The scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Science Foundation and the British Antarctic Survey said the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica is a nearly cloudless satellite view of the Antarctic continent at a resolution 10 times greater than previously produced satellite images. It utilized the NASA-built Landsat 7 satellite.

With the unprecedented ability to see features half the size of a basketball court, researchers said the mosaic offers the most geographically accurate, true-color, high-resolution views of Antarctica to date.

"This innovation is like watching high-definition TV in living color versus watching the picture on a grainy black-and-white television," said Robert Bindschadler, chief scientist of NASA's Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "These scenes don't just give us a snapshot, they provide a time-lapse historical record of how Antarctica has changed and will enable us to continue to watch changes unfold."

The Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica is available at http://lima.usgs.gov.