On the Exploitation of Dual-Polarimetric SAR Measurements to Observe the C33 Iceberg in Antarctica

The monitoring of glaciers and icebergs is of paramount importance as they have a significant impact on sea level, ocean circulation, global warming and navigation. In this study, the C33 iceberg (Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica) is analyzed using a time series of Sentinel-1 dual-polarimetric HH-HV synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data acquired between 9 April and 3 May 2016. A processing paradigm that exploits dual-polarimetric information provided by Sentinel-1 imagery is proposed. Multipolarization intensity-based features are used to extract the C33 iceberg's profile with the goal of tracking its drift in the Terra Nova Bay; while a polarimetric coherent descriptor is used to infer information about the scattering properties of the iceberg and to observe their variability during the C33 iceberg drift. Experimental results confirm the soundness of the proposed approach, which is shown to take full benefit of the multipolarization Sentinel-1 SAR measurements.