Scientists to develop high-resolution map of Antarctica

Washington, Mar 13 (UNI) Scientists are developing a ''unique and versatile'' map of Antarctica, using satellite imagery.

It is a joint project of the US Geological Survey (USGS), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

The Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica or LIMA combines nearly 1100 hand-selected Landsat satellite scenes that are being digitally woven together to create a single, seamless, cloud-free image of the Antarctic continent, the most detailed color representation of this vast and frozen landmass ever produced, says a NASA-USGS statement.

It says the scenes being used to create the new mosaic map of Antarctica were drawn from more than 8,000 scenes collected by Landsat 7's Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) sensor from 1999 through 2006.

The digital weaving, or mosaicking, of Landsat scenes for most of the continent is being performed at the USGS Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS), whereas BAS researchers are generating the Antarctic Peninsula region of the map.

While Landsat scenes make up most of the map's digital dataset, some images captured by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments carried aboard NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites, and possibly a small amount of radar data, will be used to fill in the part of the Antarctic continent surrounding the geographic South Pole not ''seen'' by Landsat 7 as it circles the Earth in its near-polar orbit.

In conjunction with the new mosaic, the statement points out, researchers with the LIMA project are creating an Antarctic Web portal and online map which will be available in the near future.

From this portal, anyone from scientists and educators to members of the general public will be able to download the mosaic in sections, as well as any of the individual Landsat scenes used to create it. The mosaic will be available in four versions-natural color, false color, panchromatic and pan-sharpened-that are each designed to satisfy a different scientific and visual need.

The LIMA online map viewer will display the mosaic and ancillary geographic features, such as place names.

''The optical remote sensing characteristics of the Landsat sensor, and other satellite observations, provide a unique, never-before-seen view of this critical continent of the Earth, and the availability of the final data set via Internet-based tools will represent a tremendous scientific asset for the global Earth science community,'' said R J Thompson, Director of EROS.

LIMA is one of several hundred projects funded in conjunction with the International Polar Year (IPY), a two-year event that runs from March 2007 to March 2009.

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