BedMachine: A high-precision map of Antarctic ice sheet bed topography

BedMachine is a new Antarctic bed topography product based on ice thickness data from 19 different research institutes dating back to 1967, encompassing nearly a million line-miles of radar soundings. BedMachine relies on the fundamental physics-based method of mass conservation to estimate what lies between the radar sounding lines, utilizing highly detailed information on ice flow motion from satellite data that dictates how ice moves. The dataset is available from the National Snow & Ice Data Center. This animation displays seven glacial regions around Antarctica, first showing the surface topography followed by the bed topography. The regions examined include the Thwaites, Byrd, David, Ninnis, Denman and Recovery glaciers as well as the West Ragnhild ice stream. Visualizers: Cindy Starr (lead), Greg Shirah For more information or to download this public domain video, go to #28726