Additional Antarctic Acquisition Opportunities

by Michelle Harbin, ASF User Services

Under the auspices of the RADARSAT Antarctic Mapping Project (RAMP), multiple mapping missions of Antarctica, using RADARSAT-1, have been accomplished. The first Antarctic Mapping Mission (AMM) occurred in 1997 and achieved complete radar coverage of the entire Antarctic continent.

The Modified Antarctic Mapping Mission (MAMM) occurred in 2000 and was dedicated to acquiring repeat-pass data for interferometric analysis of areas of Antarctica from 80-degrees south to the coast.

A third limited mapping mission, MiniMAMM, was performed during the austral spring of 2004. The objectives of this limited mission were to measure velocities of fast glaciers and glaciers known to be changing; remeasure selected ice margin locations; and investigate changes in the surface morphology of Antarctic Peninsula ice shelves and other coastal regions.

The acquisition plan of the MiniMAMM collection replicated MAMM for selected areas. Repeat-pass data along the same orbits as MAMM were acquired for three RADARSAT-1 cycles from September to December 2004. Data were acquired using the Fine 1; the Standard 1, 2, and 6; and the Extended Low beam modes in both ascending and descending orbits. The areas selected for data acquisition, as shown in the figure to the left, included the Antarctic Peninsula (A), Pine Island Glacier (B), Filchner Ice Streams (C), and David Glacier (D). ASF is producing the initial processed MiniMAMM data and distributing it to the Byrd Polar Research Center at The Ohio State University for further processing.

Planned data products from the MiniMAMM data set will include calibrated mosaics, coherence maps, velocity maps and coastline estimates.

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