Global climate change is a phenomenon that seriously affects the balance of a wide variety of ecosystems and is the intense focus of climate scientists and environmental researchers. In this context, periodic monitoring of glacier areas in terms of a better understanding of atmosphere-ocean interactions; thus, predicting the effects of climate change and planning against future threats by evaluating environmental impacts is an important research area. Especially the polar regions, where the melting of glaciers and the rise of sea levels are visibly observed, are important for climate scientists in providing crucial observations to understand and predict global climate change. In this study, within the scope of the international bilateral cooperation project carried out in cooperation with Istanbul Technical University (ITU) and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) (Project No: 121N033), the spatial changes in snow/glacier areas obtained from UAV Photogrammetry products generated during the 6th and 7th Antarctic National Science Expeditions. Snow/glacier areas were segmented with the K-Net deep learning approach which has been previously tested for accuracy and provides glacier mapping with accuracy metrics over 99%, on the high spatial resolution orthophotos produced during the two periods. The snow/glacier areas difference between the two periods were calculated and compared and water bodies which are critical areas, were specifically examined. The result of this comparison shows that the glacier area decreased by approximately 11% in just 1 year. However, to better understand these changes in snow/glacier areas, the region needs to be observed closely for longer time periods. It is thought that future studies will contribute to efforts to manage global environmental impacts and cope with climate change by focusing on monitoring and better understanding changes in these critical regions.

The Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) plays a major role in the global climate, providing a natural laboratory to study the processes that interlink the cryosphere, solid Earth, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. Through its ongoing mass loss, the AIS currently contributes to global-mean sea-level rise at a rate of 0.4 mm/a. However, its impact on and feedback with climate and the details associated with sea-level changes are still poorly understood. To generate more reliable projections for the future, there is an urgent need to substantially improve our knowledge of the solid-Earth properties and subsequent response to ice-mass variations in space and time. This issue has been identified as a key question by the international community, strongly supported by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). We review how state-of-the-art Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and seismic networks in Antarctica, in combination with further ground-based, airborne and satellite-based geophysical measurements, have been used to significantly advance our understanding of solid-Earth processes and their impact on the cryosphere. Based on these recent achievements, a vision is articulated for science-driven, multidisciplinary geophysical observations and corresponding technological developments. Future research activities should be coordinated to answer the most urgent science questions. For example, how can we consistently test and model, respectively, a realistic mantle rheology, including lateral inhomogeneities and transient relaxation, together with AIS mass changes on all time scales since the last glacial maximum, including Holocene retreat and re-advance? What processes and boundary conditions should coupled ice-sheet / gravity-rotation-deformation models include in order to reflect realistically the complex interaction between the solid Earth, ice sheet and ocean? Long-term observations and improved modelling must be combined to develop precise and reliable projections for Antarctica’s future mass change and associated contribution to sea-level change at both regional and global scales.

Atmospheric water vapor plays a critical role in the climate system, governing energy balance, climate variability and precipitation processes. Accurate monitoring of precipitable water vapor (PWV) is therefore essential for both meteorological and climate-related studies. The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) provides an effective and continuous tool for PWV estimation through the calculation of zenith tropospheric wet delay (ZWD). Given the scarcity of continuous ground-based observations in Antarctica, the TUR1 and TUR2 permanent GNSS stations, established on Horseshoe Island during the Turkish Antarctic Expedition-4 (TAE-4) under the TÜBİTAK Polar Research Project (No. 118Y322), provide a valuable infrastructure for continuous atmospheric water vapor monitoring, which constitutes the primary contribution of this study. The conversion of ZWD to PWV requires an accurate estimation of the weighted mean temperature (Tm), which is typically derived from empirical models. However, globally applied Tm models may not adequately represent the regional atmospheric variability of high-latitude environments, where the vertical atmospheric structure and water vapor distribution differ substantially from mid-latitude conditions. This limitation is especially pronounced in Antarctica, which serves as a natural laboratory for climate change research while remaining one of the most observationally constrained regions on Earth due to sparse meteorological infrastructure and logistical challenges. In this study, a locally derived Tm parameterization (HRS) was obtained from radiosonde profiles at near sea-level stations within the 66°S–70°S latitude belt and evaluated against both the existing regional Antarctic Tm model (ANT) and the globally applied GPT2, GPT3 and Bevis models, using radiosonde observations as an independent reference. The HRS parameterization reproduced the radiosonde-derived Tm values with an RMSE of 2.90 K, clearly outperforming the global models (4.20–4.51 K) and showing close agreement with the existing regional Antarctic Tm model (r = 0.987), independently confirming the transferability of the regional approach to the Horseshoe Island region. The GNSS-derived PWV based on the regional Tm parameterization was then evaluated against ERA5 reanalysis data as an independent reference. The estimates showed strong agreement, with a correlation of 0.95, an RMSE of 1.65 mm and a mean bias of +1.22 mm, the seasonal agreement being strongest in austral summer (RMSE ≈ 1.24 mm) and weakest in austral winter (RMSE ≈ 1.92 mm), consistent with the lower water vapor content and stronger surface temperature inversions that characterize the cold season. The close agreement between the two independent TUR1 and TUR2 stations further supports the repeatability of GNSS-based PWV retrieval under coastal Antarctic conditions, highlighting the observational value of these stations for atmospheric water vapor monitoring in Antarctica, where continuous observations remain limited.

The aim of this study was to make a comparative analysis of the state of the snow surface in East and West Antarctica, including changes in snow cover characteristics during the past two decades. To do so, we used the ASAR (Antarctic Snow Albedo Retriever) algorithm, which processes satellite data and retrieves an effective snow grain size and a fraction of rocks not covered by snow, to process the MODIS data throughout the entire period of its operation (up to now). We have chosen several test areas (approximately 30 × 30 km²) to study the state of the snow cover on Enderby Land (East Antarctica), on the coast of the Ross Sea (the Transantarctic Mountains), and the Antarctic Peninsula (West Antarctica). As a result, we have plotted and analyzed the time series of the effective snow grain size and rock fraction in these areas across the last 20 years. We have found weak negative trends for the effective grain size on the coast of Enderby Land and the Ross Sea. The rock fraction does not demonstrate any trend. The study of snow cover trends on a continental scale can contribute to the investigation of environmental changes in Antarctica.

Küresel iklim değişikliği süreçlerinin daha iyi anlaşılabilmesi ve insanlığın gelecekteki süreçlere uyum sağlayabilmesi açısından buzul alanlardaki değişikliklerin izlenmesi önem taşımaktadır. Buzul değişimlerinin takibi için kullanılan yöntemlerden birisi olan insansız hava aracı (İHA) fotogrametrisi ile kriyosferin ve buzul değişikliklerinin yüksek konumsal doğrulukla izlenebilmesi için küresel konum belirleme sistemlerine (Global Navigation Satellite System-GNSS) dayanan konum belirleme yöntemleri kullanılmaktadır. Bu çalışmada Antarktika'da, Türk Bilimsel Araştırma Kampı'na ev sahipliği yapan Horseshoe Adası'nda, buzul takibi amacıyla belirlenen bir test alanında kinematik ölçme sonrası değerlendirme (Post Processing Kinematic-PPK) yöntemi kullanılarak üretilen fotogrametrik ürünlerin konumsal doğruluğu araştırılmıştır. Hava fotoğraflarından hareket ile nesne oluşturma (Structure from Motion-SfM) yöntemine dayanarak üretilen ortofoto ve sayısal yükseklik modelinin (SYM) konum doğruluğu, arazide klasik gerçek zamanlı kinematik (Real Time Kinematic-RTK) konum belirleme yöntemiyle konumları belirlenmiş yer kontrol noktaları kullanılarak elde edilmiştir. Yatay ve düşey koordinatlar için hesaplanan karesel ortalama hata değerleri sırasıyla 1.05 cm, 0.52 cm ve 11.33 cm’dir.