Measurements with the CARABAS SAR sensor during BEERS-94

Ice mapping in the Baltic Sea using microwave synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images has been studied since the mid-eighties. In an experiment during the winter season of 1993/94 the airborne VHF SAR sensor CARABAS was used in parallel. Low frequencies mainly interact with the large-scale roughness, e.g. ice ridges, but may also penetrate into the ice. The flight programme focused on imaging passes parallel to the ERS-1 imaging orbit, but the area on ice defined for the ground truth activities was also imaged from orthogonal directions and some headings in between. One set of images was aimed for repeat-pass interferometry tests.