The heterogeneity of the ice structure, ice thickening and deposition of frazil ice underneath the ice cover resulted in a large amount of backscatter upstream from Big Eddy, showing brighter color on the radar image (Figure 3). This ice cover sheet is interpreted as a consolidated ice cover, extended in the upstream direction. In the lower portion of the Slave River channel, downstream from Big Eddy to the river mouth at Great Slave Lake, three classes—open water, thermal ice, and juxtaposed ice covers—can be identified on the November RADARSAT-2 image, showing an increase in backscatter values in these three classes (Figure 3). More specifically, the low backscattering between Big Eddy and Nagle Channel reveals the persistence of a “white” ice layer. Similarly, the stretch between Nagle Channel and Steamboat Channel was dominated by thermal “black” ice cover which was observed in the field. Generally speaking, four classes—open water, thermal ice, juxtaposed ice, and consolidated ice—are dominant along the Slave River between November and March. It should be noted that the occurrence of these types of ice covers along the river depends on climatic, hydraulic and geomorphologic conditions, as well as the timing of ice monitoring. For example, in the December 2013 and January 2014 images, most of the river sections at the Slave River Delta were ice covered with three dominant classes: thermal, juxtaposed, and consolidated ice. Therefore, the analysis of multi-temporal RADARSAT-2 data is expected to automatically identify different ice covers, as well as their progression during the freeze-up period along the Slave River. Figure 4 shows different ice types along the Slave River from Fort Smith to Great Slave Lake on the time-lapse photos that can be matched to the ice types in the radar images.