RADARSAT-2 Antarctica Mosaics and Tiles Documentation, 2008

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.