Help with the RISCO RapidIce Viewer
1. What should I use the Viewer for?
The RISCO RapidIce Viewer is used to view and download historic and near real-time imagery from outlet glaciers and ice shelves in Greenland and Antarctica. The imagery archive is constantly growing with new sensors, more historic imagery, and higher resolution imagery. RISCO scientists use the viewer to monitor outlet glaciers through time at a number of resolutions.
2. Where does the imagery come from?
We obtain most of our data through strategic partnerships with many organizations. Although we have some licensed commercial satellite imagery, most of the data is obtained from free-of-charge, online services. Our partners include NASA, USGS, DigitalGlobe, Inc., GeoEye, Inc., among others. View the data page for detailed information and metadata.
3. Availability of Imagery
Just because an image does not appear in the Viewer, does not mean it does not exist. Because the wealth of data is increasingly large and complex, we strive to get the most recent data in first. It requires back-end processing which causes some latency in imagery available in the Viewer. If you cannot find the a particular image, please visit each data center to search their archives.
Also, remember that the optical sensors cannot collect imagery in darkness. Depending on the latitude of the subset, Antarctic imagery is unavailable because of darkness in the Austral winter (approximately April through August) and Greenland imagery is unavailable because of darkness in the Boreal winter (approximately November through February).
4. What is a subset and how are they selected?
Areas of interest, defined by a geographic extent, are referred to as "subsets." Most subsets are "regional" in scale, between 1,000 and 15,000 km2. We have worked with the research community to determine the extents of the subsets we select. We do know, however, that there may be areas that we have not covered that are of interest to researchers. Please contact us if you would like to suggest an area for us to include.
5. I'm new, how do I use the Viewer?
The RapidIce Viewer is based on a tabbed view system. In the latest release, there are five main tabs:
Welcome: This is the front tab, navigate to Antarctica or Greenland tabs to start selecting subsets.
Antarctica: Select an Antarctic subset from the drop-down or the interactive map.
Greenland: Select a Greenland subset from the drop-down or the interactive map.
Image View: After selecting a subset, this tab will become active displaying images in a tiled thumbnail grid in chronological order. The images will be loaded when they become into view (by scrolling, etc). From this tab, the dynamic filters on the left will automatically change what images appear. Select multiple images to view in an animation by clicking the image (they will change to orange on selection). To select multiple, consecutive images, hold the SHIFT key during click.
Animation View: When at least two images are selected, you have the option to play back the images in an animation. This tab has features including restart, play, pause, previous, next, loop, and speed controls. Please note that if an image is filtered "off," it will not appear in the animation. You can tell how many images are selected in the panel on the left.
6. How do I view or download full-size images?
For each image, there are three small links along the bottom of each image. "Enlarge" opens a larger JPEG in the window. "Download" will initiate a download of the imagery with georeferencing information (in GeoTIFF format), which can then be opened in a GIS or remote sensing software with spatial reference included. Please note, because of commercial licensing restrictions, high-resolution sensors (WorldView-1, WorldView-2, QuickBird-2, GeoEye-1, and IKONOS) do not have georeferencing information, although you can still view or save subsampled TIF or JPEG images. "Metadata" will open an alert with information about the original image, including links to original data provider and (for most images) the original data.
7. What if it's not working?
Currently the viewer is optimized for running in a browser on a desktop computer or laptop. It requires no plug-ins but does require JavaScript to be enabled (this is the default on all browsers). Older browsers (e.g. IE6 or below) may not support all functionality. If you are viewing on a tablet or mobile device, the images may load slowly and functionality may be limited. We are currently working on a mobile-friendly version.
8. Privacy Policy
In order to help with reporting, future functionality, and gauging community interest, the Viewer may track anonymous information about user habits including subsets selected or imagery downloads. View our Online Privacy Statement for more details.
9. What are future plans for the RapidIce Viewer?
Because RISCO is still in the initialization phase, we will be obtaining feedback from the community and program managers. Therefore, any future tools or functionality will come from feedback by users like you! Contact RISCO web developer Brad Herried ([email protected]) to suggest features or report a bug.