Australian Antarctic Territory Coastline 2003

The 'Australian Antarctic Territory coastline 2003' dataset is a digital vector representation of the coastline of Antarctica, between 45 to 160 degrees east, based on both the edge of permanent ice and grounding line, derived by means of remote sensing interpretation.

A 'proof of concept' methodology over a test area was carried out to compare a number of complementary remote sensing techniques, including interferometry and airborne ice radar profiling, to confirm validation of grounding line as mapped from Landsat 7 ETM+ imagery. This methodology concept then served to validate grounding line locations elsewhere along the coast of the AAT.

The National Mapping Division of Geoscience Australia and the Australian Antarctic Division developed this dataset as a joint project.

Where available, Australian Antarctic Division supplied large-scale vector data of various areas around the AAT, which were included as part of the main coastline dataset. These included:

• Holme Bay 1:25,000 GIS dataset
• Larsemann Hills - Mapping from aerial photography captured February 1998
• Rauer Group 1:50000 Topographic GIS Dataset
• Vestfold Hills Topographic GIS Dataset
• Windmill Islands 1:50000 Topographic GIS Dataset
• Cape Denison and McKellar Islands GIS dataset from Ikonos satellite imagery

Refer to the metadata record for each of these datasets for further information.

The coastline dataset is comprised of three parts: one polygon coverage consisting of ice features, and another one consisting of coastal features. A third coverage consists of only island point features (islands too small to be shown as polygons).

This dataset supersedes the Australian Antarctic Territory Coastline 2001 dataset which is also part of SCAR's Antarctic Digital Database (ADD) version 4 and version 5. It replaces data digitised from Landsat 4 and 5, with that from Landsat 7 ETM+, because of its more reliable positional accuracy and more recent acquisition.

The Australian Antarctic Territory Coastline 2001 dataset and metadata record have been archived. Please contact the Australian Antarctic Data Centre if you would like a copy of this data and metadata.