NPR: The View from Space Is Cool...Literally

The View from Space Is Cool...Literally

I'm not a scientist, nor do I play one on TV.

But I like to think of myself as "science friendly." Hence my interest in a little item from NASA today.

NASA doesn't just send rockets up into space. The agency also spends a lot of time looking down at earth.

Today NASA unveiled a new map of Antarctica, and the agency is using words like "breakthrough" and "revolutionize" and phrases like "state-of-the-art" to describe it.

The map is called a Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA) and it's "a realistic, nearly cloudless satellite view of the continent at a resolution 10 times greater than ever before. . ."

The scientist from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center who conceived of the project enthuses, "This innovation is like watching high-definition TV in living color versus watching the picture on a grainy black-and-white television. These scenes don't just give us a snapshot, they provide a time-lapse historical record of how Antarctica has changed and will enable us to continue to watch changes unfold."

Okay, I'll bite. Here's the link:

I have to admit I have no idea what to look for. I can't even find McMurdo station.

Missing from the map? The South Pole.

Tricia McKinney

12:12 PM ET | 11-27-2007 | permalink

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