Mapmaking center goes bipolar
Researchers in Alaska, Siberia and Greenland can now look to the Polar Geospatial Center to find their way around.
The U.S.-funded center, which operates the McMurdo station in Antarctica every summer, is expanding its logistics services to the Arctic.
The center’s researchers have been mapping Antarctica using satellite images and on-the-ground surveys since 2007. With funding from the National Science Foundation, they have also worked with Google Earth and Google Maps to update data on the Arctic and Antarctic.
Recently, producers of David Attenborough’s latest documentary, “Frozen Planet,” looked to the PGC for remote sensing expertise.
“Our work impacts everything from research on the movement of glaciers to the study of penguin colonies to the landing of military aircraft in remote locations,” said director Paul Morin, a geology and geophysics professor at the University of Minnesota in a press release.
The NSF is funding the center’s expansion with nearly USD 4 million over five years.
