The plot in Fig. 4 indicating an open polynya during the July and September 2011 periods was obtained using X-SAR (COSMO-SkyMed HugeRegion), C-SAR (Envisat WSM) and IST (MODIS) scenes. The open polynya area includes the openings at the tip of the Drygalski Ice Tongue located at the southern end of the bay. The high resolution scenes (COSMO-SkyMed Himage) were not used here because they covered only a portion of the bay. Two major openings of around 2000 km2 occurred during the July period (from 19 to 24 and after 25, the second partially captured) and one of about 2500 km2 from 14 to 16 of September. This plot was used as reference during the analysis of the data illustrated in 3 and 4.