New Geospatial Data for the Barrow Peninsula, Alaska
Arctic System Science (ARCSS) Data Coordination Center (ADCC)
National Snow and Ice Data Center
For more information, please go to:
http://instaar.colorado.edu/QGISL/barrow_high_res
To access the data, go to:
http://arcss.colorado.edu/data/barrow/
Radar Imagery, Digital Elevation Models, and Related GIS Layers for
Collaborative Research of Environmental Change at Barrow, Alaska, USA
A broadly collaborative effort has resulted in the creation and
distribution of high-quality geospatial datasets to benefit research
concentrated near Barrow, northernmost Alaska. The imagery and data can
be used in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and include:
- OrthoRectified Radar Imagery (ORRI, 1.25 m pixels);
- Two types of Digital Elevation Models (DEM's, 5 m grid cells with <1 m
vertical accuracy); and
- Value-added GIS layers (derived layers such as contours, aspect,
shaded relief, and slope angle; digital versions of the USGS topo. maps;
and index layers).
For more information, please go to:
http://instaar.colorado.edu/QGISL/barrow_high_res
To access the data, go to:
http://arcss.colorado.edu/data/barrow/
The data are being distributed by the Arctic System Science (ARCSS) Data
Coordination Center (ADCC) at the National Snow and Ice Data Center
(NSIDC).
Two suites of data are available:
- a high-resolution set available on DVD by request (currently
restricted through license agreements to NSF-funded investigators only),
and
- a reduced-resolution set available to the public by ftp download and
on CD.
The airborne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IFSAR) imagery
and derived DEM's were successfully acquired in late July 2002, by
Intermap Technologies. The spatial data went through rigorous quality
reviews and revisions before final acceptance. Additional value-added
processing was conducted to create a suite of user-friendly products,
including FGDC-compliant metadata.
The spatial datasets are more precise, accurate, and useful than
previously available data layers. The state-of-the-art, GIS and
remote-sensing products will overcome obstacles of differing map
projections, datums, resolution, extent, timeframe, accuracy, data
format, and accessibility. They will reduce duplicated efforts and
foster interdisciplinary investigations.
The data will provide a long-lasting, common base for orthorectifying
and georegistering other GIS data and imagery, and will establish a
temporal baseline for decades of change-detection studies. Beyond
education and outreach, the data should promote quantitative analysis,
modeling, and collaboration in the fields of: ecosystem classification,
health, and dynamics; terrestrial-atmospheric fluxes of greenhouse
gases; natural and anthropogenic landscape dynamics; archeology; stream
and thaw-lake hydrology and change; coastal flooding; coastal erosion;
permafrost melting; and other environmental responses to unprecedented
arctic warming. These societally relevant topics can be addressed in new
ways and with greater success using shared digital topography and
imagery.
The high-resolution imagery and terrain models were made possible
through funding from the National Science Foundation's program for
Arctic Research Support and Logistics (NSF Award OPP-0224071), with
support also from the Arctic System Science Program for the ARCSS Data
Coordination Center (ADCC).