RADARSAT 1 synthetic aperture radar observations of Antarctica: Modified Antarctic Mapping Mission, 2000

Abstract

The RADARSAT 1 Antarctic Mapping Project (RAMP) is a collaboration between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency to map Antarctica using synthetic aperture radar (SAR). RAMP comprises two distinct mapping missions. The first Antarctic Mapping Mission was successfully completed in October 1997. Data from the acquisition phase of the 1997 campaign have been used to achieve the primary goal of producing the first high‐resolution SAR image map of the entire Antarctic continent. The Modified Antarctic Mapping Mission (MAMM) occurred during the fall of 2000. The acquisition strategy concentrated on collecting highest‐resolution RADARSAT 1 data of Antarctica's fast glaciers for change detection, feature tracking estimates of surface velocity, and interferometric analysis of velocity and coherence over the entire viewable region, which extends north of 80.1°S latitude. This paper reviews the MAMM project and describes the techniques to be used in processing the data. An example of data acquired over the Drygalski ice tongue, Antarctica illustrates how MAMM data will further benefit investigations of the icy continent.