High-Resolution Antarctic Surface Model for Fuel Spill Site

2-centimeter resolution Digital Surface Model captures terrain details at a historic fuel spill site near Old Casey Station. Dr. Arko Lucieer of TerraLuma and the University of Tasmania created this dataset from UAV photographs taken on February 5, 2014, for the Australian Antarctic Division. It includes derived layers like hillshade, slope, and 20-centimeter interval contours to support environmental remediation research.

Use Cases

• Modeling surface water flow and contaminant transport using the slope and 20 cm contour layers derived from the DSM.
• Assessing terrain changes and remediation effectiveness by comparing this 2014 DSM with later surveys of the 1982 fuel spill drainage area.
• Generating high-fidelity visualizations for site analysis using the hillshade layer and the associated orthophoto referenced in the metadata.
• Calibrating other remote sensing data by leveraging the model's georeferencing to ground control points surveyed with differential GPS.

Strengths

• Extremely high 2 cm spatial resolution for detailed terrain modeling.
• Includes multiple derived analytical layers: hillshade, slope, and 20 cm contours.
• Precise georeferencing to ground control points using differential GPS and the ITRF2000 horizontal datum.

Limitations

• Dataset is a single snapshot from 2014, limiting temporal change analysis.
• Spatial coverage is restricted to the specific drainage area of the Old Casey fuel spill.
• Sample data and specific file formats are not provided in the description.

Provenance

Source

Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AU_AADC), created by Dr. Arko Lucieer (TerraLuma/University of Tasmania) for the Australian Antarctic Division.

Collection Method

Derived from digital aerial photographs captured by a UAV, processed into a DSM, and georeferenced to differential GPS ground control points.

Time Range

2014-02-05

Freshness

Single collection date: 2014-02-05.

Geography

Drainage area from a 1982 fuel spill at Old Casey Station, Antarctica.