Science

New High-Res, Browsable Antarctic Photo Map From NASA

NASA has published a new satellite-based, mosaic photographic map of Antarctica that gives the clearest picture yet into the continent’s frozen expanses. Piecing together about 1100 images, the mosaic shows the Antarctic continent in true-color, high-resolution, largely seamless detail, with only the only gap at the central South Pole region, NASA officials said.

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NASA has published a new satellite-based, mosaic photographic map of Antarctica that gives the clearest picture yet into the continent's frozen expanses.

Piecing together about 1100 images, the mosaic shows the Antarctic continent in true-color, high-resolution, largely seamless detail, with only the only gap at the central South Pole region, NASA officials said.

The idea is to provide a tool for researchers planning expeditions, or who are watching as features change on a landscape that is still poorly known. Sez Robert Bindschadler, chief scientist of the Hydrospheric and
Biospheric Sciences Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center:
Antarctmosaic

"This innovation is like watching high-definition TV in living color versus watching the picture on a grainy black-and-white television.
These scenes don't just give us a snapshot, they provide a time-lapse historical record of how Antarctica has changed and will enable us to continue to watch changes unfold."

The pictures are largely taken by the Landsat 7 satellite, mostly between 1999 and 2001, NASA officials said.

A browsable version of the map, with the ability to scroll in or out, can be found here.

Breakthrough Map of Antarctica Lays Ground for New Discoveries [NASA press release]

(Image: One: A single picture from the Landsat satellite, used in the mosaic. Two: A map illustrating how the mosaic photos are distributed across the Antarctic landmass. Credit: NASA)