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Abstract:
Over the past ten years the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) has been conducting research along the coast of the Canadian Beaufort Sea. The capabilities and research efforts have been expanding ever since, resulting in the application of TerraSAR-X imagery for investigations into land cover changes, and subsidence. The AWI sees great potential for future applications of radar imagery at regional scales, along with the ground validation in a remote yet climatically sensitive region. The capacities offered by the TerraSAR-X platform present a unique possibility to enhance and complement existing research conducted by the AWI based on remotely sensed optical data (e.g. SPOT, GEOEYE, etc.). Possible research directions involve change tracking of permafrost degradation (e.g. thermokarst features such as retrogressive thaw slumps and lakes), quantification of coastal erosion, vegetation community change, vegetation structure, surface water and surface moisture investigations, and fast ice mapping. In addition, the applicability of TerraSAR-X data for investigations into wetland- and tundra vegetation, and land disturbances would be investigated. These investigations would make use of the TSX stripmap and scansar mode acquisitions already available in the archive, and future TSX acquisitions in 2013.
