Iceberg Studies Using Satellite Altimeter Data

Altimeters are powerful tools to detect, and characterize small ( 100km2). This presentation aims at reviewing the current use of altimeter data for icebergs studies. The ALTIBERG project (funded by CNES) processes the archives of all past and present altimeters to create and maintain a database of small icebergs distributed through the CERSAT website. The database contains the location, time, backscatter, area and range of the individual detected icebergs as well as monthly gridded fields of the iceberg probability of presence, mean area and volume of ice for the Southern Ocean and Greenland Seas. The emergence of new altimeter operating modes (in particular SAR interferometry) opens the way to improve the database by estimating the topography of small and large icebergs at high resolution (∼100-300 m).