MONITORING SELECTED ICEBERG CALVING EVENTS IN EASTERN ANTARCTICA USING OPTICAL REMOTE SENSING

摘要

Antarctica, which holds the largest ice sheet on the Earth, is one of the most sensitive components of Earth in the realm of climate change. Calving of ice shelves and glaciers contributes to major ice loss along the coast of Antarctica. In the present study the ice dynamics along the Eastern coast of Antarctica using iceberg calving as an indicator has been studied. Using moderate resolution satellite data of LANDSAT 4-5, 7 & 8, we monitored calving events that occurred in the past and icebergs likely to be calved in future, and identified potential zones where major calving could take place along the eastern Antarctica region. The present study focuses on 3 such events from Princess Astrid Coast. In this region, as on 4-12-1989 there was a crevasse of 45.15 km which had grown up to 77.84 km by 19-11-2001. Also, as on 16-03-2016, an iceberg of an area 29.88 sq.km which is about to calve can be observed. Here the rifts can be seen which are orthogonal in orientation relative to the calving front. In the third case, there is presence of 12 widening rifts and around 48 physical structures, as observed on 16-03-2016. The total length of the 12 rifts is around 215.68 km with minimum 1.24 km and maximum 40.55 km in length. This study shows that temporal monitoring of iceberg calving is necessary for deciphering climate change signals.