Tracking emperor penguins from space
For the first time, geographers from Durham University have used freely available satellite radar images to track emperor penguins through the polar winter—giving a year-round view of their movements. Monitoring the endangered birds through Antarctica's dark months is important because this is a key stage in their breeding cycle. Emperor penguins rely on stable sea ice attached to the coastline…
Geographers at Durham University have employed freely accessible satellite radar images to monitor emperor penguins throughout the polar winter, offering continuous insight into their movements. This is crucial as emperor penguins rely on stable sea ice attached to the coast for roughly nine months each year to breed and raise their chicks.
The study, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, reveals that emperor penguins are at risk due to climate change, with their population expected to decline sharply this century because of diminishing Antarctic sea ice. Understanding their winter behavior can aid conservation efforts. The radar imagery also captured trails of penguin guano during late summer, corroborated by subsequent optical imagery to further elucidate the birds' movements.
Dr. Grant Macdonald from Durham University's Department of Geography explained that while emperor penguins inhabit one of the most challenging environments on Earth, satellite radar imaging proves to be a valuable tool for understanding their behavior during a critical breeding period, especially in the challenging winter months when it experiences continuous darkness.
Utilizing the European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) mission, the researchers tracked emperor penguin colonies between 2017 and 2024. Penguins, typically about four feet (1.2 meters) tall, contrasted distinctly against the flat winter sea ice, enabling the team to monitor their movements all year round, even during the dark winter months.
By integrating satellite radar imagery with medium-resolution summer optical imagery sourced from ESA's Sentinel-2 and NASA's Landsat 8 satellites, the research team focused on tracking the movements of colonies at Atka Bay, Coulman Island, and Cape Washington in Antarctica. This multi-modal approach allowed the scientists to not only observe the penguins' movements but also detect late-summer guano trails, which provided additional data points for studying the birds' breeding habitat as coastal sea ice continues to decline.
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