Sea Ice Atlas from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) imagery 1992-1999

Brief description

This Atlas presents a compilation of AVHRR satellite images of sea ice adjacent to the coast of Eastern Antarctica. It is produced primarily for use by marine and vertebrate ecologists within the Australian Antarctic Division and as a contribution to the CCAMLR Ecosystem Monitoring Program. It is anticipated that this atlas will have value to a wider range of research and other uses including shipping operations.

The Atlas provides one good image for each month between 1992 and 1999 for each of 5 regions of Eastern Antarctica centered on the following Antarctic Stations.

Mawson station (M) - latitude 67 degrees 36.3 minutes S, longitude 62 degrees 52.2 minutes E
Davis station (D) - latitude 68 degrees 34.6 minutes S, longitude 77 degrees 58.3 minutes E
Casey station (C) - latitude 66 degrees 17.0 minutes S, longitude 110 degrees 31.2 minutes E
Dumont D'Urville station (DD) - latitude 66 degrees 39.8 minutes S, longitude 140 degrees 00.1 minutes E
Terra Nova Bay station (TN) - latitude 74 degrees 41.7 minutes S, longitude 164 degrees 07.0 minutes E

Each image has been renavigated onto the same projection (Polar stereographic), gridded and a coastline added. Visible and thermal images are provided for the austral summer months, while only a thermal image is provided for the dark winter months. Due to either missing data or the lack of suitable imagery it has not been possible to provide a complete coverage over the period in all regions. Those 500 images presented were culled from some 20,000 images consulted.

Images are presented with a schematic map indicating the major divisions of the image into open water, sea ice, cloud, land etc. Each month is accompanied by a short description of the sea ice conditions.

The concept of a Sea Ice Atlas for scientific purposes was first proposed in 1999 and funded by the Australian Antarctic Division on the recommendation of the ANARE Mapping and Geographic Information Committee in 1999. Dr Kelvin Michael at IASOS was contracted to supervise the project and produce the Sea Ice Atlas in both hard copy and digital format.

The AVHRR data are down loaded at the HRPT receiving facility Australian Antarctic Station of Casey. The HRPT archive is kept at the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC at the University of Tasmania.

Lineage

Progress Code: completed

Statement: The quality of the images depend on cloud cover, daylight, view angle of satellite etc. See the reference for full details. Each image is renavigated to a single projection (polar stereographic). An interpretation of each image is described and presented as a graphic illustration.