Distribution of landfast, drift and glacier ice in Hornsund, Svalbard

Swirad, Zuzanna M.; Johansson, A. Malin; Malnes, Eirik

doi:10.5194/tc-20-113-2026

Articles | Volume 20, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-113-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-113-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 1

Research article

|

08 Jan 2026

Research article |

| 08 Jan 2026

Distribution of landfast, drift and glacier ice in Hornsund, Svalbard

Zuzanna M. Swirad, A. Malin Johansson, and Eirik Malnes

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-113-2026-supplement

Data sets

Ice distribution in Hornsund fjord, Svalbard from Sentinel-1A/B (2014-2023) Z. M. Swirad et al. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.963167

Ice distribution in Hornsund fjord, Svalbard from RADARSAT-2 (2012-2016) Z. M. Swirad et al. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.969031

Ice type maps for Hornsund, Svalbard, 1.2012-6.2023 (v1.0) Z. M. Swirad https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15647080

Short summary

Drift, landfast and glacier ice are present in fjords and it is important to map them separately. We developed a method to split fjord ice into different types based on ice location, persistence in time and size. We used this method for Hornsund fjord, home to the Polish Polar Station, for an 11.5-year period. We observed that most of the ice is drift ice. The maps produced by this study can be used to look at water circulation, coastal erosion and habitat conditions.