USAP-DC

Howat/1543501 This award will provide support to map the topography of the Antarctic continent at high spatial resolution and precision to measure ice sheet change, constrain models, correct satellite observations and support logistics. Antarctica remains the most poorly mapped landmass on Earth, yet, accurate and complete surface topography is essential for a wide range of scientific and logistical activities. The group will use a combination of very high-resolution satellite imagery, existing ground and airborne survey data and the NSF's supercomputer infrastructure to construct the Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA): a continuous, time-stamped reference surface that will be one to two orders of magnitude higher resolution than currently available. REMA will be constructed from stereoscopic, submeter resolution imagery collected by the WorldView satellite constellation, obtained at no cost in partnership with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the NSF-supported Polar Geospatial Center (PGC). The high spatial and radiometric resolution of the imagery enables photogrammetric digital elevation model (DEM) extraction over low contrast terrains such as snow, ice and shadows. These DEM's have horizontal and vertical offsets of up to several meters that can be reduced to the DEM relative accuracy of 0.2 meter with a single ground control point. We will use available control points from ground and lidar surveys to register individual DEMs and optimized, least-squares co-registration to provide control between overlapping DEM's over large regions. REMA will have a posting of 10 meters and accuracy better than 1 meter. It will be distributed openly by the Polar Geospatial Center. This project will involve substantial undergraduate participation, providing training in geospatial science and remote sensing, and REMA will be used extensively for the outreach programs of the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. This project does not require field work in Antarctica.

Person	Role
Howat, Ian	Investigator and contact
Myoung-Jong Noh,	Co-Investigator

Antarctic Earth Sciences	Award # 1543501
Antarctic Glaciology	Award # 1543501

USAP-1543501_1

None in the Database

Repository	Title (link)	Format(s)	Status
PGC	The Reference Model of Antarctica	Not Provided	exists

1. Howat, I. M., Porter, C., Smith, B. E., Noh, M.-J., and Morin, P.: The Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica, The Cryosphere, 13, 665–674 (doi:10.5194/tc-13-665-2019)
2. Chartrand, A. M., & Howat, I. M. (2020). Basal Channel Evolution on the Getz Ice Shelf, West Antarctica. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 125(9). (doi:10.1029/2019jf005293)
3. Noh, M.-J., & Howat, I. M. (2019). Applications of High-Resolution, Cross-Track, Pushbroom Satellite Images With the SETSM Algorithm. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 12(10), 3885–3899. (doi:10.1109/jstars.2019.2938146)
4. Yang, L., Gao, Y., Sun, L., Xie, Z., Yang, W., Chu, Z., … Xu, Q. (2019). Enhanced westerlies drove penguin movement at 1000 yr BP on Ardley Island, west Antarctic Peninsula. Quaternary Science Reviews, 214, 44–53. (doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.04.026)
5. Howat, I. M. (2023). Elevation Model Mosaicking from Coregistration, Adjustment and Median of Stacks (CAMS). IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 1–1. (doi:10.1109/lgrs.2023.3253539)
6. Howat, I. M., Porter, C., Smith, B. E., Noh, M.-J., & Morin, P. (2018). The Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica. (doi:10.5194/tc-2018-240)