U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Geological Survey
For release: March 7, 2007
Contact: Doug Binnie, 605-594-6160,
binnie@xxxxxxxx
Jan Nelson, 605-594-6173, jsnelson@xxxxxxxx
USGS Collaborates on Unique,
Comprehensive View of Antarctica
The U. S. Geological Survey (USGS)
in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is developing a unique and
versatile map of Antarctica using satellite imagery. 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. The
National Science Foundation is funding the LIMA project.
The scenes being used to create
the new mosaic map of Antarctica were drawn from more than 8,000 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); 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
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,
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 system,
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 2-year event that runs from March 2007 to March 2009. Focused on both
the Arctic and Antarctic, IPY is a multinational scientific undertaking,
one that involves coordinated expeditions, observations and analyses and
that marks the beginning of a sustained effort to understand large-scale
environmental change in the Earth's polar regions.
The USGS manages the Landsat Program,
which was began in 1972 with the launch of the first Landsat satellite.
Over the past 35 years, sensors aboard Landsat satellites have captured
millions of digital images of the Earth’s land masses and coastal regions
that are used by researchers worldwide to study global change, natural
disasters and other aspects of the Earth’s terrestrial environment.
For more information about the
Landsat Program, visit http://landsat.usgs.gov/
USGS provides science for a changing
world. For more information, visit www.usgs.gov.
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Karen Wood
Public Affairs Specialist
U.S. Geological Survey, Office of Communications
703-648-4447
Fax: 703-648-4466
Email: kwood@xxxxxxxx
