Within-footprint roughness measurements using ICESat/GLAS waveform and LVIS elevation. (28th October 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Xiaolu; Xu, Kai; Xu, Lijun
• Is Part Of: Measurement science & technology. Volume 27:Number 12(2016:Dec.)
• Publication Date: 2016-10-28
• Subjects: ICESat/GLAS -- laser profile array -- roughness -- waveform; Physical measurements -- Periodicals; Scientific apparatus and instruments -- Periodicals; Equipment and Supplies -- Periodicals; Science -- instrumentation -- Periodicals; Technology -- instrumentation -- Periodicals; Mesures physiques -- Périodiques; Physical measurements; Scientific apparatus and instruments; Periodicals; 502.87
• DOI: 10.1088/0957-0233/27/12/125012
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0957-0233

Abstract

Abstract: The surface roughness is an important characteristic over an ice sheet or glacier, since it is an identification of boundary-layer meteorology and is an important limiter on the accuracy of surface-height measurements. In this paper, we propose a simulation method to derive the within-footprint roughness (called simulation-derived roughness) using ICESat/GLAS echo waveform, laser vegetation imaging sensor (LVIS) elevations, and laser profile array (LPA) images of ICESat/GLAS. By dividing the within-footprint surface into several elements, a simulation echo waveform can be obtained as the sum of the elementary pulses reflected from each surface element. The elevation of the surface elements, which is utilized to get the return time of the elementary pulses, is implemented based on an LVIS interpolated elevation using a radial basis function (RBF) neural network. The intensity of the elementary pulses can be obtained from the thresholded LPA images. Based on the return time and the intensity of the elementary pulses, we used the particle swarm optimization (PSO) method to approximate the simulation waveform to the ICESat/GLAS echo waveform. The full width at half maximum) (FWHM) of the elementary pulse was extracted from the simulation waveform for estimating the simulation-derived roughness. By comparing with the elevation-derived roughness (derived from the elevation) and the waveform-derived roughness (derived from the ICESat/GLAS waveform), the proposed algorithm can exclude the slope effect from waveform width broadening for describing the roughness of the surface elements.