A team of cartographers and researchers from the University of Minnesota and the Ohio State University has produced a high-resolution terrain map of Antarctica (pdf and tif files).
The Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica shows the continent in stunning detail. Image credit: National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
The new map covers about 5.4 million sq. miles (14 million km2), which is about 50% larger than the lower 48 states of the U.S.
“Considering that Antarctica is the highest, driest, and one of the most remote places on Earth, we now have an incredible topographic model to measure against in the future,” said team member Dr. Paul Morin, Directror of the Polar Geospatial Center at the University of Minnesota.
Called the Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA), the map has a resolution of 26 feet (8 m).
This means that researchers now know the height of every mountain and all the ice in all of Antarctica within a few feet.
In the past, the most accurate topographical map was within about 0.6 miles (1 km) in elevation.
“Up until now, we’ve had a better map of Mars than we’ve had of Antarctica. Now it is the best-mapped continent on Earth,” added Professor Ian Howat, Director of the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at the Ohio State University.
The REMA map provides unprecedented detail that will help scientists measure the impact of climate change over time.
“Now we’ll be able to see changes in melting and deposition of ice better than ever before.” Dr. Morin said.
“That will help us understand the impact of climate change and sea level rise. We’ll be able to see it right before our eyes.”
The project began with images taken from a constellation of polar-orbiting satellites about 250-435 miles (400-700 km) in space.
These satellites have been collecting imagery for more than six years to get collect enough imagery for this project.
The team developed the software to process the images and put the maps together over the last five years with computer processing help from the Blue Waters supercomputer.
The scientists processed millions of images to create the high-resolution topographic map.
“This is just the first step. We never dreamed we’d be able to process this volume of data with such accuracy,” Dr. Morin said.
“Now, we’ll now be able to repeat this process one and a half times every year so we can see the change over time.”
“For us this is magic right now. We’ll be able to answer some very important scientific questions with this data. This was high-risk, high-reward science that paid off.”
