Antarctic Satellite Composite Imagery: 20 Years of Polar Observations

For the past 20 years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has generated a mosaic of satellite imagery over the Antarctic. Stitched together from both geostationary and polar orbiting satellite observations, the composite, which originally started as an infrared-window-only display, has since expanded to include 5 different special channels common on most meteorological satellites. It has also increased in spatial and temporal resolution. The compositing methodology has evolved from custom merging of the source data, to conditional minimum (or maximum temperature) methods, to weighted average methods that consider pixel age and aim to reduce parallax error. This presentation will review the history of these composites and their production, making note of the significant development milestones, as well as discuss applications of the composites in operational, research and educational settings. Real-time availability of the composites as well as the data archive will also be outlined. Future efforts will be examined, including a brief discussion of the Antarctic composite's cousin, the Arctic satellite composite project.