Work

Travel Time Computation in Snow and Ice Volumes for Radar Remote Sensing Applications

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: When radar signals penetrate snow and ice, they experience additional delays and directional changes due to the higher refractive index compared to that of air. These propagation effects should be taken into account accurately when processing, simulating, or geocoding radar data. Travel time computation is straightforward when the refractive index is constant, but it becomes challenging in heterogeneous media. This letter introduces novel methods based on the Eikonal equation and Fermat’s principle for efficiently computing radar signal travel times in heterogeneous snow and ice volumes. These approaches can accommodate nearly arbitrary refractive index distributions, ensuring precise handling of propagation effects in radar remote sensing applications.

Source: IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters

DOI: 10.1109/lgrs.2025.3561654

Authors: Andreas Benedikter, Christian Huber, Letizia Gambacorta, Marc Rodriguez-Cassola, Gerhard Krieger

Institutions: Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg

Language: English

Topic: Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Applications and Techniques

Subfield: Aerospace Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $2,645

OpenAlex ID: W4409494158

FWCI: 0.393

Cites: 13

Cited by: 1

Related to: 10