Automated Coastal Ice Mapping with SAR Can Inform Winter Fish Ecology in the Laurentian Great Lakes

Many freshwater lakes in the temperate zone undergo annual freeze-thaw cycles. Climate change has disrupted these patterns and altered habitat for many species including ecologically, economically, and culturally valuable fish species. To understand the relationship between ice cover and aquatic species, suitable data can be derived from remote sensing. We developed a novel ice classification method with minimal user input using freely …