This award supports NASA's assistance in development a Landsat-7 map of Antarctica for the International Polar Year. Landsat imagery is of great utility to Antarctic researchers and the US Antarctic Program in general, for example in selecting aircraft landing sites, searching for meteorites, and monitoring environmental change. Landsat-7 images are currently of limited utility to the Antarctic science community due to the complexity of the images and the overwhelming volume, more than 15,000. This award supports NASA to select the best subset of images for construction of a seamless map mosaic covering most of Antarctica. Once these images are selected, the USGS and NASA will work together with NSF to develop a new Antarctic map and make the data easily accessible for the start of the International Polar Year.
