Global Environmental Change Faculty

Natural and Human-
Induced Environmental
Change

Sedimentology and
Climate Change

Glacial Geology and
Quaternary Stratigraphy,
Geomorphology

Micropaleontology and
Biostratigraphy

This image on the main page, which is a link you may have selected to reach here, is an Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer mosaic of the antarctic continent. The colors are false colors used to indicate differences in reflectivity of the surface to radar waves, depending, for instance, upon whether the reflecting surface is blue ice, snow-covered ice, heavily crevassed ice, bare rock, or cloud cover. Cloud-free images of Antarctica, a circumstance that doesn't exist in nature, can be synthesized by assembling mosaics of images taken at different times when the various parts of the continent enjoyed clear skies. Using this method it is possible to map Antarctic features that are otherwise difficult, if not impossible, to discern, such as the location, magnitude, and direction of flow of ice streams on the Antarctic Plateau.