Antarctic Ice Shelf Satellite Imagery from NOAA AVHRR

Local Area Coverage satellite images of the Ronne Ice Shelf and Antarctic continent collected by the Antarctic Meteorological Research Center. Data collection began on 17 October 1998 and continues to the present, with continent-wide archiving starting 30 March 1999. The imagery has 1 km resolution and includes all five spectral channels from the AVHRR instrument.

Use Cases

• Monitor iceberg calving and movement on the Ronne Ice Shelf using time-series LAC imagery.
• Analyze surface reflectance changes across five AVHRR spectral channels for climate studies.
• Map clear-sky and cloud-covered areas over Antarctica for meteorological model validation.
• Track the extent and stability of Antarctic ice shelves using georeferenced 1 km resolution data.

Strengths

• Continuous temporal coverage from October 1998 to present.
• 1 km spatial resolution across all five AVHRR instrument channels.
• Archival of all available LAC images over the entire Antarctic continent since March 1999.

Limitations

• Scattered coverage dependent on partially or totally clear fields of view.
• Specific row count, file formats, and dataset size are unknown.
• Potential gaps in data collection due to weather conditions affecting satellite visibility.

Provenance

Source

Antarctic Meteorological Research Center (AMRC) via NASA Earthdata.

Collection Method

Collection of Local Area Coverage images from NOAA's AVHRR instrument.

Time Range

17 October 1998 to present.

Freshness

Ongoing collection to present.

Geography

Primarily the Ronne Ice Shelf, expanding to the entire Antarctic continent.