BBC:
Scientists have produced what they say is the first complete
map of how the ice moves across Antarctica, writes Jonathan
Amos for the BBC. Published
online
by
Science, the map was assembled from billions of radar
data points collected between 1996 and 2009 by satellites
belonging to Europe, Canada, and Japan. "We designed
acquisition plans, switching on and off the satellites, in all
the right desired geographic locations so we could fill the
gaps we didn't have data in before," said Mark Drinkwater from
the European Space Agency. "That was a mammoth effort." Ice
movement is detected using a technique called interferometric
synthetic aperture radar, or InSAR, which compares images from
repeat passes over the same location. The map work, which was
completed as part of the 2007-08 International Polar Year,
should contribute to our understanding of how Antarctica might
evolve in the warmer world being forecast by
climatologists.
