Object-Based Sea Ice Ridge Detection From High Spatial Resolution Imagery

High spatial resolution aerial photos can provide detailed distribution of sea ice features. However, very few studies have ever considered shadows on the photos for sea ice detection. In this study, sea ice shadows, retrieved from 163 selected aerial photos of the marginal ice zone of Arcitc sea ice (summer 2010) utilizing an object-based classification scheme, are used to estimate the sea ice ridge attributes through local solar illumination geometry. The photo-averaged ridge frequency, length (1.22-10.33 m), and height (0.15-1.29 m) are extracted from batch processing. This study provides an important batch processing method for ridge detection and ridge attribute retrieval from high resolution imagery of sea ice