These data are the result of a geospatial analysis involving multi-year SAR-based lake ice regime classification using sigma-naught backscatter intensity from calibrated space-borne C-band SAR for thousands of lakes in 7 lake districts in Alaska, USA, detailed in Engram et al., (in review). Historically, radar backscatter from space-borne and airborne platforms shows a lower backscatter return from bedfast lake ice and a higher backscatter return from floating ice (where liquid phase water exists under the ice) (Jeffries, Morris, Weeks, & Wakabayashi, 1994; Weeks, 1977). We used a threshold method where the threshold to differentiate floating and bedfast ice regimes was determined for each year from the frequency distribution of SAR backscatter intensity from lake ice.
