Radarsat Geophysical Processor System: Data Products, Formats, and Visualization

Radarsat Geophysical Processor System (RGPS) is designed to generate products that provide estimates of sea ice motion, deformation and sea ice thickness. The system uses Radarsat-1 ScanSAR Wide B (SWB) imagery acquired over the last six years over the entire Arctic Ocean. At the beginning of each winter season a regular grid with a default spacing of 10 km is initialized that defines the freeze up ice condition. With changing ice condition this regular grid distorts in shape and location. The distorted Langrangian grid is stored as an RGPS data product that reflects the ice condition at a particular time. In the past, RGPS products have been used to study processes operating at the scale of the entire Arctic Ocean. We are looking into the use of the RGPS data in a more refined grid, so that the product could also be used for studying smaller regions of interest. We have converted the specific binary format of the RGPS product to the more popular ARC/INFO polygon coverage format used by a wider research community. Finally, we have developed a visualization tool that will allow the user to drape the RGPS product containing ice attribute information over the corresponding synthetic aperture radar images and view a series of images showing change in ice condition over time.