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The Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica

Robert Bindschadler·P. Vornberger·A. Fleming·A. Fox·J. Mullins·D. Binnie·S.J. Paulsen·Brian J. Granneman·D. Gorodetzky
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Abstract

The Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA) is the first true-color, high-spatial-resolution image of the seventh continent. It is constructed from nearly 1100 individually selected Landsat-7 ETM+ scenes. Each image was orthorectified and adjusted for geometric, sensor and illumination variations to a standardized, almost seamless surface reflectance product. Mosaicing to avoid clouds produced a high quality, nearly cloud-free benchmark data set of Antarctica for the International Polar Year from images collected primarily during 1999-2003. Multiple color composites and enhancements were generated to illustrate additional characteristics of the multispectral data including: the true appearance of the surface; discrimination between snow and bare ice; reflectance variations within bright snow; recovered reflectance values in regions of sensor saturation; and subtle topographic variations associated with ice flow. LIMA is viewable and individual scenes or user defined portions of the mosaic are downloadable at http://lima.usgs.gov. Educational materials associated with LIMA are available at http://lima.nasa.gov.

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Robert Bindschadler, P. Vornberger, A. Fleming, A. Fox, J. Mullins, D. Binnie, S.J. Paulsen, Brian J. Granneman, D. Gorodetzky. 2008. The Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2008.07.006

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