A comparison of constant false alarm rate object detection algorithms for iceberg identification in L- and C-band SAR imagery of the Labrador Sea

Færch, Laust; Dierking, Wolfgang; Hughes, Nick; Doulgeris, Anthony P.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5335-2023

Articles | Volume 17, issue 12

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5335-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5335-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 12

Research article

|

15 Dec 2023

Research article |

| 15 Dec 2023

A comparison of constant false alarm rate object detection algorithms for iceberg identification in L- and C-band SAR imagery of the Labrador Sea

Laust Færch, Wolfgang Dierking, Nick Hughes, and Anthony P. Doulgeris

Data sets

Environment and natural resources, Weather, Climate and Hazards, Past weather and climate, Historical Data Government of Canada https://climate.weather.gc.ca

Verjarkiv Danish Meteorological Institute https://www.dmi.dk/vejrarkiv/

Data Space Eco System Copernicus https://dataspace.copernicus.eu/

Model code and software

CFAR Object Detection Library (Version v1) Laust Færch https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10254677

Short summary

Icebergs in open water are a risk to maritime traffic. We have compared six different constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detectors on overlapping C- and L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images for the detection of icebergs in open water, with a Sentinel-2 image used for validation. The results revealed that L-band gives a slight advantage over C-band, depending on which detector is used. Additionally, the accuracy of all detectors decreased rapidly as the iceberg size decreased.