Douglas Isbell

Headquarters, Washington, DC October 1, 1997

(Phone: 202/358-1753)

Allen Kenitzer
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
(Phone: 301/286-2806)

Mary Hardin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
(Phone: 818/354-5011)

Isabelle Hudon
Canadian Space Agency, St. Hubert, Quebec
(Phone: 514/926-4355)

RELEASE: 97-223

RADARSAT BEGINS FIRST COMPLETE DETAILED MAP OF ANTARCTICA

Initial images from the first complete radar survey of

Antarctica, using the Canadian Space Agency's Radarsat mission,
show better-than-expected details of its massive ice streams and
crevices, as well as old, buried features of the international
South Pole research station established in the late 1950s.

"The quality of these first images is quite stunning," said

Dr. Robert Thomas, program manager for polar research in NASA's
Office of Mission to Planet Earth, Washington, DC. "Antarctica is
the only continent on Earth that has not been properly mapped.
Despite many years of research, we still do not know whether this
massive ice sheet is growing larger or smaller. Radarsat's
Antarctic Mapping Mission should help us answer this question, and
many related questions about its potential for affecting global
sea levels."

Nearly 70 percent of the Earth's fresh water is contained in

the Antarctic region, and changes in this enormous reservoir
directly influence world sea levels and climate. As a reference
point, if fully melted, this ice would raise the global sea level
by about 230 feet (70 meters).

Previous research has revealed that about 90 percent of

Antarctic ice flows into the sea via large "ice streams." These
rivers of ice are tens of miles wide and about a
half-mile thick, and can flow rapidly within the predominantly
slow-moving ice sheet. "We know little about why these ice
streams form where they do, or what determines their speed,"
Thomas said. "Most Antarctic ice streams flow into 'ice shelves,'
large, floating slabs of ice the size of Texas that rest on the
ocean and occupy most of the Antarctic coastline. They move
seaward at about a half-mile per year, occasionally 'calving' to
form huge icebergs."

Where the seabed beneath an ice shelf becomes sufficiently

shallow, the ice shelf runs aground, slows down and thickens to
form an "ice rise" which tends to slow the seaward progress of the
ice shelf, and ultimately to hinder ice discharge down the ice
streams. However, if the ice shelf were to become sufficiently
thin, for instance, by increased melting from beneath, the speed
of ice discharge would increase, allowing more ice to flow into
the ocean, and thus raising the sea level. "Just how quickly
this could happen if climate were to change is not known, and
would depend heavily on whether the ice sheet is already thinning
or, as some evidence suggests, actually thickening," Thomas said.
"These unknowns are the prime reasons for this research effort."

The first radar image of Earth's geographic South Pole from

the Radarsat Antarctic campaign clearly shows the infrastructure
of the Amunsden-Scott Station operated by the U.S. National
Science Foundation. The image reveals the modern infrastructure
that supports a host of international science programs, but also
shows an abandoned aircraft runway and other remains of the old
South Pole station, now buried under about 30 feet of snow and
ice.

This image and several others, as well as further information

on the Radarsat mission, are available on the Internet at the
following URL, under the link to the Antarctic Mapping Mission:

http://radarsat.space.gc.ca

The Antarctic Mapping Mission was made possible by rotating

the satellite 180 degrees from its normal field of view, which was
completed on Sept. 11. Full mapping will require the collection
of over 5,000 images.

"Following the successful rotation, 30 percent of the

mission's objectives have now been achieved," said Rolf Mamen,
Director General of Space Operations at the Canadian Space Agency.
"We are extremely pleased with the quality of the radar images
being obtained of this unmapped region of our planet, and of the
contribution we are making to the scientific community."

The high-resolution digital image mosaic of the ice sheet and

exposed portions of the continent to be taken by the Antarctic
Mapping Mission will serve as a benchmark for testing the
predicted effects of global warming on the interior ice sheet and
its bounding ice shelves. This unique data set also will support
the development of policies to help preserve Antarctica in its
relatively pristine state, through the goals subscribed under the
international Antarctic Treaty System.

U.S. partners in the Antarctic portion of the Radarsat

mission include the Byrd Polar Research Center of Ohio State
University, Columbus, OH; NASA's Alaska Synthetic Aperture Radar
Facility in Fairbanks; the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
CA, and the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD.

"The job of mapping one of the last largely unexplored

regions of the Earth is truly a mission of international
cooperation, with collaboration that includes scientists from
Great Britain, Germany, Japan, and Australia in addition to the
United States and Canada," said Dr. Kenneth Jezek, a professor of
geological science and director of the Byrd Polar Research Center
at Ohio State University. "In that way, the Antarctic Mapping
Mission is in keeping with the spirit and intent of the Antarctic
treaty, which serves to preserve the continent for peaceful
scientific research by any nation."

In exchange for the launch of the Radarsat satellite by NASA

in November 1995, Canada agreed to provide access to a
proportionate amount of its operational data and to execute the
yaw maneuver of the spacecraft twice during the mission to allow
the mapping of the Antarctic continental ice sheet.

Operated by the Canadian Space Agency from St. Hubert,

Quebec, Radarsat utilizes a sophisticated microwave radar system
able to produce images through cloud cover, smog, haze, smoke and
darkness. The satellite can be programmed to capture images of an
area as wide as 320 miles (500 kilometers), and can detect objects
as small as 26 feet (eight meters.)

NASA's involvement in Radarsat is part of the agency's

Mission to Planet Earth enterprise, a long-term coordinated
research program to study the Earth's land, oceans, air, ice and
life as a total system.

-end-