Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/11681/9424
Title: Ground-truth observations of ice-covered North Slope lakes imaged by radar
Authors: National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Ocean Processes Branch
Weeks, W. F.
Gow, A. J. (Anthony Jack)
Schertler, Ronald J.
Keywords: Alaska
Lakes
Cold regions
Radar
Ice
Water supplies
Publisher: Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (U.S.)
Engineer Research and Development Center (U.S.)
Series/Report no.: CRREL report ; 81-19.
Description: CRREL Report
Abstract: Field observations support the interpretation that differences in the strength of radar returns from the ice covers of lakes on the North Slope of Alaska can be used to determine where the lake is frozen completely to the bottom. An ice/frozen soil interface is indicated by a weak return and an ice/water interface by a strong return. The immediate value of this result is that SLAR (side-looking airborne radar) imagery can now be used to prepare maps of large areas of the North Slope showing where the lakes are shallower or deeper than 1.7 m (the approximate draft of the lake ice at the time of the SLAR flights). The bathymetry of these shallow lakes is largely unknown and is not obvious from their sizes or outlines. Such information could be very useful, for example in finding suitable year-round water supplies.
Rights: Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/11681/9424
Appears in Collections:CRREL Report

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