The AMM began on September 9, 1997, with a 180-degree rotation of RADARSAT to allow the satellite to begin taking radar images of the entire Antarctica, an uncharted region the size of Canada and Alaska combined that had never been fully mapped by high-resolution radar remote-sensing technology. Following a 14-day commissioning stage, RADARSAT took more than 8,000 images of Antarctica over an 18-day period. The entire mission was completed almost five days ahead of schedule, and successfully acquired 2,000 images more than initially proposed.
Scientists at the Byrd Polar Research Centre are now compiling the images to complete a high-resolution digital mosaic of the ice sheet, and exposed portions of the continent will help us to better understand why changes in the ice sheet occur, providing more insight into the effects of human activity and global warming on the rapid retreat of large portions of the ice shelves in the Antarctic Peninsula. In addition, many of the additional 2000 images collected at the end of AMM form interferometric pairs when matched with images collected over the same terrain 24 days earlier, when the satellite was in the same location. Analysis of this interferometric data set will provide detailed estimates of the ice topography and ice motion in central parts of the ice sheet, where scarcely any other measurements have been made. This information will significantly enhance the first detailed map of surface features over all of Antarctica that the AMM will provide.
Partners in the mission included the CSA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Byrd Polar Research Centre of Ohio State University (OSU), Alaskan SAR Facility (ASF), VEXCEL Corporation, Boulder, Colorado, Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS) and RADARSAT International (RSI).
NASA's principal involvement in RADARSAT is part of the agency's Mission to Planet Earth enterprise, a long-term coordinated research program to study the Earth's land, oceans, air, ice, and life as a total system.
Launched in November 1995, RADARSAT is owned and operated by the CSA in Saint-Hubert, Quebec. Canada's remote sensing expertise is housed in the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing, of Natural Resources Canada, with RADARSAT imagery marketed and distributed by RADARSAT International, a Canadian company located in Richmond, British Columbia. The satellite was designed and built in Canada by a team of 30 companies from across the country, led by prime contractor Spar Aerospace.
The mosaic being released today is available at ftp://iceberg.mps.ohio-state.edu and pub/mosaic.tif and readme.txt. Further images from the Antarctic Mapping Mission are also available on the CSA Web Site at http://radarsat.space.gc.ca.
CONTACT: Canadian Space Agency, Isabelle Hudon, 514/926-4355, URL at http://www.space.gc.ca, or NASA/Doug Isbell, 202/358-1753, URL at http://www.nasa.hq.gov