NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced today the completion of the imaging required to construct the first high resolution map of the entire Antarctic continent. The final data was acquired on Oct. 14, 1997, using the CSA’s Radarsat satellite.

"This milestone provides a significant amount of data that will help scientists determine what's happening to an important part of the Earth's cryosphere, namely the Antarctic, including understanding the impact of any Antarctic changes on our global climate change," said Dr. Robert Price, Director, Mission to Planet Earth Program Office, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Scientists say that with Antarctica being the only continent on Earth not properly mapped, they are not sure whether this massive ice sheet is growing larger or smaller. The newly acquired data from Radarsat’s Antarctic Mapping Mission are already helping the scientific community answer this question.

"The invaluable radar image of Earth’s geographic South Pole from Radarsat shows an unexpectedly complex surface structure over what was previously believed to be the nearly featureless East Antarctic Ice Sheet," said Dr. Kenneth Jezek, Director of the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio) and the lead scientist for the project.

"The images reveal that large sections of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet are characterized by a heavily textured surface probably reflecting the bedrock topography over which the ice sheet is flowing. Of particular interest are what appear to be newly discovered flow features that extend for hundreds of kilometers upstream of the Recovery Glacier which drains into the Ronne Ice Shelf. These features are similar to the West Antarctic Ice Streams - which are also clearly visible in the imagery."

"The results from this one satellite -- RADARSAT -- over a period of approximately four weeks have been remarkable," said Rolf Mamen, Director General of Space Operations at the CSA. "The last satellite map of Antarctica not only failed to provide an entire picture of the region, but required images acquired from thirteen different satellites and took over six years (1980-1987) to complete."

With the conclusion of the mapping portion of the mission, the next step is for the science team members is to process the collection of over 8,000 images at NASA’s Alaska Synthetic Aperture Radar Facility at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. With the processing completed, scientists at the Byrd Polar Research Center must "stitch" together the images and align the edges to make the map the complete Antarctic map - a process will take approximately one year to complete.

This near real time comprehensive snapshot view of the Antarctic continent was made possible by rotating the Canadian RADARSAT satellite 180 degrees from its normal field of view and by making use of its unique viewing steering capability. Successfully completing its rotation on September 11, 1997, the satellite is scheduled to return to its standard configuration on Nov. 3, 1997.

This image and several others, as well as further information on the Radarsat mission, are available on the Internet at the following URL, under the link to the Antarctic Mapping Mission:

http://radarsat.space.gc.ca

Launched in November 1995, RADARSAT, Canada’s first Earth Observation satellite, is owned and operated by the CSA in St. Hubert, Quebec. Canada’s remote sensing expertise is housed in the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing of Natural Resources Canada, with imagery marketed and distributed by RADARSAT International Inc., a private consortium 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.

NASA’s 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.

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Note to editors and producers: A NASA-TV videofile containing interviews with Dr. Ken Jezek will air today at 12 noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., and 9 p.m., EDT. NASA-TV is broadcast on GE-2, transponder 9C (C-band) at 85 degrees west longitude, vertical polarization with a frequency of 3880 Mhz, and audio of 6.8 Mhz. More information on NASA-TV can be found at the following Internet address:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/