velocity of the transmitted wave inside a multilayered
dense medium. Many of the symbols have already been defined in connection
to Fig. 6.
of any other point located at the same range. Therefore,
the use of the CR information for interpreting tomograms
should take into account this effect. This variation in CR
response as a function of ground range is also simulated
in Section IV-A.
A. Simulating Some of the Effects Observed in the
Tomograms
In this section, we present simulation experiments to val-
idate some of the phenomena observed in the tomograms.
Special attention will be given to the dilation at near range
and the contraction at far range of the tomograms, the angular
scattering pattern at the interfaces, and the variation of CR
as a function of ground range. For a simple illustration, a
hypothetical model that pictures the considered multilayered
medium as a volume containing ideal discrete scatterers and
interfaces with a small-scale roughness is considered. In
simulating the raw tomographic SAR data, the discrete version
of (1) is used. It can be written as
 4π f k
sr (
am,n , fk ) = ρ(r )e− j c d
(10)
V simulates the scattering volume as containing inhomogeneities
where d is the radar-scatterer distance, and all the remaining
parameters are defined in Section II-C. As it is discussed in
Section III in detail, the distortion of the tomograms is a
consequence of focusing the signal without taking into account
the fact that the wave is propagating in a dense medium with
a varying velocity. This effect can be simulated by using
electrical distances de instead of the geometric distances d
in (10). For each simulated scatterer position r, de can be
computed by using the estimated refractive indices of the snow
and ice layers. Fig. 15 shows how de can be computed for
three layers.
index and the thickness of the i th layer, respectively.
The total electrical distance de between the sensor posi-
tion H and a point at P can be computed as
de = n 0 d0 + n 1 d1 + n 2 d2 + n 3 d3 . (12)
By making use of (11), de in (12) can be written as
H z 1 n 0
de = n 0  + n1 (13)
1 − β2 n0
1− n1 β2
z 2 n 0 z 3 n 0
+n 2 + n3 .
n0 n0
1− n2 β2 1− n3 β2
Equation (13) is used to compute radar-scatterer distances
during the simulation process. Then, the simulated raw data
are focused by using geometric distances computed based on
the assumption of vacuum propagation velocity throughout the
whole medium.
In raw SAR data simulation [47], the complex reflectivity
map ρ of the medium in (10) can be computed from
EM-scattering models. For rough surfaces, models, such as
small perturbation model (SPM), integral equation model, and
Kirchhoff scattering models, can be used [48]. For volumetric
media, models derived based on the first Born approximation,
distorted Born approximation, strong fluctuation theory, and
radiative transfer approaches are commonly used [48], [49].
In modeling scattering from rough surfaces, roughness
parameters, such as the surface height standard deviation (σ )
and correlation length (L), are used to characterize the
randomness of the surface [48]. Therefore, knowledge
of these parameters is vital. In modeling the scattering
processes from a volumetric medium, depending on whether a
continuous or discrete random volume model is used, different
input model parameters are required. The discrete model
(discrete scatterers) embedded in a homogeneous background.
Therefore, the input parameters in such cases include the
permittivities of both the inhomogeneities and the background,
the fractional volumes of the constituents, the shapes, the
sizes, the orientation distributions of the scatterers, and the
layer thickness. In cases where there are more than one type of
inhomogeneity in the volume, a mixture formula has to be used
to determine the equivalent mixture permittivity. In the case
of a continuous model, the variance of the dielectric constant
function is used to measure the strength of the dielectric
fluctuation across the volume. Typical input parameters for
the continuous model include variances, correlation lengths,
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YITAYEW et al.: TOMOGRAPHIC IMAGING OF FJORD ICE USING A VHR GB-SAR SYSTEM
Fig. 16. Comparison of simulated and real tomograms from fjord ice. (a) Simulated with n 1 = 1.4 and n 2 = 1.7, X-band, VV, 18 acquisitions. (b) Tomogram
from real data (Kattfjord), X-band, VV, 18 acquisitions.
effective permittivity of the equivalent medium, and thickness
of layers [48], [49]. Therefore, modeling scattering from
natural media requires precise quantitative description of the
physical state of the medium. However, our measurement
lacks such detailed quantitative description of the medium.
As a result, the actual radar backscatter from the considered
snow and fjord ice scene cannot be accurately modeled,
and that is not our objective here. The objective is to try to
simulate the above-mentioned effects without giving too much
attention to the magnitude of the modeled backscattering
coefficients. What is presented here is an illustration.
To illustrate the angular radiation pattern observed in
the tomograms, the SPM is used to simulate the responses
from the interfaces. All the three interfaces, i.e., air–snow,
snow–ice, and ice–seawater, are assumed to have a small-
scale roughness. The values of surface roughness parameters,
which are used as inputs to the SPM, are chosen based on
the validity conditions stated in [28]. The three conditions are
kσ < 0.3, k L < 3, and σ/L < 0.3, where k = 2π/λ. From
the second criterion, the maximum value of the correlation
length for the frequency bandwidth used in this paper is
about 1.79 cm. This value is used for the surface correlation
lengths of the three interfaces. Then, within the limits of the
validity conditions, arbitrary σ values are used. Here, it is
important to note that, in practice, the σ and L values should
be taken from the actual measurements of the roughness of
the three interfaces of the considered medium. The space
between the interfaces (volume) is represented by idealized
scatterers having some complex reflectivity values. According
to the speckle model [50], the real and imaginary components
of these complex coefficients can be modeled as Gaussian
random variables. In the simulation, we have used scaled
complex coefficients according to this model. Then, during
the generation of the raw SAR data, these complex reflectivity
values are inserted in place of ρ in (10).
13
The following setup of the GB-SAR system is considered.
The height of the reference antenna is 2.4 m, the azimuth
aperture length is 1 m, and three passes were used to simulate
18 acquisitions. Even though 36 acquisitions are used in
the analysis of the real data above, only 18 acquisitions are
considered here. This is to reduce the amount of time required
to generate the raw data. The dimension of the simulated
volume is 1.2 m in azimuth, 4.5 m in range, and 0.52 m in the
height direction. The air–snow interface is placed at z = 0 m,
snow–ice interface at z = −0.24 m, and ice–sea interface at
z = −0.52 m, which matches with the depth of the different
layers in the considered fjord ice scene [see Fig. 3(a)].
After simulating the raw multibaseline SAR data
using (10), the TDBP focusing approach that was discussed
in Section II-C is used to focus the signal. Here, it is important
to note that vacuum propagation velocity is used for focusing.
Tomograms from the simulated tomographic SAR data are
shown in Fig. 16(a). The values in the intensity tomogram
are scaled values, and cannot be considered as modeled
backscattering coefficients. However, the dilation at near
range and the contraction at far range are clearly apparent.
The shape and the position of these interfaces also agree
with the shape and position of the corresponding interfaces
in the real tomogram of Fig. 16(b). The uncorrected intensity
tomogram from 18 acquisitions is shown in Fig. 16(b)
for comparison. This clearly demonstrates that in focusing
tomographic SAR measurements from semitransparent media
such as snow and ice, failing to account for the change in
propagation velocity of the wave would cause distortion of
the tomograms and this in turn would affect the interpretation
of the results.
The angular radiation pattern at the interfaces, i.e., the
decrease in the backscatter signal as a function of incidence
angle, can also be noted in the simulated tomogram. This
is more apparent in the first and last interfaces than the
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14
Fig. 17. Intensity plots derived from the tomogram of Fig. 9(a). (a) Sum of intensity values in the snow and ice layers. (b) Intensity plots as a function of
depth for three representative incidence angles.
middle one. A possible explanation for this would be the fact
that there will be more mixing of the signal coming from the
surrounding volume with the middle interface than the top
and bottom ones. Finally, the strong CR response at the top
left and bottom right corner of the CR tomogram that was
discussed in Section IV is clearly visible in the simulated
CR tomogram too. As it is discussed in that section, this
is inherently linked to the shape of the 3-D resolution cell.
These are the three effects that can be easily illustrated with-
out the backscattering coefficients being accurately modeled.
Had enough quantitative measurements regarding the physical
state of the medium been made, a similar procedure would
have been used to compare measured and simulated backscat-
tering coefficients. This will be further investigated in the
future when data supported by such ground truth information
are available.
B. Quantitative Characterization
So far, the level of the contributions from each of the
layers and interfaces has only been described qualitatively.
In this section, quantitative description is presented to get
more specific information regarding the contribution of the
different components. The ultimate objective is to show how
such information can be used to explain measurements made
by other SAR sensors, such as TerraSAR-X. Quantitative
characterization of the contributions from the different parts
of the medium can be done in many different ways. For
example, the total contribution from each of the snow and
ice covers (surface plus volume contributions) can be plotted
as a function of incidence angle or ground range. Fig. 17(a)
shows such a plot, which shows the sum of all contributions
from the snow and the ice layers as a function of incidence
angle. The intensity values are plotted from the corrected
tomogram of Fig. 9(a). As it can be clearly seen from the
figure, the sum of all signal contributions from the ice layer is
superior compared with the one coming from the snow layer.
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Quantitatively, the ice cover accounts for about 84% of the
total backscattering contribution. The remaining 16% corre-
sponds to the snow cover.
The contribution from the multilayered complex medium
can also be quantified by plotting the height profile at a given
incidence angle θ0 . Fig. 17(b) shows the vertical profile of
the snow plus ice complex medium for three representative
incidence angles. Plots such as the ones shown in Fig. 17
can provide complementary information for 2-D SAR images
acquired using a different sensor but operating with the same
frequency. The ideal example here is TerraSAR-X. Consider a
single pixel from a 2-D SAR image of the Kattfjord scene
acquired using TerraSAR-X. The backscattering signal of
such a single pixel is composed of contributions from the
snow volume, the ice volume, and all the interfaces. In a
stripmap mode, TerraSAR-X operates with incidence angle
values between 20° and 45° [51]. The representative incidence
angles chosen in Fig. 17(b) fall in this interval. The plots show
how the vertical profile of a single pixel from TerraSAR-X
acquired at a given incidence angle could look like. As it is
observed from the tomograms, the plots show a general trend
of a higher response at/around the interfaces compared with
the region farther away from the interfaces. This is depicted
by the peaks of the plots at around 0, −0.24 and −0.52 m,
which corresponds to the location of the air–snow, snow–ice,
and ice–seawater interfaces, respectively. Moreover, it can
be clearly seen from the plots that, at a given incidence
angle, the major contribution is made by the ice cover
(represented by the ice volume and the top surface of the
ice layer). However, it is important to note that for a proper
comparison, absolute radiometric calibration of the systems is
vital.
C. Comparison Between VV and HV Tomograms
A comparison of the vertical structure of the reflectivity
of the medium at VV and HV polarizations using another
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
YITAYEW et al.: TOMOGRAPHIC IMAGING OF FJORD ICE USING A VHR GB-SAR SYSTEM
Fig. 18. Comparison of VV and HV tomographic data sets. Multilooked corrected tomograms at VV (left) and HV (right) based on 15 acquisitions.
(a) VV tomogram. (b) HV tomogram. (c) Corresponding intensity plots for VV tomogram. (d) Corresponding intensity plots for HV tomogram.
Fig. 19. Facets at the bottom surface of the ice layer.
set of measurements is shown in Fig. 18. The left column
[Fig. 18(a) and (c)] is obtained by processing 15 acquisitions
at VV, and the right column [Fig. 18(b) and (d)] corresponds
to the same number of acquisitions at HV polarization. The
combined 30 measurements were taken at the same time.
The three interfaces can easily be identified from the
VV tomogram. However, the HV tomogram is characterized
by very weak response from the snow layer. This result is
15
not surprising as cross-polarized backscatter from relatively
smooth surfaces is usually much lower than the correspond-
ing copolarized backscatter [41], [52]. Moreover, the low
HV response from snow compared with the ice indicates that
the snow grains are relatively spherical in shape, whereas the
air bubbles have irregular, randomly oriented shapes, as it was
observed during data collection [see Fig. 3(b)]. Comparing the
intensity tomograms of Fig. 18(a) and (b), it can be noted that
the HV response from the considered medium is lower than
that of the VV response. Moreover, the relatively strong ice–
seawater interface response of HV compared with other parts
of the medium may be associated with the oriented facets
observed during data collection at the bottom surface of the
ice layer. This can also be clearly seen from the bottom surface
of the ice cores (see Fig. 19). Another interesting observation
that can be made from the HV tomogram is the uniform spread
of power in the sea ice layer. This is associated with the
depolarizing effect of the randomly distributed air bubbles,
and it is an indication that they have a random orientation.
V. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, the vertical structure of the radar reflectivity of
a snow covered sea ice medium is investigated. The test site
under consideration was Kattfjord, Tromsø, Norway. A 3-D
GB-SAR system was used to acquire multiple SAR images
from slightly different elevation positions. The interfaces
between the different layers of the considered medium were
easily identified from the tomograms, which were displayed as
a height-ground range sections. It is found that the strongest
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
16
backscatter comes from the sea ice layer. Such information
is vital for EM-scattering modelers as it reveals information
about the scattering power distribution as a function of depth.
The effect of a change in propagation velocity of the wave
inside the considered medium is investigated in the focusing
process, and the tomograms are effectively corrected for this
effect. This propagation velocity difference is identified as
the main source of distortion of the 3-D information, and
this might hinder the correct interpretation of the tomograms.
Therefore, this phenomenon should be considered in focusing
tomographic SAR data and interpreting tomograms of semi-
transparent volumetric media, such as snow and sea ice. Our
results from comparing VV and HV measurements reveal that,
even if the response at HV is weaker than the response at VV,
most of the HV responses are associated with the bottom part
of the medium, mainly the ice and the ice–seawater interface.
Using a simple technique, we have estimated the refractive
indices of snow and sea ice from the 3-D information of a
single polarization measurement, and the results are compared
with values from the previous experimental studies. Moreover,
by plotting the scattering contribution of the different parts of
the considered medium as a function of depth and incidence
angle, we have demonstrated the idea that such an information
can be useful to compare and validate measurements acquired
by other 2-D SAR sensors operating at the same sensor
parameters. Finally, we believe that the results presented in
this paper highlight the immense potential of the 3-D imaging
and SAR tomography for simplifying EM scattering models as
it reveals the dominant sources of information and the prepon-
derant scattering mechanisms in a semitransparent medium,
such as snow and sea ice.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank C. Leconte and F. Boutet,
who were part of the team during the data collection process.
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Temesgen Gebrie Yitayew (S’12) received the
master’s degree in physics from the, University of
Tromsø-The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø,
Norway, in 2012, where he is currently pursuing the
Ph.D. degree.
His research interests include remote sensing of
sea ice, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) polarimetry,
SAR interferometry, and SAR tomography applied
for 3-D imaging and parameter retrieval of volumet-
ric media.
17
Laurent Ferro-Famil (S’99–A’00–M’04) received
the M.S. degree in electronic systems and computer
engineering and the Ph.D. degree from the Univer-
sity of Nantes, Nantes, France, in 1996 and 2000,
respectively.
In 2001, he became an Associate Professor
with the University of Rennes 1, Rennes, France.
Since 2011, he has been a Full Professor with the
University of Rennes 1, where he is currently the
Head of the Remote Sensing Department, Institute
of Electronics and Telecommunications of Rennes.
His current research interests include analog electronics, digital communi-
cations, microwave theory, signal processing, and polarimetric SAR remote
sensing, polarimetric SAR signal statistical processing, radar polarimetry
theory, and natural media remote sensing using multibaseline PolInSAR data,
with application to classification, electromagnetic scattering modeling and
physical parameter retrieval, time-frequency analysis, and 3-D reconstruction
of environments using SAR tomography.
Torbjørn Eltoft (M’92) received the M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees from the University of Tromsø-The
Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway,
in 1981 and 1984, respectively.
In 1988, he joined the Faculty of Science and
Technology, University of Tromsø-The Arctic Uni-
versity of Norway, where he was the Head of
the Department of Physics and Technology from
2013 to 2015. He is currently leading CIRFA, a new
Center for Research-based Innovation, University of
Tromsø-The Arctic University of Norway. He is also
a Professor of electrical engineering and an Adjunct Professor with the
Northern Research Institute (Norut), Tromsø. He has supervised 15 Ph.D. and
numerous master’s students. He has a significant publication record in the area
of research signal processing and remote sensing. His current research interests
include multidimensional signal and image analysis with application in radar
remote sensing, statistical models, neural networks, and machine learning.
Dr. Eltoft was a recipient of the 2000 Outstanding Paper Award in Neural
Networks awarded by the IEEE Neural Networks Council and the Honourable
Mention for the 2003 Pattern Recognition Journal Best Paper Award.
Stefano Tebaldini (M’06) received the M.S. degree
in telecommunication engineering and the Ph.D.
degree from the Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy,
in 2005 and 2009, respectively.
Since 2005, he has been with the Digital
Signal Processing Research Group, Politecnico di
Milano, where he has been a Permanent Researcher
since 2011. He is with the Politecnico di Milano,
where he teaches courses on signal theory and
remote sensing. He has been involved as a Key
Scientist in several studies by the European Space
Agency (ESA) concerning the tomographic phase of Biomass. He is one of the
inventors of a new technology patented by Tele-Rilevamento Europa (T.R.E.)
for the exploitation of multiple interferograms in the presence of distributed
scattering. He also collaborates with the SAPHIR Team, University of Rennes
1, Rennes, France. His current research interests include earth observation with
synthetic aperture radar and radar design and processing.
Dr. Tebaldini is a member of the SAOCOM-CS Expert Group at ESA.
He co-authored the Best Poster Paper Award and the Second Best Student
Paper Award at the European Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar 2012.