A spatio-temporal variability assessment of the C33 iceberg using multi-polarisation C-band SAR satellite data

In this study, relevant features are extracted from multi-polarization Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar measurements and investigated to characterize the spatial pattern and the temporal evolution of the C33 iceberg formed on 7 April 2016 by partial collapsing of the Nansen Ice Shelf (Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea, Antarctica). A time series consisting of four dual-polarimetric (HH+HV) C-band synthetic aperture radar measurements is collected from 9 April to 3 May 2016 and processed to extract the iceberg profile - according to an unsupervised state-of-the-art methodology - from three multi-polarization features, namely HH- and HV-polarized normalised radar cross-section and the product of HH- and HV-polarized scattering amplitudes. Once the edge of the C33 icberg is obtained, meaningful features as displacement, drift velocity and rotation are estimated to characterize its spatio-temporal variability. Results show that in such complex environment the HV-polarized NRCS performs best in extracting the iceberg profile and that the C33 iceberg drifted offshore for more than 65 km with an average velocity of about 3 km per day, experiencing non-negligible rotation and stabilizing its behavior over time.