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Posted on 9 Sep 2018
"Until now, we had a better map of Mars than that of Antarctica. Now, it's the best-mapped continent, "said Ian Howat, professor of earth sciences and director of the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at Ohio State University. "If you are someone who needs glasses to see, it's a bit like being almost blind and putting on glasses for the first time and seeing 20/20."
This new high-resolution topographic map of the frozen continent of the Earth will help researchers better track changes on the ice as the planet warms up. The new map has a resolution of 2 to 8 meters, compared to 1,000 meters, which was typical of previous maps.
Previous maps of the continent had a resolution similar to seeing all of Central Park from a satellite, writes Shannon Stirone in the newspaper. New York Times. With this new data, it is now possible to see the size of a car and even reduce it in some areas. The data is so complete that scientists now know the height of each element of the continent a few feet.
Howat is the leader of the mapping project, called the Antarctic Reference Elevation Model (REMA). The map and the images and associated data will change the science in Antarctica, said Howat, especially during its update.
"At this resolution you can see almost everything. We can actually see variations in the snow in some places. We will be able to measure the evolution of the surface of the continent over time, "he said.
It is a large river of ice flowing between two mountains called Glacier south of Dry Valley. Images like these will be free and accessible to scientists for their research. (National Geospatial Intelligence Agency)
"We will see changes in the snow cover, changes in the ice movement, we will be able to monitor the flow of the river, floods and volcanoes. We will be able to see the thinning of the glaciers. "
How is the map detailed? Well, the total file size is greater than 150 terabytes, or 150,000 gigabytes. The map is sufficiently precise and precise to allow scientific teams to plan trips to the dangerous lands of the continent. "It changes the threshold of what you can do in the comfort of your office compared to what you have to do in the field," he said.
The project began with images taken from a constellation of polar-orbiting satellites that have traveled an average of 10 times over the Antarctic areas to take pictures.
In addition to the images, the REMA project needed software developed by Howat and Mr. J. Noh from the Byrd Center that processed data on high performance supercomputers.
The software has automated the assembly of pairs of high resolution satellite images that overlap. "We had to start from scratch to build that. The software had to filter the data, process it, and turn it into a refined product for the broader scientific community, "said Howat.
Other collaborators included the Polar Geospatial Center at the University of Minnesota and the University of Illinois, which provided the Blue Waters supercomputer that processed the images.
Ohio State also participated in a complementary project, the Arctic Digital Elevation Model, which was launched earlier this year.
The Daily Galaxy via Ohio State University and the New York Times
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