Polar ice shelves break off - OGC SDI 1.0 powers up

In late February 2008, the Wilkins Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula disintegrated, an indication of warming temperatures in the region. This dramatic event was captured on satellite imagery and a British Antarctic Survey's reconnaissance flight last month - shown above in Gaia 3.1.

Now researchers have a another tool in the climate change battle - the National Snow and Ice Data Center's "Atlas of the Cryosphere" OGC SDI 1.0 services.

We've been testing these OGC web services and are impressed by both the data and unique polar perspective - great job by the developers.

The Cryosphere Atlas lets people explore and dynamically map the Earth's frozen regions. Viewed from a polar perspective, data sources include snow cover, sea ice extent and concentration, glaciers, ice sheets, permafrost and other components of the Earth's cryosphere.

Users can zoom in to a specific region on the Earth as well as overlay country borders, major cities, and other information - an example in Gaia 3.1 is shown above. Gaia 3.1 was developed under the NSDI CAP.

- Jeff