China to complete first extensive Antarctic map in world
- Source: Global Times
- [12:07 October 27 2009]
- Comments
The team member of the 26th Antarctic expedition on the icebreaker, the Snow Dragon(file photo)
Chinese scientists are expected to collect the complete data to finish an extensive map of
Although there have been many maps of the Antarctic made by other countries, this one will be the most complete one for the continent.
The map will use high resolution remote sensing technology to show the distribution of key features on the continent, including sea ice, snow, blue ice, rocks, soil marshes, lakes and ice crevasses for the first time in the continent's history.
In addition, the map is based on 1,073 remote sensing images acquired from the US satellite Landsat mainly during the austral summer from 1999 to 2002, and the precision of the map is 15 meters, about 20 times better than previous maps,
"It will greatly advance our geographic knowledge of the Antarctica," said Cheng Xiao, deputy dean of the
The map will provide not only more accurate ground parameters for scientists to forecast global changes or global warming with climate system models, but also important data for detection of the change of Antarctica land coverage in a long run, Cheng said.
