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Mapping Terra Incognita United States Geological Survey with joint support from the National Science Foundation, Antarctica Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) map  Scurvy and dog teams are a thing of the past, as exploration of the final frontier of the 20th century affords a new view of the last great unexplored region of the 19th. Orbiting the planet 14 times each day, a NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) polar-orbiting satellite equipped with a radiometer—sensing visible, infrared and near infrared electromagnetic radiation—circles the globe and transmits data back home. Arcing 517 miles overhead, the AVHRR scans nearly half the continent in a single orbit. To reveal areas hidden by cloud cover on various passes, 63 imaged sections were mosaiced together to form this map.
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