GEOSPATIAL STUDY ON ICEBERG CALVING EVENTS IN ANTARCTICA USING MULTISPECTRAL REMOTE SENSING DATA

摘要

Iceberg calving is the sudden release and breaking away of a mass of ice from ice shelves, glaciers or ice fronts. It starts with the formation of crevasses and rifts. In Antarctica, various ice shelves are witnessing major and minor iceberg calving at the coast. Calving is the major cause of ice mass loss in Antarctic ice shelves. These calving events give us an idea about what is going on in ice shelves and what could be the factors triggering the increasing rate of rifts. Remote Sensing technique has been playing a significant role in tracking these calving events. In this study, three calving events have been studied. Two of them have already been calved and one event is about to calve in future. The first event is reported in the Leopoid and Astrid Coast and calved an iceberg of area 6.09 km~2. The second event took place along Sabrina Coast which calved a total area of 33.06 km~2. The third event is along Luitpoid Coast where various rifts are going to calve an iceberg. This study tracks calving events through optical remote sensing along the coast of Antarctica.