RADARSAT-2 Antarctica Mosaics and Tiles Documentation, 2008

• Main Authors: MacDonald, Dettwiler, Gordon Rigby, MDA Geospatial Services, Katy Farness, Byrd Polar Research Center, Ken Jezek, Byrd Polar Research Center, Lesley Gamble, MDA GSI Production, Philippe Rolland, MDA GSI Mission Planning, Yves Crevier, Canadian Space Agency
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Cryospheric Information Network 2015
• Subjects: Antarctic; Climate; Climatic models; Ice; Mapping; RADARSAT; Canadian Cryospheric Information Network; South Pole; Byrd; Antarc*; Antarctica; Byrd Polar Research; Byrd Polar Research Center; International Polar Year; IPY; South pole
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.21963/12523; https://www.polardata.ca/pdcsearch/?doi_id=12523

Technical information on the RADARSAT-2 Antarctic Mapping Initiative, October to December 2008, is as follows: Beam Modes: RADARSAT-2 Wide 2 Dual Polarization and RADARSAT-2 Extended High 4 mode. Polarizations: HH and HV. File format: Geotiff, with location provided by GPS onboard the satellite (accuracy better than 10 meters). Individual tile products are at 25 meter resolution, 16-bit depth, in the same extent and naming convention as the original RAMP (RADARSAT Antarctic Mapping Project) tiles of 1997, composed of imagery from 370 swaths and 3,150 individual scenes. Mosaics are block-averaged from the tile products and resampled at 100, 200, 400, and 800 meter resolutions, in 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit depth backscatter coefficient in dB. To access the images, choose the RADARSAT-2 Mosaics of Antarctica Geospatial Search in the Polar Data Catalogue. : Purpose: The RADARSAT-2 Antarctic Mapping Initiative was undertaken to produce a continental mosaic consistent with the 1997 RADARSAT-1 Antarctic Mapping Mission. The resulting mosaics and individual tiles, produced in collaboration with the Byrd Polar Research Center, cover all the way to the South Pole, permitted by the left-looking capabilities of the RADARSAT-2. This is only the second time pole-to-coast mosaic SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) coverage has been achieved, the first time having been the RADARSAT-1 Antarctic Mapping Mission in 1997. In addition to enhancing the achievements of previous RADARSAT-1 Antarctic missions, the intent of this mission was to facilitate change analysis through space-borne observation of ice sheets. Such data are important for generation of global climate products, including models. The mission was the result of international collaboration associated with the International Polar Year (IPY), incorporating input from the scientific community, with the goal of making science products available for free. This dataset is a Canadian Space Agency contribution to IPY. Interferometric coverage was also obtained for ice velocity mapping over the interior of Antarctica but is not available in the PDC. : Summary: Not Applicable