Funds are provided for the development, testing, and deployment of a low-cost laser profiling system that can be operated onboard small unpiloted aerial vehicles (UAVs), and that is capable of serving as a component of a widely distributed and long-term monitoring and observation program, such as may be established for the International Polar Year. As part of this development, data analyses sufficient to test the ability to extract basic sea-ice parameters, such as roughness and freeboard, from laser profiles flown over the Arctic sea ice near Barrow, Alaska will be included. Using basic analysis techniques such as comparisons of roughness with other data sets (MODIS ice products and satellite SAR and scatterometer imagery), these data should suffice to yield substantial insights into variations in ice conditions. While the focus of this effort is on improved understanding of sea ice, the proposed laser profiling system and analysis techniques are applicable to many other research uses, e.g. mapping changes in ice sheets and glaciers, vegetation canopy studies, monitoring shoreline change, and surveying ocean wave heights.
