Alexander Komarov

Research Scientist

Remote Sensing of Sea Ice and Ocean Surface

719 Heron Road, Ottawa, Ontario

Current research and/or projects

Developing new methods for automated extraction of ice and ocean information from spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to improve ECCC numerical prediction systems.

Microwave remote sensing of sea ice and the ocean surface
Automated techniques for extration of Arctic sea ice and ocean characteristics from SAR
Data assimilation in Arctic sea ice prediction systems

Research and/or project statements

Lead for SAR data assimilation in ECCC Arctic sea ice and numerical weather prediction systems

Professional activities / interests

Development of new techniques for automated extraction of sea ice and ocean characteristics from satellite data

Satellite data assimilation in numerical prediction systems

Education and awards

Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, University of Manitoba, 2015

Key publications

Y. Antropova, A. S. Komarov, M. Richardson, K. Millard, and K. Smith, “Detection of wet snow in the Arctic tundra from time-series fully-polarimetric RADARSAT-2 images,” Remote Sensing of Environment, vol. 283, pp. 113305, December 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.rse.2022.113305.

J. C. Landy, G. J. Dawson, M. Tsamados, M. Bushuk, J. C. Stroeve, S. E. L. Howell, T. Krumpen, D. G. Babb, A. S. Komarov, H. D. B. S. Heorton, H. J. Belter, Y. Aksenov, “A year-round satellite sea ice thickness record from CryoSat-2,” Nature, Sep. 15, 2022, doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05058-5.

S.E.L. Howell, M. Brady, and A. S. Komarov, “Generating large-scale sea ice motion from Sentinel-1 and the RADARSAT Constellation Mission using the Environment and Climate Change Canada’s sea ice tracking system,” The Cryosphere, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 1125-1139, 2022, doi: 10.5194/tc-16-1125-2022, 2022.

A. S. Komarov, S. A. Komarov, and M. Buehner, “Ocean surface wind speed retrieval from the RADARSAT Constellation Mission co- and cross-polarization images without wind direction input,” IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 60, pp. 1-15, 2022, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2021.3137127.

G. Dawson, J. Landy, M. Tsamados, A. S. Komarov, S. Howell, H. Heorton, T. Krumpen, “A 10-year record of Arctic summer sea ice freeboard from CryoSat-2,” Remote Sensing of Environment, Remote Sensing of Environment, vol. 268, no. 0034-4257, pp. 112744, 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.rse.2021.112744.

I. A. Dmitrenko, V. Petrusevich, K. Kosobokova, A. S. Komarov, C. Bouchard, M. Geoffroy, N. Koldunov, D.G. Babb, S. A. Kirillov, and D. G. Barber, “Coastal polynya disrupts the acoustic backscatter diurnal signal over the eastern Laptev Sea shelf,” Frontiers in Marine Science, vol. 8, pp. 791096, Dec. 2021, doi: 10.3389/fmars.2021.791096.

S. Kirillov, D. G. Babb, A. S. Komarov, I. Dmitrenko, J. K. Ehn, E. Worden, L. Candlish, S. Rysgaard, and D. G. Barber, “On the physical settings of ice bridge formation in Nares Strait,” Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 126, no. 8, pp. e2021JC017331, 2021, doi: 10.1029/2021JC017331.

M. Kleinherenbrink, A. Korosov, T. Newman, A. Theodosiou, A. S. Komarov, Y. Li, G. Mulder, P. Rampal, J. Stroeve, and P. Lopez-Dekker, “Estimating instantaneous sea-ice dynamics from space using the bi-static radar measurements of Earth Explorer 10 candidate Harmony,” The Cryosphere, vol. 15, pp. 3101–3118, July 2021, doi: 10.5194/tc-15-3101-2021.

A. S. Komarov, M. Buehner, “Ice concentration from dual-polarization SAR images using ice and water retrievals at multiple spatial scales,” IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 950-961, February 2021, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2020.3000672.

N. Asadi, K. A. Scott, A. S. Komarov, M. Buehner, and D. A. Clausi, “Evaluation of a neural network with uncertainty for detection of ice and water in SAR imagery,” IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 59, no. 1, pp. 247-259, January 2021, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2020.2992454.

I. A. Dmitrenko, V. Petrusevich, G. Darnis, S. A. Kirillov, A. S. Komarov, J. K. Ehn, A. Forest, L. Fortier, S. Rysgaard, and D. G. Barber, “Sea-ice and water dynamics and moonlight impact the acoustic backscatter diurnal signal over the eastern Beaufort Sea continental slope,” Ocean Science, vol. 16, pp. 1261–1283, 2020, doi: 10.5194/os-16-1261-2020-48.

R. Kruk, M. C. Fuller, A. S. Komarov, D. Isleifson, and I. Jeffrey, “Proof of concept for sea ice stage of development classification using deep learning,” MDPI Remote Sensing, vol. 12, no. 15, pp. 2486, 2020, doi: 10.3390/rs12152486.

A. S. Komarov, A. Caya, M. Buehner, and L. Pogson, “Assimilation of SAR ice and open water retrievals in Environment and Climate Change Canada Regional Ice-Ocean Prediction System,” IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 58, no. 6, pp. 4290-4303, June 2020, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2019.2962656.

A. S. Komarov, M. Buehner. Detection of first-year and multi-year sea ice from dual-polarization SAR images under cold conditions, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 57, no. 11, pp. 9109-9123, Nov. 2019, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2019.2924868.

A. S. Komarov, M. Buehner. Improved retrieval of ice and open water from sequential RADARSAT-2 images, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 57, no. 6, pp. 3694-3702, June 2019, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2018.2886685.

V. Y. Petrusevich, I. A. Dmitrenko, I. E. Kozlov, S. A. Kirillov, Z. Z. A. Kuzyk, A. S. Komarov, J. P. Heath, D. G. Barber, and J. K. Ehn. Tidally-generated internal waves in Southeast Hudson Bay, Continental Shelf Research, vol. 167, pp. 65–76, 2018, doi: 10.1016/j.csr.2018.08.002.

A. S. Komarov, M. Buehner. Adaptive probability thresholding in automated ice and open water detection from RADARSAT-2 images, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 552-556, April 2018, doi: 10.1109/LGRS.2018.2806189.

S.E.L. Howell, A. S. Komarov, M. Dabboor, B. Montpetit, M. Brady, R. K. Scharien, M. S. Mahmud, V. Nanden, T. Geldzetser, and J. J. Yackel. Comparing L- and C-band synthetic aperture radar estimates of sea ice motion over different ice regimes, Remote Sensing of Environment, vol. 204, pp. 380-391, January 2018.

A. S. Komarov, M. Buehner. Automated detection of ice and open water from dual-polarization RADARSAT-2 images for data assimilation, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 55, no. 10, pp. 5755-5769, October 2017.

A. S. Komarov, J. C. Landy, S. A. Komarov, and D. G. Barber. Evaluating scattering contributions to C-band radar backscatter from snow-covered first-year sea ice at the winter-spring transition through measurement and modeling, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 55, no. 10, pp. 5702-5718, October 2017.

S. A. Komarov, A. S. Komarov, D. G. Barber, M. Lemes, and S. Rysgaard. Open - ended coaxial probe technique for dielectric spectroscopy of artificially grown sea ice, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 54, no. 8, pp. 4941-4951, August 2016.

N. Firoozy, A. S. Komarov, P. Mojabi, D. G. Barber, J. Landy, and R. Scharien. Retrieval of young snow-covered sea ice temperature and salinity evolution through radar cross section inversion, IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 326 – 338, April 2016.

J. C. Landy, A. S. Komarov, D. G. Barber. Numerical and experimental evaluation of terrestrial LiDAR for parameterizing centimeter-scale sea ice surface roughness, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 53, no. 9, pp. 4887-4898, September 2015.

N. Firoozy, A. S. Komarov, J. Landy, D. G. Barber, P. Mojabi, and R. Scharien. Inversion-based sensitivity analysis of snow-covered sea ice electromagnetic profiles, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, vol. 8, no. 7, pp. 3643-3655, July 2015.

A. S. Komarov, D. Isleifson, D. G. Barber, and L. Shafai. Modeling and measurement of C-band radar backscatter from snow-covered first-year sea ice, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 53, no. 7, pp. 4063-4078, July 2015.

J. Landy, D. Isleifson, A. S. Komarov, and D. G. Barber. Parameterization of sea ice surface roughness using LiDAR, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 1271-1286, March 2015.

A. S. Komarov, L. Shafai, and D. G. Barber. Electromagnetic wave scattering from rough boundaries interfacing inhomogeneous media and application to snow-covered sea ice, Progress in Electromagnetic Research, vol. 144, pp. 201-219, 2014.

A. S. Komarov, V. Zabeline, and D. G. Barber. Ocean surface wind speed retrieval from C-band SAR images without wind direction input, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 980-990, February 2014.

A. S. Komarov, and D. G. Barber. Sea ice motion tracking from sequential dual-polarization RADARSAT-2 images, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 121-136, January 2014.

D. Isleifson, R. J. Galley, D. G. Barber, J. C. Landy, A. S. Komarov, L. Shafai. A study on the C-band polarimetric scattering and physical characteristics of frost flowers on experimental sea ice, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 52, no. 3, pp. 1787-1798, March 2014.

D.G. Barber, G. McCullough, D. Babb, A. S. Komarov, L.M. Candlish, J.V. Lukovich, M. Asplin, S. Prinsenberg, I. Dmitrenko and S. Rysgaard. Climate change and ice hazards in the Beaufort Sea, Elementa-Oceans. Elem. Sci. Anth. 2: 000025, 2014.

S.E.L. Howell, T. Wohlleben, M. Dabboor, C. Dersken, A. S. Komarov, L. Pizzolato. Recent changes in the exchange of sea ice between the Arctic Ocean and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 118, no. 7, pp. 3595-3607, 2013.

S.E.L. Howell, T. Wohlleben, A. S. Komarov, L. Pizzolato, and C. Derksen. Recent extreme light sea ice years in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: 2011 and 2012 eclipse 1998 and 2007, The Cryosphere, vol. 7, no. 6, pp. 1753–1768, 2013.

T. Wohlleben, S. Howell, T. Agnew, and A. S. Komarov. Sea ice motion and flux within the Prince Gustaf Adolf Sea, Queen Elizabeth Islands, Canada during 2010, Atmosphere-Ocean, vol. 51, pp. 1-17, 2012.

S. A. Komarov, A. S. Komarov, and V. Zabeline. Marine wind speed retrieval from RADARSAT-2 dual-polarization imagery, Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, vol. 37, no. 5, pp. 520-528, 2011.