Researchers from four scientific organisations have created a new map of Antarctica that represents a revolution in satellite imaging and has been likened to the jump from black and white to high-definition colour television pictures.

The team, comprising scientists from NASA, the US Geological Survey, the National Science Foundation and the British Antarctic Survey, pieced together more than 1,000 satellite images of Antarctica taken over a period of three years by one of the most technologically advanced NASA satellites, Landsat 7, which can capture features as small as half a basketball court, despite orbiting the Earth at an altitude of around 700 kilometres.

The resolution of the new map, known as the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica, is ten times better than the previous best images available and provides new opportunities for scientific research. And as the images are available online (at lima.usgs.gov), they will enable the public to become much more familiar with Antarctica.

‘The resolution sensitivity of the Landsat sensor is well beyond that of even the most state-of-the-art digital camera,’ said Robert Bindschadler, chief scientist at the hydrospheric and biospheric sciences laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. ‘It’s able to record subtle variations in the ice sheet’s surface that tell us more about ice sheet features, the flow of the ice sheet and changes in the ice sheet’s surface.’


February 2008