NSF Award
9617591
*** 9617591 Curlander Radarsat is a Canadian satellite carrying a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensor that is capable of mapping the Antarctic continent in stereo using multiple passes. SAR data are commercially available and can be downlinked to a network of ground receiving stations including the NSF operated McMurdo Station. Before SAR imagery can be effectively used by scientists, corrections must be made for geometric distortions (orthorectification), which require a digital elevation map (DEM). However, for most of the continent current topographic data have relatively low accuracy and resolution. DEM data will considerably improve maps produced by the NASA-funded Radarsat Antarctic Mapping Project (RAMP), a mosaicking and orthorectification package to be used by scientists at Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center (BPRC). In addition to providing rectified imagery, higher resolution DEMs will also provide geologists and glacioloqists an important new means to assess questions about Antarctica's qeodynamic and ice dynamic processes. Phase II will develop a system for automatically deriving detailed surface topography and orthorectified images from a Radarsat SAR stereo pair and its ancillary data. A Unix development platform will be used, and the system will be validated. The new technology is expected to have commercial applications in radar stereo processing software for mapping projects worldwide. Additional business potential is seen in processing services to users of Radarsat and other radar data and in small scale receiving stations for processing satellite radar data at university and other research laboratories.
