3 October, 2013 News stories

Map makers rewarded for stunning recreation of Antarctic without ice

A colourful British Antarctic Survey map has won a coveted award.

The map, created by the institution’s MAGIC (Mapping and Geographic Information Centre) team, is called “Bedmap2: Bedrock topography of Antarctica.”

This poster map gives an overview of the data and products included in Bedmap2, an international collaborative project, led by BAS, to map the bedrock surface underneath the Antarctic ice sheet.

Side A (pictured) shows a visualisation of the bed surface, with the smaller roundels showing ancillary data for the ice sheet surface, ice thickness, data sources and distribution.

Side B shows an oblique view of the bed surface model and highlights key features, together with background information about the project. Copies of the map are available for BAS staff from the map room.

Last month (September 2013) the map won the British Cartographic Society Bartholomew Award for best small-scale or thematic map, presented to Peter Fretwell at the BCS 50th anniversary symposium awards dinner.