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TIME-SERIES SENTINEL-1 SAR AND GIS ANALYSIS OF SNOWMELT AND GLACIER DYNAMICS ON LIVINGSTON ISLAND, ANTARCTICA

Nadia Yanakieva, Sergi Gonzalez Herrero, Andrey Stoyanov, Elitza Uzunova, Ivan Stoev

Abstract

Rapid warming along the Antarctic Peninsula has intensified surface melting on maritime glaciers, accelerating ablation and contributing to increasingly negative surface mass balances, particularly on Livingston Island, South Shetlands Islands, Antarctica. Continuous, weather-independent monitoring of snow and ice conditions is therefore essential for assessing seasonal variability and its implications for glacier evolution. A multi-temporal dataset of Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery acquired between 2016 and 2025 was processed using a standard workflow including radiometric calibration, speckle filtering, terrain correction, and co-registration. A multi-layer SAR feature stack, combining calibrated HH backscatter, texture measures, and multi-temporal information, was used for glacier surface classification through the Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) algorithm. To complement the SAR analysis, Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery was classified into six thematic surface-cover classes, while ground-based meteorological observations from the Juan Carlos I Antarctic Station were used to support the interpretation of the satellite-derived products. The results reveal pronounced temporal variability in glacier margins and lower-elevation coastal sectors, whereas the higher-elevation accumulation zones remain comparatively stable throughout the observation period. The integrated analysis demonstrates a close correspondence between SAR backscatter variations, optical surface-cover classes, and seasonal meteorological conditions associated with snow accumulation and melt processes. The combination of SAR, optical, and in situ observations provides a robust framework for monitoring glacier dynamics and snow-cover variability in the maritime Antarctic environment. The proposed multi-source methodology improves the interpretation of cryospheric changes and offers valuable support for long-term assessments of glacier response to ongoing climate variability.

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