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RADARSAT-1

Images the South Pole, Amundsen-Scott Station

Large unedited version (741k)

Shown on the left is the very first high-resolution radar image acquired of Earth’s South Pole. Bright areas in the image correspond to man-made structures that are part of Amundsen-Scott Station operated by the U.S. National Science Foundation. A photomap of the station is shown in the upper right and a cutaway of the station (which consists of a large, geodesic dome and storage archways) is shown at the bottom. The site has been occupied since 1956 and used for scientific research ranging from glaciology to astrophysics. The present facility was occupied in 1974 and is scheduled for replacement in about 2004. Evident in the radar image is a long line extending from the station to the upper right. This is a ‘highway’ from the station to an abandoned antenna site. The dome and archways are located within the bright cluster of radar signals near the bottom end of the ‘highway’. Just below the cluster is a 14,000’ skiway which appears as a bright band. The geographic South Pole is located between the skiway and the station. Nearly parallel to the skiway is a similar, dimmer band – this is likely the old skiway used to support the earlier station. Indeed, there is good reason to believe that many of the bright targets between the two bands are reflections from the old station now buried beneath the surface. South Pole is very important to the Canadian Space Agency/ NASA collaboration to map Antarctica. It is the only site visible on every pass of the satellite and makes it invaluable for constraining the geometry of the mosaic that will be assembled from all of the radar images.

Drawing credit: Antarctic Journal, National Science Foundation.