Monitoring the Seasonal Behavior and Morphological Changes of the Hunga Iceberg Using Sentinel-1 SAR data

This study presents the temporal monitoring and structural assessment of the Hunga iceberg using dual-polarized Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data acquired from January 2022 to April 2023. A time series analysis was conducted using one SAR acquisition per month to observe iceberg drift, rotation and deformation under varying environmental conditions in Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica. The seasonal impact on iceberg motion was evident: during Antarctic summer (Octo-ber-March), the iceberg drifted freely in open water, while in winter (April-September), dense sea ice limited iceberg drifting significantly. A significant fragmentation event was detected in April 2023, which was validated by comparing the areas of fractured parts with the original iceberg footprint. These findings demonstrate the capability of dual-polarized SAR data in monitoring iceberg dynamics and detecting structural changes over time.