In the context of global warming,the calving events of Antarctic ice shelves are becoming more and more frequent.The icebergs calved from ice shelves are an active component of Antarctic ice sheet-ice shelf-ocean system,while the drifting characteristics and temporal-spatial distribution of icebergs are very important in Antarctic ocean currents,ecology and hydrology.To better understand the underlying relationship between Antarctic icebergs and global climate change,it is essential to investigate the icebergs' drifting characteristics,mass loss due to calving and melting,icebergs distribution,and the interaction between icebergs and the ocean.Based on the object-oriented multiscale image segmentation algorithm of Easy Interpretation software,a total of 32 267 Antarctic icebergs in coastal waters with area larger than 0.06 km² were extracted from 63 ENVISAT ASAR images acquired in August 2006.The spatial distribution characteristics of icebergs were also analyzed,and it is found that small-sized icebergs play an important role in freshwater flux into the Southern Ocean.