Abstract: Icebergs are large pieces of ice produced by the disintegration of ice shelves following crack growth due to the uneven movement speed of each part of ice shelves. The movement and melting of icebergs can transport and subsequently release freshwater to parts of the Southern Ocean that are distant from the Antarctic continent. Accordingly, studying the temporal and spatial distribution of icebergs can provide insights related to the hydrology, ecology, and even the impacts of global climate change across the Southern Ocean. Extracting the iceberg area distribution from remotely sense imagery provides a data basis for such investigations. Using Google Earth Engine, the image dataset of ESA Sentinel-1 SAR images from August 2015 to August 2020 were synthesized. After block resampling, downloading, and splicing, a mosaic map of 400 km around the South Pole within 3 days in winter was obtained; a binary image was then obtained using the grid analysis function, and the area and perimeter of each iceberg was extracted by using data conversion and geometric calculation functions. The results show that many Antarctic icebergs are concentrated within 50 km of the coastline, of which ultra-small icebergs account for nearly 50%. As such, small icebergs may play an important role in the input of fresh water in Antarctica.

Key words: Antarctica, icebergs, remote sensing, spatial distribution