Semi-Automated Mapping of Complex-Terrain Mountain Glaciers by Integrating L-Band SAR Amplitude and Interferometric Coherence

Mapping the outlines of glaciers has primarily relied on the interpretation of satellite optical images. However, the accurate delineation of glaciers in complex terrain mountain regions remains challenging, mainly because the supraglacial debris-covered ablation zones and snow-covered accumulation zones often exhibit the same spectral properties as their adjacent grounds in optical images. This study presents a novel approach by exploring both the satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) amplitude and interferometric coherence to map mountain glaciers. This method explores the deviation of the glacier surface signal in the SAR time series to distinguish glacier ice from the surrounding stable ground. To this end, we explored the classifying capabilities of two indices from a set of SAR images, SAR interferometric coherence and amplitude deviation index (ADI), to determine glacier boundary. We found that the two indices complement each other for mapping glaciers. A ratio map based on ADI and SAR coherence (ACR) was then derived, from which the glacier outline was automatically tracked using a specified threshold, followed by manual modification. We validated this approach on two typical valley glaciers, the debris-covered Hailuogou Glacier and debris-free Mozigou Glacier, in Mount Gongga in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. The results show that the proposed ACR criteria can significantly enhance the contrast between glaciers and their surroundings. By comparing our results with manually delineated glacier outlines from high-resolution cloud-free satellite optical imagery, we found that the misclassification rate and difference rate for our results were 2.6% and 4.2%, respectively. The approach presented in this study can be easily adapted to map the outlines of mountain glaciers worldwide efficiently and is useful for inferring glacier boundary changes in a climate warming context.