Detailed mapping of landfast ice deformation can be used to characterize the rheological behavior of landfast ice effectively and to improve sea ice modeling subsequently. In order to analyze the characteristics, trends and causes of deformation comprehensively and accurately, the Sentinel-1A ascending and descending orbits data were used to detect the horizontal and vertical deformation of the fast ice in the Baltic Sea. Firstly, the fast ice edge lines were acquired through feature extraction with interferometric coherence images and SAR amplitude images. Then, the deformation transformed model was constructed according to the geometric relationship of multi-orbits deformation measurements. Finally, the landfast ice deformations were resolved and the horizontal and vertical deformations were obtained. The results showed that the maximum deformation was—44 cm in horizontal direction and 16 cm in vertical direction within the fast ice region of 960 km² during the time from 2 to 16 February 2018. The southwest wind was the principal reason for the deformation, which made the deformation mainly occur in the horizontal direction from east to west. Moreover, the inner fast ice kept stable due to the protection of outer consolidated ice. The results showed that the deformation trend and characteristics can be better understood by using InSAR technology that was combined with multi-orbits SAR data to resolve and analyze the landfast ice deformation.

Accurate mapping of fast ice deformation can effectively characterize the rheological behavior of fast ice and subsequently improve sea ice model. This study used the Sentinel-1A descending and ascending orbits data to detect the deformations of fast ice in the Baltic Sea. A method for automatically obtaining fast ice edge line by combining interferometric coherence image and SAR amplitude image was proposed. Then, the deformations of fast ice were detected from different incidence angles with the descending and ascending orbits data. The results showed that the deformations in radar line of sight obtained from the descending and ascending orbits data were 38cm and 37cm respectively within the fast ice region of 960km2 in the study area. The continuous strong southwest wind was the principal reason for the deformation, and the deformation direction was dominated by east to west. Moreover, the inner fast ice kept stable and its deformation was smaller due to the protection of outer consolidated ice. The experimental results in this paper showed that the deformation trend and characteristics of fast ice can be better understood by InSAR technology with multi-orbits SAR data.