The life cycle of small- to medium-sized icebergs in the Amundsen Sea Embayment
An object-based method for automatic iceberg detection has been applied to Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar images in the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE), Antarctica. The images were acquired between 1 January 2006 and 8 April 2012 under varying meteorological, oceanographic and sea-ice conditions. Du...
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Norwegian Polar Institute
2019
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:229d01d769af42bebeb85c9f88f6dbe4 2023-05-15T13:23:55+02:00 The life cycle of small- to medium-sized icebergs in the Amundsen Sea Embayment Aleksandra K. Mazur Anna K. Wåhlin Ola Kalén 2019-08-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v38.3313 https://doaj.org/article/229d01d769af42bebeb85c9f88f6dbe4 EN eng Norwegian Polar Institute https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/3313/9358 https://doaj.org/toc/1751-8369 1751-8369 doi:10.33265/polar.v38.3313 https://doaj.org/article/229d01d769af42bebeb85c9f88f6dbe4 Polar Research, Vol 38, Iss 0, Pp 1-17 (2019) Satellite radar data object-based image analysis iceberg size distribution iceberg annual variations Environmental sciences GE1-350 Oceanography GC1-1581 article 2019 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v38.3313 2022-12-30T23:00:17Z An object-based method for automatic iceberg detection has been applied to Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar images in the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE), Antarctica. The images were acquired between 1 January 2006 and 8 April 2012 under varying meteorological, oceanographic and sea-ice conditions. During this time period, the icebergs were counted (average 1370 ± 50) and their surface area was estimated (average 1537.5 km2). The average surface area was about 2.5 times larger than the annual calved area (620 km2), indicating that the average iceberg age in the ASE is about 2.5 years, which was confirmed by observed residence times based on drift tracks. Most of the ASE icebergs were less than 1500 m long, and almost 90% of them were smaller than 2 km2. The proportion of small- and medium-sized icebergs (84.4%) was significantly higher than in the open ocean, where large icebergs (>10 km2) account for nearly the whole iceberg surface area. The opposite was true for the freshly calved icebergs in the ASE. The data indicate that the creation of icebergs in the ASE is dominated by steady small- to medium-scale calving from ice shelves fringing the embayment. In addition, rare calving events of giant icebergs occur on a decadal timescale. There is also some import of icebergs from the Bellingshausen Sea further east along the coast, in particular after large calving events there. Article in Journal/Newspaper Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctica Bellingshausen Sea Ice Shelves Polar Research Sea ice Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Amundsen Sea Bellingshausen Sea Polar Research 38 0 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Satellite radar data object-based image analysis iceberg size distribution iceberg annual variations Environmental sciences GE1-350 Oceanography GC1-1581 |
spellingShingle |
Satellite radar data object-based image analysis iceberg size distribution iceberg annual variations Environmental sciences GE1-350 Oceanography GC1-1581 Aleksandra K. Mazur Anna K. Wåhlin Ola Kalén The life cycle of small- to medium-sized icebergs in the Amundsen Sea Embayment |
topic_facet |
Satellite radar data object-based image analysis iceberg size distribution iceberg annual variations Environmental sciences GE1-350 Oceanography GC1-1581 |
description |
An object-based method for automatic iceberg detection has been applied to Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar images in the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE), Antarctica. The images were acquired between 1 January 2006 and 8 April 2012 under varying meteorological, oceanographic and sea-ice conditions. During this time period, the icebergs were counted (average 1370 ± 50) and their surface area was estimated (average 1537.5 km2). The average surface area was about 2.5 times larger than the annual calved area (620 km2), indicating that the average iceberg age in the ASE is about 2.5 years, which was confirmed by observed residence times based on drift tracks. Most of the ASE icebergs were less than 1500 m long, and almost 90% of them were smaller than 2 km2. The proportion of small- and medium-sized icebergs (84.4%) was significantly higher than in the open ocean, where large icebergs (>10 km2) account for nearly the whole iceberg surface area. The opposite was true for the freshly calved icebergs in the ASE. The data indicate that the creation of icebergs in the ASE is dominated by steady small- to medium-scale calving from ice shelves fringing the embayment. In addition, rare calving events of giant icebergs occur on a decadal timescale. There is also some import of icebergs from the Bellingshausen Sea further east along the coast, in particular after large calving events there. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Aleksandra K. Mazur Anna K. Wåhlin Ola Kalén |
author_facet |
Aleksandra K. Mazur Anna K. Wåhlin Ola Kalén |
author_sort |
Aleksandra K. Mazur |
title |
The life cycle of small- to medium-sized icebergs in the Amundsen Sea Embayment |
title_short |
The life cycle of small- to medium-sized icebergs in the Amundsen Sea Embayment |
title_full |
The life cycle of small- to medium-sized icebergs in the Amundsen Sea Embayment |
title_fullStr |
The life cycle of small- to medium-sized icebergs in the Amundsen Sea Embayment |
title_full_unstemmed |
The life cycle of small- to medium-sized icebergs in the Amundsen Sea Embayment |
title_sort |
life cycle of small- to medium-sized icebergs in the amundsen sea embayment |
publisher |
Norwegian Polar Institute |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v38.3313 https://doaj.org/article/229d01d769af42bebeb85c9f88f6dbe4 |
geographic |
Amundsen Sea Bellingshausen Sea |
geographic_facet |
Amundsen Sea Bellingshausen Sea |
genre |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctica Bellingshausen Sea Ice Shelves Polar Research Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctica Bellingshausen Sea Ice Shelves Polar Research Sea ice |
op_source |
Polar Research, Vol 38, Iss 0, Pp 1-17 (2019) |
op_relation |
https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/3313/9358 https://doaj.org/toc/1751-8369 1751-8369 doi:10.33265/polar.v38.3313 https://doaj.org/article/229d01d769af42bebeb85c9f88f6dbe4 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v38.3313 |
container_title |
Polar Research |
container_volume |
38 |
container_issue |
0 |
_version_ |
1766376277584904192 |