<p>I can't imagine a moving object  more suitable for remote sensing tracking than Iceberg A-68, with such slow displacement and huge size. So I don't think it will be particularly useful to install any instrumentation to track its position on site.
However, there would be plenty of other measurements that can be done, about mass balance, stress fields, etc.
I'm not aware of any plans to install such instrumentation. I've emailed Thomas Rackow (the author of the paper cited above), and he is not aware of any plans either, and confirmed that no instrumentation have been installed so far. But, that can easily change in the future.</p>

<p>He pointed me to an expedition happening next month to study the marine ecosystem that have been exposed by the departure of A-68, you can find out more in <a href="https://phys.org/news/2017-10-scientists-hidden-antarctic-ecosystem-giant.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this link</a>.</p>

<p>By the way, a cool tool to track A-68 position is <a href="https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/?p=geographic&amp;l=VIIRS_SNPP_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor(hidden),MODIS_Aqua_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor,MODIS_Terra_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor,Reference_Labels(hidden),Reference_Features(hidden),Coastlines&amp;t=2018-01-16&amp;z=3&amp;v=-64.8367463639102,-70.07509944085103,-56.399246363910194,-65.97500178460103" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Worldview</a>, this is an image taken on January 16th (there are images as fresh as today, but it have been cloudy sice then):
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/uqtxp.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/uqtxp.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>But due to the frequent cloud  coverage your best bet are radar images. A great search portal is <a href="https://vertex.daac.asf.alaska.edu/#" rel="nofollow noreferrer">VERTEX</a> from the Alaska Satellite Facility. I just made a search, and there is an image of today, but I liked more this one taken yesterday (January 31st 2018) by the satellite Sentinel-1A
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/MlwT3.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/MlwT3.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-31T23:22:25.833Z
Thank you for your answer. Certainly the average motion on long time scales can be deduced from careful, calibrated analysis of images obtained when the satellites pass over the poles. Visible light images require also that there be no cloud cover, so sampling will be further fragmented and interrupted. However, the mathematical models I've mentioned apply to a much finer timescale than could be obtained remotely, and it's testing of these models that I'm getting at with my question.
uhoh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-31T23:28:10.337Z
Also there's the question of little to no sunlight during the antarctic winter. Can the satellites image in thermal IR the way 24 hour weather satellites do,  or is there radar imaging, or can tracking only happen in daylight?
uhoh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-31T23:29:05.603Z
fyi [What is likely to have happened with these newly discovered antarctic volcanos below the ice?](https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/q/12075/6031) is still unanswered and may be of interest to you as well. Thanks!
uhoh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-31T23:31:35.670Z
@uhoh Most sea ice and icebers are tracked by radar satellites that penetrates the clouds. And they map the whole Earth pretty often, probably every day. Optical satellites with resolutions that will be fine for this problem (~250 m) also map the whole planet several times a day, like Terra, Aqua or Suomi. Satellites with 15 to 10m resolution map the planet every 8 days more or less, that would be fine too. So, I guess that would be plenty of control points for your model. But on the current location, clouds will render most of optical images useless, so you should look at radar data.
Camilo Rada
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-31T23:36:39.197Z
@uhoh I've added a link on the answer where you can easily check medium resolution imagery to track the position of A-68 every day if you want (and if the clouds allows you to see something).
Camilo Rada
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-31T23:47:49.653Z
OK, thank you for all the extra information! I'll take a look.
uhoh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-01T20:09:17.100Z
@uhoh Regarding images during the antarctic winter. As most of satellites are downlink limited (i.e. they can't download all the images they take), the nighttime images often get lower priority and there are much less scenes available. But I guess there will be still many scenes of A-68, satellites like ASTER, Landsat and Sentinel-2 they all have thermal infrared bands, but usually with half or a quarter of the resolution of the visual bands.
Camilo Rada
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-01T20:19:59.943Z
@uhoh Have a look of the addition I made to the answer regarding radar images.
Camilo Rada
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-01T23:07:46.150Z
Excellent! Radar nicely compliments optical; cf. [How can ICEYE-X1 capture 2D high resolution SAR images in “tens of seconds”?](https://space.stackexchange.com/q/24546/12102)
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-05T03:58:10.437Z
just asked: [What (if any) “in-situ instrumentation” is on the Brunt Ice Shelf that will detect its splitting and breaking away?](https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/q/16651/6031)
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-13T08:46:20.593Z
BBC: [A68: World's biggest iceberg is on the move](https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48920168) there's a short video made from satellite radar imaging.
uhoh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-31T20:25:17.373Z
2018-04-13T21:00:46.437Z
2018-04-13T21:00:46.437Z
Camilo Rada
<p><strong>update 2:</strong> FIRST images of A-68 iceberg <em>not taken from a satellite in space</em> but from the air are out. On this <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/fromthefield/2017/11/13/the-gravity-of-larsen-c/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">NASA Earth Observatory</a> web page are areal images from NASA's <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/index.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Operation IceBridge</a> taken from a P-3 aircraft. Will the placement of a GPS tracker/weather monitor or two, or even a seismometer be next?</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/dA7Jl.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/dA7Jl.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p><strong>above:</strong> The edge of A-68, the iceberg the calved from the Larsen C ice shelf. Photo by NASA/Nathan Kurtz.</p>
<p><strong>update 1 :</strong> According to the BBC Article <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41553687" rel="nofollow noreferrer">British mission to giant A-68 berg approved</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The British Antarctic Survey has won funding to visit the berg and its calving zone in February next year.</p>
<p>It will use the Royal Research Ship James Clark Ross.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This would present a potential opportunity to add some ground-truth telemetry to A-68. Details of it's short term and long term motion could then be monitored with higher resolution both in space and time than what can be obtained from periodic photographs from polar-orbiting satellites.</p>
<p>Video: <a href="https://youtu.be/OT-gW9sZn_8" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://youtu.be/OT-gW9sZn_8</a></p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/BkI35.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/BkI35.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<hr />
<p>Study of the movement of cold fresh water in the form of ice bergs is important for climate models. The <em>plain language summary</em> in the recent paper <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016JC012513/abstract;jsessionid=5B3A2466125017BA3B5AFBD62333E610.f04t01" rel="nofollow noreferrer">A simulation of small to giant Antarctic iceberg evolution: Differential impact on climatology estimates</a>; Rackow, T., C. Wesche, R. Timmermann, H. H. Hellmer, S. Juricke, and T. Jung (2017), J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 122, 3170–3190, doi:<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016JC012513" rel="nofollow noreferrer">10.1002/2016JC012513</a> says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Antarctic icebergs are large blocks of frozen fresh water that melt around the Antarctic continent while moving under the influence of winds, sea ice, and ocean currents. Small icebergs (2.2km) are mainly driven by winds and ocean currents, whereas giant icebergs
(&gt; 10 km) tend to ‘surf’ the tilted sea surface and are less sensitive to changes in the wind. The relative importance between melting at the iceberg’s base and mass loss at the side walls is also different for small and large icebergs.We present a computer simulation of Antarctic iceberg movement and melting that includes not only small icebergs, but at the same time also larger icebergs with side lengths of 10 km or more. The study highlights the necessity to account for larger icebergs in order to obtain an accurate depiction of the spatial distribution of iceberg meltwater, which, e.g., stabilizes and fertilizes the upper water column and thus supports phytoplankton growth. Future climate change simulations will benefit from the improved distribution, where the impact of iceberg melting is likely to increase due to increased calving from the Antarctic ice sheet.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The authors describe the use of the <a href="http://www.geosci-model-dev.net/7/663/2014/gmd-7-663-2014-discussion.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Finite Element Sea ice-Ocean Model</a>
(FESOM) to address the effect of the 3 dimensional ocean currents and wind pattern on the paths of icebergs and their addition of cold fresh water to the ocean.</p>
<p>At some point any predictive model will be compared against measured data, and traditionally satellite imaging provides the capability to track large numbers of icebergs with a wide range of sizes.</p>
<p>From the new BBC article <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40635883" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Drifting Antarctic iceberg A-68 opens up clear water</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A-68 should follow the highway up the eastern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, leading from the Weddell Sea towards the Atlantic.</p>
<p>&quot;It will most likely follow a northeasterly course, heading roughly for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands,&quot; Dr Rackow told BBC News. &quot;It will be very interesting to see whether the iceberg will move as expected, as a kind of 'reality-check' for the current models and our physical understanding.&quot;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The large size (~6,000 km^2) of the recently calved iceberg A-68 from the Larson-C ice shelf suggests it will will be relatively long lived, and so telemetry equipment placed on it is likely to collect data for a longer time than smaller ice bergs. I'm wondering if it might in fact be able as a sort of &quot;meteorological station&quot; of sorts, recording a variety of temperatures and currents and relaying the data via satellite.</p>
<p><strong>But my question</strong> is not if that is possible, but if it is likely to be done. Will A-68 get GPS beacons or more elaborate environmental telemetry in order to measure the local conditions? Having both the actual movement data together with the local environmental data may be of more value than satellite reconnaissance alone.</p>
<hr />
<p>More information available at this question and <a href="https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/a/9475/6031">answers</a>.</p>
<p>As noted in <a href="https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/9262/#comment21352_9262">this comment</a> and by <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40321674" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the BBC</a> and the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/07/12/one-of-the-biggest-icebergs-in-recorded-history-just-broke-loose-from-antarctica/?utm_term=.41811447b814" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Washington Post</a>, a very large chunk of the Larson C ice shelf in the Antarctic has calved and is now a free iceberg.</p>
<p><strong>below:</strong> Photo from <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40635883" rel="nofollow noreferrer">BBC</a>, source: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016JC012513" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Rackow et al.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/Mx8VA.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Mx8VA.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p><strong>below:</strong> Photo from <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40635883" rel="nofollow noreferrer">BBC</a>, source: Deimos Imaging an UrtheCast company</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/LcvtX.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/LcvtX.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-12T14:48:45.683Z
It should be named by this organization http://www.natice.noaa.gov/ and appear on this list: http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/icebergs/Iceberg_Tabular.pdf
DavePhD
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-18T07:05:32.040Z
@DavePhD indeed! A-68 is there now.
uhoh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-18T07:22:14.500Z
Might be better to put the new information as an answer rather than changing the question, though guessing you're still wondering if there's better information?  Either way, seems like a good answer to me.
JeopardyTempest
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-18T07:36:57.727Z
Indeed, I apologize.  It seemed in cursory reading that you were indicating the BBC site was giving such details (with the graphs of paths and such).  But indeed, guess that's just more info about the process in general.  Perhaps you could fold it into the question details better than the edits (since there's no answers yet, it seems best to just reformulate the question to include the new info as a central part of your question)... but otherwise, definitely my mistake, I'm sorry for the error.
JeopardyTempest
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-18T08:00:47.483Z
I'm not really sure this is on topic? You're not actually asking anything about earth science, just whether someone is going to stick a gps beacon on the iceberg, which is rather hard to know without asking them.
bon
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-18T08:06:31.060Z
@bon, I don't see it viciously different from https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/10850/freely-available-and-re-distributable-weather-observations-over-the-us.  Indeed, there's probably fewer who would know... but if there's a good place to find out (without being intimately involved with the glaciology community), it's probably here?  And even better, we'll all benefit from the answer.  Indeed, maybe it won't get an answer, but just uhoh himself is already finding more useful information as he goes, so seems good to me :-D
JeopardyTempest
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-18T09:19:23.143Z
@bon I've re-written after reading quickly through Rackow et al.
uhoh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-18T09:20:08.570Z
comment clean-up anyone?
uhoh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-15T01:09:46.347Z
@DavePhD new photo at top
uhoh
<glaciology><remote-sensing><antarctic><gnss><gps>
The giant 6,000 km$^2$ iceberg A-68; will ground-truth telemetry supplement satellite tracking data?
uhoh
# The giant 6,000 km$^2$ iceberg A-68; will ground-truth telemetry supplement satellite tracking data?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-07-12)

**update 2:** FIRST images of A-68 iceberg *not taken from a satellite in space* but from the air are out. On this [NASA Earth Observatory](https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/fromthefield/2017/11/13/the-gravity-of-larsen-c/) web page are areal images from NASA's [Operation IceBridge](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/index.html) taken from a P-3 aircraft. Will the placement of a GPS tracker/weather monitor or two, or even a seismometer be next?

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/dA7Jl.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/dA7Jl.jpg)

**above:** The edge of A-68, the iceberg the calved from the Larsen C ice shelf. Photo by NASA/Nathan Kurtz.

**update 1 :** According to the BBC Article [British mission to giant A-68 berg approved](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41553687):

> The British Antarctic Survey has won funding to visit the berg and its calving zone in February next year.
>
> It will use the Royal Research Ship James Clark Ross.

This would present a potential opportunity to add some ground-truth telemetry to A-68. Details of it's short term and long term motion could then be monitored with higher resolution both in space and time than what can be obtained from periodic photographs from polar-orbiting satellites.

Video: <https://youtu.be/OT-gW9sZn_8>

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/BkI35.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/BkI35.jpg)

---

Study of the movement of cold fresh water in the form of ice bergs is important for climate models. The *plain language summary* in the recent paper [A simulation of small to giant Antarctic iceberg evolution: Differential impact on climatology estimates](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016JC012513/abstract;jsessionid=5B3A2466125017BA3B5AFBD62333E610.f04t01); Rackow, T., C. Wesche, R. Timmermann, H. H. Hellmer, S. Juricke, and T. Jung (2017), J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 122, 3170–3190, doi:[10.1002/2016JC012513](http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016JC012513) says:

> Antarctic icebergs are large blocks of frozen fresh water that melt around the Antarctic continent while moving under the influence of winds, sea ice, and ocean currents. Small icebergs (2.2km) are mainly driven by winds and ocean currents, whereas giant icebergs
> (> 10 km) tend to ‘surf’ the tilted sea surface and are less sensitive to changes in the wind. The relative importance between melting at the iceberg’s base and mass loss at the side walls is also different for small and large icebergs.We present a computer simulation of Antarctic iceberg movement and melting that includes not only small icebergs, but at the same time also larger icebergs with side lengths of 10 km or more. The study highlights the necessity to account for larger icebergs in order to obtain an accurate depiction of the spatial distribution of iceberg meltwater, which, e.g., stabilizes and fertilizes the upper water column and thus supports phytoplankton growth. Future climate change simulations will benefit from the improved distribution, where the impact of iceberg melting is likely to increase due to increased calving from the Antarctic ice sheet.

The authors describe the use of the [Finite Element Sea ice-Ocean Model](http://www.geosci-model-dev.net/7/663/2014/gmd-7-663-2014-discussion.html)
(FESOM) to address the effect of the 3 dimensional ocean currents and wind pattern on the paths of icebergs and their addition of cold fresh water to the ocean.

At some point any predictive model will be compared against measured data, and traditionally satellite imaging provides the capability to track large numbers of icebergs with a wide range of sizes.

From the new BBC article [Drifting Antarctic iceberg A-68 opens up clear water](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40635883):

> A-68 should follow the highway up the eastern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, leading from the Weddell Sea towards the Atlantic.
>
> "It will most likely follow a northeasterly course, heading roughly for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands," Dr Rackow told BBC News. "It will be very interesting to see whether the iceberg will move as expected, as a kind of 'reality-check' for the current models and our physical understanding."

The large size (~6,000 km^2) of the recently calved iceberg A-68 from the Larson-C ice shelf suggests it will will be relatively long lived, and so telemetry equipment placed on it is likely to collect data for a longer time than smaller ice bergs. I'm wondering if it might in fact be able as a sort of "meteorological station" of sorts, recording a variety of temperatures and currents and relaying the data via satellite.

**But my question** is not if that is possible, but if it is likely to be done. Will A-68 get GPS beacons or more elaborate environmental telemetry in order to measure the local conditions? Having both the actual movement data together with the local environmental data may be of more value than satellite reconnaissance alone.

---

More information available at this question and [answers](https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/a/9475/6031).

As noted in [this comment](https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/9262/#comment21352_9262) and by [the BBC](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40321674) and the [Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/07/12/one-of-the-biggest-icebergs-in-recorded-history-just-broke-loose-from-antarctica/?utm_term=.41811447b814), a very large chunk of the Larson C ice shelf in the Antarctic has calved and is now a free iceberg.

**below:** Photo from [BBC](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40635883), source: [Rackow et al.](http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016JC012513).

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/Mx8VA.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/Mx8VA.jpg)

**below:** Photo from [BBC](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40635883), source: Deimos Imaging an UrtheCast company

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/LcvtX.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/LcvtX.jpg)

**Tags:** glaciology, remote-sensing, antarctic, gnss, gps

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: It should be named by this organization http://www.natice.noaa.gov/ and appear on this list: http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/icebergs/Iceberg_Tabular.pdf  
> **username_0**: @username_1 indeed! A-68 is there now.  
> **username_2**: Might be better to put the new information as an answer rather than changing the question, though guessing you're still wondering if there's better information?  Either way, seems like a good answer to me.  
> **username_2**: Indeed, I apologize.  It seemed in cursory reading that you were indicating the BBC site was giving such details (with the graphs of paths and such).  But indeed, guess that's just more info about the process in general.  Perhaps you could fold it into the question details better than the edits (since there's no answers yet, it seems best to just reformulate the question to include the new info as a central part of your question)... but otherwise, definitely my mistake, I'm sorry for the error.  
> **username_3**: I'm not really sure this is on topic? You're not actually asking anything about earth science, just whether someone is going to stick a gps beacon on the iceberg, which is rather hard to know without asking them.  
> **username_2**: @username_3, I don't see it viciously different from https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/10850/freely-available-and-re-distributable-weather-observations-over-the-us.  Indeed, there's probably fewer who would know... but if there's a good place to find out (without being intimately involved with the glaciology community), it's probably here?  And even better, we'll all benefit from the answer.  Indeed, maybe it won't get an answer, but just username_0 himself is already finding more useful information as he goes, so seems good to me :-D  
> **username_0**: @username_3 I've re-written after reading quickly through Rackow et al.  
> **username_0**: comment clean-up anyone?  
> **username_0**: @username_1 new photo at top  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2018-01-31. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

I can't imagine a moving object more suitable for remote sensing tracking than Iceberg A-68, with such slow displacement and huge size. So I don't think it will be particularly useful to install any instrumentation to track its position on site.
However, there would be plenty of other measurements that can be done, about mass balance, stress fields, etc.
I'm not aware of any plans to install such instrumentation. I've emailed Thomas Rackow (the author of the paper cited above), and he is not aware of any plans either, and confirmed that no instrumentation have been installed so far. But, that can easily change in the future.

He pointed me to an expedition happening next month to study the marine ecosystem that have been exposed by the departure of A-68, you can find out more in [this link](https://phys.org/news/2017-10-scientists-hidden-antarctic-ecosystem-giant.html).

By the way, a cool tool to track A-68 position is [Worldview](https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/?p=geographic&l=VIIRS_SNPP_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor(hidden),MODIS_Aqua_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor,MODIS_Terra_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor,Reference_Labels(hidden),Reference_Features(hidden),Coastlines&t=2018-01-16&z=3&v=-64.8367463639102,-70.07509944085103,-56.399246363910194,-65.97500178460103), this is an image taken on January 16th (there are images as fresh as today, but it have been cloudy sice then):
[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/uqtxp.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/uqtxp.png)

But due to the frequent cloud coverage your best bet are radar images. A great search portal is [VERTEX](https://vertex.daac.asf.alaska.edu/#) from the Alaska Satellite Facility. I just made a search, and there is an image of today, but I liked more this one taken yesterday (January 31st 2018) by the satellite Sentinel-1A
[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/MlwT3.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/MlwT3.png)

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thank you for your answer. Certainly the average motion on long time scales can be deduced from careful, calibrated analysis of images obtained when the satellites pass over the poles. Visible light images require also that there be no cloud cover, so sampling will be further fragmented and interrupted. However, the mathematical models I've mentioned apply to a much finer timescale than could be obtained remotely, and it's testing of these models that I'm getting at with my question.  
> **username_0**: Also there's the question of little to no sunlight during the antarctic winter. Can the satellites image in thermal IR the way 24 hour weather satellites do,  or is there radar imaging, or can tracking only happen in daylight?  
> **username_0**: fyi [What is likely to have happened with these newly discovered antarctic volcanos below the ice?](https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/q/12075/6031) is still unanswered and may be of interest to you as well. Thanks!  
> **username_4**: @username_0 Most sea ice and icebers are tracked by radar satellites that penetrates the clouds. And they map the whole Earth pretty often, probably every day. Optical satellites with resolutions that will be fine for this problem (~250 m) also map the whole planet several times a day, like Terra, Aqua or Suomi. Satellites with 15 to 10m resolution map the planet every 8 days more or less, that would be fine too. So, I guess that would be plenty of control points for your model. But on the current location, clouds will render most of optical images useless, so you should look at radar data.  
> **username_4**: @username_0 I've added a link on the answer where you can easily check medium resolution imagery to track the position of A-68 every day if you want (and if the clouds allows you to see something).  
> **username_0**: OK, thank you for all the extra information! I'll take a look.  
> **username_4**: @username_0 Regarding images during the antarctic winter. As most of satellites are downlink limited (i.e. they can't download all the images they take), the nighttime images often get lower priority and there are much less scenes available. But I guess there will be still many scenes of A-68, satellites like ASTER, Landsat and Sentinel-2 they all have thermal infrared bands, but usually with half or a quarter of the resolution of the visual bands.  
> **username_4**: @username_0 Have a look of the addition I made to the answer regarding radar images.  
> **username_0**: Excellent! Radar nicely compliments optical; cf. [How can ICEYE-X1 capture 2D high resolution SAR images in “tens of seconds”?](https://space.stackexchange.com/q/24546/12102)  
> **username_0**: just asked: [What (if any) “in-situ instrumentation” is on the Brunt Ice Shelf that will detect its splitting and breaking away?](https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/q/16651/6031)  
> **username_0**: BBC: [A68: World's biggest iceberg is on the move](https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48920168) there's a short video made from satellite radar imaging.  

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