This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: For the first time, important features of the Antarctic coastal zone have been mapped at high resolution around the continent by training an artificial intelligence tool to accurately recognize grounded icebergs in satellite radar images. Grounded icebergs are large icebergs that frequently run aground on the seafloor around Antarctica, keeping them stationary for days to decades.
They are important for anchoring sea ice, which in turn holds back land ice from slipping into the ocean while providing habitat and nutrients for marine ecosystems. Before Kaihong Jiao started his master's project with the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership at the University of Tasmania, no complete large-scale map of grounded icebergs existed. "Traditionally, iceberg monitoring has relied heavily on manual analysis of satellite imagery," Jiao said.
"The aim of my project was to develop accurate, continentwide automated mapping of grounded iceberg distribution and size—and that's what we did." "Grounded icebergs around Antarctica: a high-resolution dataset derived from deep learning and Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar"—authored by a team from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Australian Antarctic Division and Geoscience Australia—is published in the journal Earth System Science Data. "Using satellite radar imagery and an automated artificial intelligence tool, we mapped nearly 40,000 stationary icebergs in 2025," Jiao said. A total of 39,619 grounded icebergs in the dataset cover a combined area of 13,430 km2 and are widely distributed along 57% of the Antarctic coastline, with just 14% of the coastline containing 80% of all grounded icebergs.
"We discovered that tiny, frequently overlooked icebergs less than 1 square kilometer (0.4 square miles) in size actually dominate both the total number and area," Jiao said. "Our methods—combining satellite imagery from Sentinel-1 with a robust and reliable differentiation tool—successfully reduced the minimum detectable iceberg size to 1.6 hectares (4 acres)." "Tiny" icebergs accounted for 93% of all grounded icebergs and contributed 54% of the total grounded area. These dense clusters of smaller grounded icebergs, which are widespread in shallow waters, are crucial for what the authors call the "picket fence effect," where they act as a series of physical anchors to stabilize the stationary "landfast" ice that protects Antarctic ice shelves from the rough Southern Ocean.
Like physical posts in a fence, these iceberg clusters catch and hold sea ice in place, preventing it from breaking away and drifting into the open ocean. The results may indicate a unique sensitivity of the Antarctic coastal system to climate change, where tiny icebergs are more susceptible to melting and subsequent "ungrounding" in response to ocean warming than larger ones—which could trigger abrupt changes in the stability of landfast ice. "Our public dataset offers a crucial new baseline for modeling coastal ice stability and understanding broader environmental changes," Jiao concluded.
Kaihong Jiao et al, Grounded icebergs around Antarctica: a high-resolution dataset derived from deep learning and Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar, Earth System Science Data (2026). DOI: 10.5194/essd-18-6017-2026 Journal information: Earth System Science Data Provided by Australian Antarctic Program Partnership BA art history, MA material culture. Former museum editor, paramedic, and transplant coordinator.
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