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Grove Mountains meteorite recovery and relevant data distribution service

Chunxia Zhou a,n, Songtao Ai a, Nengcheng Chen b, Zemin Wang a, Dongchen E a

a Chinese Antarctic Center of Surveying and Mapping, Wuhan University, No. 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, Hubei 430079, Chinab State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping, and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, No. 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, Hubei 430079, China

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:

Received 27 July 2010

Received in revised form

20 May 2011

Accepted 26 May 2011Available online 24 June 2011

Keywords:

Antarctica

Grove Mountains

Meteorites

Meteorite data distribution service

a b s t r a c t

Meteorites are extremely valuable in providing clues about the origin, evolution, and composition of

the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, other planets, and asteroids. Since the first discovery of a meteorite in

Antarctica, more and more meteorite concentrations on bare ice stranding sites were discovered.

Antarctica is identified as a prolific source of extraterrestrial materials. The Grove Mountains area,

covered by ice, snow, and nunataks, is located in the Antarctic inland area. It is about 380 km away

from the Chinese Zhongshan Antarctic Research Station in East Antarctica. Since 1998, 11,452

meteorites have been collected from the Grove Mountains by the Chinese National Antarctic Research

Expedition (CHINARE). It is confirmed that the Grove Mountains area is a productive search area for

meteorites in Antarctica. More and more meteorite recoveries led to the recognition that unique

mechanisms relating to meteorite concentrations exist in Antarctica. Besides meteorite field collections,

the extraction of blue ice based on satellite images, meteorite concentration mechanisms, and

meteorite data distribution service are discussed in this paper. Wide distribution of blue ice indicates

the enrichment of meteorites. Based on the different spectrum characteristics and coherence of snow,

blue ice, and bare rocks, blue ice areas are extracted from optical images and coherence maps.

According to meteorite field collections and optical images, moraines are also identified as meteorite

concentration sites in the Grove Mountains area. The meteorite concentration theories should be

further analyzed by taking into account ice-flow dynamics, mountains’ blocking effect, katabatic wind

and ice ablation, and others. Moreover, in order to strengthen the visualization and network sharing of

the valuable meteorite data, desktop software based on ArcObjects and web software based on ArcIMS

are developed within this study. The desktop software also enables further analysis of the meteorite

concentration mechanisms in the Grove Mountains.

& 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

The first discovery of a meteorite in Antarctica by Australia in1912 was serendipitous and surprising. In 1969, a Japanese researchteam found nine meteorites at the Antarctic Yamato Mountains withthe implication of a possible concentration mechanism (Yoshidaet al., 1971). As more meteorite concentrations on bare ice strandingsites were discovered, Antarctica was identified as a prolific source ofextraterrestrial material (Yoshida, 2010). More than 30,000 meteoritespecimens have been recovered from Antarctica since systematiccollection programs began in the mid-1970s. Of these, 11,452meteorites were collected by the Chinese National Antarctic ResearchExpedition (CHINARE) in the Grove Mountains, East Antarctica.

More and more meteorite recoveries led to the recognitionthat unique mechanisms relating to meteorite concentrationsexist in Antarctica. Meteorite concentrations in Antarctica have

invariably been found on the expanses of blue ice, or directlyassociated with them. Ablation, glacial movement, and directinfall are the key natural forces increasing the number ofmeteorites found in some blue ice areas (Harvey, 2003). Thehighest concentrations of meteorites discovered on Earth arefound in the ice sheet covering Antarctica.

Based on the recovery of meteorites, it is essential to design andestablish an information service platform for the management, dis-play, query, analysis, visualization, and network sharing, wheredifferent types of meteorite data can be loaded and integrated. Sucha platform can also promote data sharing and information exchange.GIS software, which has experienced fast growth in the past decade,has been further developed from traditional desktop GIS platforms, toWebGIS platforms (Yang et al., 2005). Desktop GIS platforms, such asArcInfo, Mapinfo, and Microstation, are of high performance, highspeed, and good flexibility. However, they rarely have unifiedstandards. Each user needs to install the software individually,making it difficult for a large number of users to update and maintainthe database. Because WebGIS software could have standard OpenGISspecifications and users can access the WebGISs via web browsers,

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cageo

Computers & Geosciences

0098-3004/$ - see front matter & 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.cageo.2011.05.013

n Corresponding author. Tel./fax: þ86 27 68778030.

E-mail address: [email protected] (C. Zhou).

Computers & Geosciences 37 (2011) 1727–1734


a meteorite database developed on a WebGIS platform is easy tomaintain and distribute. This kind of software has been greatlyadvanced in recent years with popular systems, such as Google Maps,Bing Maps, and ArcIMS. However, WebGIS software needs furtherimprovement in efficiency, performance, and interoperability, inparticular to meet the need of handling a large set of meteorite datain a geospatial cyberinfrastructure fashion (Yang et al., 2010).

In this paper, blue ice distribution, meteorite recovery, andconcentration sites in the Grove Mountains are presented. Thedevelopments of a new data platform and meteorite datadistribution service are reported.

2. Expeditions in the Grove Mountains area

2.1. The Grove Mountains

The Grove Mountains area, covered by ice, snow, and nunataks, islocated in Princess Elizabeth land, 380 km away from the ChineseZhongshan Station, East Antarctica (Fig. 1). It extends from 721150

south latitude and 731400 east longitude to 731150 south latitude and761000 east longitude, with an area of 8000 km2 and an averageelevation of 2000 m. The topographical tendency is higher in thesouth-east and lower in the north-west and the ice streams generallyflow from the south-east to the north-west (E et al., 2004). This areahas a typical inland character with blustery weather lasting for abouthalf a year. The average temperature is about �30 1C, and it isdensely covered by ice crevasses resulting from ice flow and themountains’ blocking effect. The abominable environment poses greatdifficulties for field survey operations.

2.2. Discovery and field expeditions

The area of the Grove Mountains was first sighted and photo-graphed from the air by the Australian National Antarctic ResearchExpeditions (ANARE) Beaver aircraft operating out of Mawson in the1950s. The initial ground visit was made in November 1958 byANARE surveyor Knuckey and geologist Macleod (AUSLIG, 1998).This was followed by ANARE visits in the 1972 and 1974 summerseasons, at a time when visits were also made by the Sovietexpeditions based at Druzhnaya (Johnston et al., 2001). There areno reports about meteorites collected at that time. In 1998, Chinaplanned an expedition to the Grove Mountains for the first time. Thisexpedition was part of China’s contribution to the InternationalTrans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE). The objective was to

traverse the summit of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet from the ChineseZhongshan Station to Dome A. Chinese scientists compared theGrove Mountains with other areas in Antarctica where a largenumber of meteorites had been collected by Japanese and Americanexpedition teams, predicting that meteorites could be found becauseof the existence of blue ice in this area, since the Antarctic meteoritesand blue ice are highly related (Williams et al., 1983).

To facilitate the choice of an expedition route and navigationto the Grove Mountains during the 15th CHINARE 1998/1999austral summer expedition, the Chinese Antarctic Center ofSurveying and Mapping (CACSM) produced a color satellite imagemap of the Grove Mountains (Fig. 2) based on Landsat-4 TMimages (collected in 1990) with a spatial resolution of 30 m. Theblue ice areas, which are commonly visible in satellite imageryand aerial photography, can be seen clearly in this TM satelliteimage (Sun et al., 2001). The reconnaissance for new meteoritediscovery sites usually starts with such a survey of availableimagery (Lucchitta et al., 1987).

The Grove Mountains expedition based on this map wassuccessful and led to additional expeditions to the area in searchof meteorites. Since the initial expedition, a total of 11,452 piecesof meteorites have been collected there. These concrete resultsconfirm that the Grove Mountains area is a productive search areafor meteorites (Wang and Lin, 2002; Liu and Ju, 2002; Ju andMiao, 2005; Lin et al., 2006).

3. Blue ice in the Grove Mountains area

Antarctica is the best place in the world to find meteorites.However, at first, meteorites were found almost by accident. Overtime, concentration mechanisms are being gradually recognized, andencourage subsequent more systematic collections. Usually, thesearch for Antarctic meteorites begins with a search for blue ice.A large distribution of blue ice indicates the possibility of meteoriteenrichment. However, not all blue ice areas are guaranteed to beproductive search areas for meteorites. It depends on many othercontributing factors, such as bedrock obstacles, ice flow, and katabaticwinds. Although the vast majority of blue ice areas harbor noFig. 1. Grove Mountains, East Antarctica.

Fig. 2. TM satellite image of the Grove Mountains.

C. Zhou et al. / Computers & Geosciences 37 (2011) 1727–17341728


concentrations at all, the presence of blue ice is a prerequisite formeteorite concentrations.

3.1. Blue ice

Blue ice is pure ice in the form of large single crystals. Becauseablation typically exposes deep, relatively bubble-free layers of theice sheet, the ice sheet surface in such areas often appears as snow-free ice of a beautiful blue color; hence, the term ‘‘blue ice area’’ orBIA has come into common usage (Bintanja, 1999). The blue color ofthe ice is a result of an overtone of an OH molecular stretch in the ice,which absorbs light at the red end of the visible spectrum.

The ice flow, the mountains’ blocking effect, and katabaticwinds are principal reasons for the formation of blue ice(Whillans and Cassidy, 1983; Van den Broeke and Bintanja,1995). Where the flow of the glaciers is impeded by the AntarcticMountains, blue ice is likely to be thrust to the surface. In thiscase, the ice may just stop moving or move so slowly as tobecome stagnant. Either way, the white surface ice evaporates inthe dry winds of Antarctica, exposing blue ice and revealinghidden meteorites. Blue ice has a significantly lower albedo thansnow or bubbly white ice. Generally for East Antarctic blue icesurfaces, the most important terrestrial sediment is snow, fallingat a rate of 10 cm (liquid water equivalent) per year. However,this precipitation is ephemeral at meteorite stranding surfaces.The katabatic winds quickly entrain and remove the snow, andleave little or no accumulation (Takahashi et al., 1992; Bintanja,1999).

3.2. Extracting the distribution of blue ice

In the Grove Mountains, surfaces can be classified as snow, ice,and rock. Blue ice is extensive on both the uphill and the downhillslopes, where snow is cleaned off by strong winds.

Due to the obvious differences in the spectrum characteristicsof blue ice, snow, and bare rock in optical images, blue ice can beextracted easily from the images by supervised classification.Fig. 3 shows the blue ice distribution derived from the TM imageshown in Fig. 2.

In SAR satellite images, the blue ice can also be visually recog-nized. The amplitude of blue ice is lower than that of snow becausethe ice surface is smoother than the latter. But the difference is not soobvious when applying automatic extraction techniques. Blue ice canbe identified easily in the coherence map derived from the two SARimages because the obviously higher coherence of blue ice distin-guishes it from snow and mountain areas (Cheng et al., 2003; Zhou

et al., 2008). Fig. 4 shows the coherence calculated from ERS-1/2tandem SAR data (collected in 1996), and the blue ice distributionextracted from the coherence is shown in Fig. 5.

We see that blue ice coverage can be effectively extracted fromthe optical satellite images and coherence maps. Blue ice distributiontherefore serves as an important data source in the database formeteorite concentration analysis. However, the extension of the blueice areas varies at different times since it is affected by the icemovement, strong wind, snowfall, etc. Comparing the blue icedistribution from the satellite data Landsat MSS in 1974, LandsatTM in 1990, and Landsat ETM in 2001, we found that the extensionsof the blue ice areas in the Grove Mountains are moving eastward.Further study is needed to investigate the effect that might have onmeteorite recovery in the future.

4. Meteorite recovery in the Grove Mountains area

Antarctica is a natural laboratory for environmental andastrophysical research, and it is a unique collecting ground forthe recovery of large numbers of meteorites. Meteorites areextremely valuable in providing clues about the origin, evolution,and composition of the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, other planets,and asteroids. Scientists have discovered that meteorites hiddenin Antarctica’s ice are better preserved than specimens elsewhereas the ice protects them from rusting, weathering, and corrosion.Fig. 3. Blue ice distribution derived from the TM image.

Fig. 4. Coherence of the Grove Mountains.

Fig. 5. Blue ice distribution extracted from the coherence.

C. Zhou et al. / Computers & Geosciences 37 (2011) 1727–1734 1729


4.1. Meteorites in Antarctica

The first Antarctic meteorite was found by one of DouglasMawson’s field parties in 1912, lying on hard snow on the AdelieCoast of East Antarctica. With the systematic scientific explora-tion of the Antarctic continent, another three meteorites werediscovered during geological surveys at Humboldt Mountains,Thiel Mountains, and Neptune Mountains in 1961 and 1964. In1969, the 10th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE)found a total of nine meteorites at the Yamato Mountains.Subsequently, the U.S Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET)program, created in 1975, collaborated with Japan and exploredregions within helicopter range of the large United States base onRoss Island, McMurdo Station, and recovered 482 meteoritespecimens. EUROMET, a consortium of European countries,actively searched for meteorites in the Allan Hills region in1988–1989 and in the Frontier Mountains region in the early1990s. The Italian National Antarctic Research Program (PNRA)participated in these searches and conducted their own in 1997,1999, and 2001 (Folco et al., 2002). CHINARE carried out expedi-tions to the Grove Mountains five times, and 11,452 meteoriteshave been recovered till now.

Fig. 6 shows the general locations of meteorite concentrationsand individual sites in Antarctica. The location data are from theAntarctic Meteorite Location and Mapping Project (AMLAMP)(Schutt, 2009) and the background image is the Landsat ImageMosaic of Antarctica (LIMA).

4.2. Meteorite collection in the Grove Mountains

During the 15th CHINARE (1998/1999) austral summer expe-dition, China carried out the first field work for geological andgeodetic study in the Grove Mountains. Four meteorites, includ-ing an iron and three chondrites, were first discovered in this area(Wang and Lin, 2002). During the 16th CHINARE (1999/2000)austral summer expedition, the expedition team continued thegeological, geodetic, glacial, and meteorological investigation. Inaddition, one week was scheduled especially for meteoritesearching, and 28 meteorites were found, including a Martianmeteorite named GRV99027 (Liu and Ju, 2002). The discovery ofthese meteorites demonstrates that the Grove Mountains area is aproductive search area for meteorites.

During the 19th CHINARE (2002/2003) austral summer expedi-tion, a special meteorite-hunting team was organized to search formeteorites, which resulted in a very successful discovery of 4448meteorites, including another Martian meteorite named GRV020090

(Ju and Miao, 2005). During the 22th CHINARE (2005/2006) australsummer expedition, a total of 5354 meteorites were collected in thefirst 20 days (Lin et al., 2006). Then during the 26th CHINARE (2009/2010), 1618 meteorites were collected. The total number of meteor-ites collected in Antarctica by China has reached 11,452, followingonly Japan and the United States, which further confirms that thearea of the Grove Mountains is an important meteorite concentrationsite in Antarctica. Fig. 7 shows some collection sites of meteorites inthe Grove Mountains in different years.

According to the locations of the collected meteorites in theGrove Mountains, some characteristics of this area can be sum-marized as follows.

(1) The blue ice areas are important clues for meteorite searching,and moraines are the concentration sites. About 60% of themeteorites were found in moraines. Fig. 8, produced by aSPOT-5 image with a resolution of 10 m, shows two typicalmoraines in the Grove Mountains, named moraine No. 1 andmoraine No. 4 by the CHINARE team, where a large number ofmeteorites were collected. The formation of the moraines isclosely related to the ice flow. Smaller moraine areas can beinterpreted in the satellite images with higher resolutions,which is significant to guide the field search for meteorites.

(2) Many meteorite accumulation zones occur in front of sub-merged or emerged bedrock obstacles, where the meteorite-bearing ice slows down and is uplifted by the buttressingeffect. In these areas of stagnant or slow-moving ice, windablation is capable of exhuming and concentrating meteoritestrapped in the ice (Cassidy et al., 1992). However, there aredense crevasses along the east side of Gale Escarpment, whichhindered the expedition team from traversing by vehicle or onfoot. The actual situation is that most meteorites collectedduring the five expeditions were located in the west side ofGale Escarpment, which is the downstream side of theseemerged or submerged bedrock barriers. The lee of topo-graphic barriers is also an important concentration area.

(3) After the collection of 4448 meteorites during the 19thCHINARE, another 5354 meteorites were found almost inthe same area during the 22nd CHINARE. Though there isonly a 3-year time interval between the two expeditions,many ‘‘new’’ meteorites were exposed by ablation and windtransports (Lin et al., 2008). On several occasions scientisthave found that centimeter-sized meteorites become exposedby just a few days of exceptionally calm and sunny weather.Here, the ablation of the blue ice is the driving factor.Fig. 6. The general locations of collected meteorites in Antarctica.

Fig. 7. Some collection sites of meteorites in the Grove Mountains (modified from

Lin et al., 2006).



4.3. Meteorite concentrations and proposed methodology

Since the first Antarctic meteorite concentrations were recog-nized 30 years ago, many theories have been brought forward toexplain the presence of these concentrations. The common charac-teristics are the exposure of blue ice, high rates of ablation, relativelyslow ice movement, and evidence for significant changes in icemotion, such as crevassing and moraine development. Antarcticmeteorite concentration theories consider a combination of factorsfeaturing or including direct infall, glacial transport of meteoriteswithin the ice or on the ice surface, fragmentation and windtransportation of meteorite specimens and deflation of the ice sheet(Harvey, 2003). As for the Grove Mountains area, ice streams flowthrough the nunataks. Besides the ablation of the blue ice areas, theice flow and mountains’ blocking effect in principle serve as thedominant factors behind the existence of a meteorite concentration.

Recognition of meteorite concentration mechanisms will improvethe rate of discovery of new meteorite concentration sites. Whilemeteorite concentrations are complex natural phenomena depend-ing on a variety of factors, the meteorite concentration theoriesshould be further analyzed by taking into account ice-flow dynamics,mountains’ blocking effect, katabatic wind and ice ablation, andothers (Corti et al., 2003). Considerations should be given not only tothe Grove Mountains but also to other regions of Antarctica.

Although currently the most effective meteorite detector forAntarctic meteorite searches is human eyes, recent technologicaladvancements have improved Antarctic meteorite recovery. Atfirst, the blue ice areas can be interpreted from satellite images.Based on analysis of meteorite concentration mechanisms includ-ing horizontal ice velocities, vertical ablation, moraine interpreta-tion, etc., the concentration sites can be predicted and locationscan be provided to expedition scientists with accurate geogra-phical coordinates. Guided by GPS navigation tools, the searchstrategies typically follow the transect-sampling model. Whenmeteorites are found, the information is saved in a personaldigital assistant (PDA) designed to work in a frigid environment.

The data are exported from the PDA to the meteorite databasedirectly. The proposed methodology is listed in Fig. 9.

5. Meteorite data distribution service

Many Antarctic expeditions have contributed to meteoriterecovery. Many meteorite websites and databases are availableto provide information on meteorites from Antarctica and otherplaces in the world (Schutt et al., 1993; Schutt, 2009). However,data sharing and information exchange are not well developed forpolar studies. Based on the experience of the meteorite recoveryprogram in the Grove Mountains area, we plan to visualize andshare our meteorite data more widely through a geospatialcyberinfrastructure (Yang et al., this issue). According to thedemands for both Antarctic expeditions in the field and websharing, desktop software based on ArcObjects and web softwarebased on ArcIMS are developed. Besides the desktop GIS andWebGIS systems, an independent information management sys-tem based on the Oracle database is necessary. It can supply muchhigher efficiency for querying, browsing, and downloading.

Database construction is a fundamental step for the platformconstruction and distribution service. After building the database,including spatial data and attribute data, the GIS functions weredesigned and developed to visualize and share the data. Not onlywere the websites and databases established, but also a meteoritemap service based on the spatial database was provided.

5.1. Database construction

To organize different types of data, a database is establishedwith Oracle 10g to load all the data about the Grove Mountainsarea, including satellite images, digital elevation models, GPSpoints along expedition routes, and meteorites. Each type of datahas one or more tables in the database. For example, Table 1illustrates the meteorite data in one table with 15 fields.

Besides the attributes and coordinates, further analysis andresults such as composition of the meteorites were included in thedatabase. The database is being updated with more and moremeteorites collected and analyzed. Different from simple websitesand databases, data interfaces were designed to authorize the users

Fig. 9. Proposed workflow for meteorite recovery.

Fig. 8. Two typical moraines in the Grove Mountains.



to update and maintain the data. Web Map Service (WMS) and WebFeature Service (WFS) are provided for serving spatial data, con-tributing to the construction of a geospatial cyberinfrastructure.

5.2. System architecture

The platform comprises the desktop and network software. Theformer software focusing on the geospatial visualization and analysis(Li et al., this issue-a) is designed for the expedition members,researchers, and officers. The network software, specialized for data

distribution and sharing, is developed for Internet users. The archi-tecture of the desktop software is a development based on theArcObjects Map Controls in the Microsoft Visual Cþþ IntegratedDeveloping Environment. The network software allows the functionsof data visualization interoperability and WMS/WFS by adoptingArcIMS in the Tomcat web platform (Johnson et al., this issue).The Oracle database, which can be linked from the desktop andnetwork interface, contains the spatial data and meteorite attributedata. The graphical user interface is developed for inserting andupdating the collection and classification data of meteorites (Fig. 10).

5.3. Implementation

Currently, 1803 meteorites collected in the Grove Mountains havebeen approved by the International Meteoritical Society. The dis-covery locations of the collected meteorites can be overlaid on thesatellite image maps, which can then be published on the Internetusing ArcIMS and Google Maps. A desktop software, namedGISPanda, was developed with ArcObjects based on Microsoft VisualCþþ 6.0 where the satellite images, blue ice distribution, meteorites’observed GPS locations, expedition routes, etc., are integrated andloaded. The primary programming code of GISPanda is based onArcObject CMapControl, in which the meteorite information andimage maps can be viewed. Fig. 11 presents the distribution of the1803 meteorites in GISPanda, and Fig. 12 is an example of thestatistical analysis of the meteorite mass.

Table 1Meteorite data table in Oracle database.

No. Field name Description Data type

1 MNAME The meteorite ID VARCHAR2(255)

2 DATEREC Date of recovery DATE

3 LAT Latitude NUMBER

4 LON Longitude NUMBER

5 MASS_G Meteorite mass in gram unit NUMBER

6 MCLASS Meteorite class VARCHAR2(255)

7 SHOCK Shock grade VARCHAR2(255)

8 WG Weathering grade VARCHAR2(255)

9 FA Fa (mol%) NUMBER

10 FS Fs (mol%) NUMBER

11 WO Wo (mol%) NUMBER

12 NUM Number of pieces NUMBER

13 INFO Analysis institution VARCHAR2(255)

14 COLLECTOR Collector in Antarctica VARCHAR2(255)

15 COMMENT Other remarks VARCHAR2(255)

Fig. 10. Architecture of the information service platform.

Fig. 11. Meteorite distribution displayed in GISPanda.

Fig. 12. The mass statistics of the 1803 meteorites.



When viewing the map from the ArcIMS Java viewer, Internetusers can select the ‘‘identify’’ button and choose meteorites inthe map. When selected, a detailed information box will pop out.The direct data query and download function are also suppliedwith an Asynchronous JavaScript and an XML (AJAX)-enabledweb service (Li et al., 2010). An Excel file can be opened withdetailed meteorite information such as special class, location,mass, and date of recovery. The meteorite distribution map canbe obtained directly. WMS and WFS are supplied with ArcIMSconnector. An example of a meteorite query from ArcIMS webviewer is illustrated in Fig. 13. Fig. 14 is an example of the mapview of the Grove Mountains area based on the ArcIMS WMSconnector. The functions of data distribution service for clientinclude: (1) the basic operations such as zoom in, zoom out,full extent, and pan tools, (2) the query operations such as geo-

metry, attribute, and SQL query, (3) extraction operations suchas feature extraction, and (4) analysis operations such as bufferanalysis.

For security considerations, data updating is only allowed fromdesktop software. Internet users can submit new data from thenetwork interface. The system administrator will verify andaccept the data directly in the Oracle database. With more andmore meteorites confirmed by the International MeteoriticalSociety, the database must be updated regularly. The specialfunction of this system can also be extended for additionalrequirements.

6. Discussion and conclusions

This paper reports on blue ice areas, moraines, meteorite recovery,meteorite concentration mechanisms, and meteorite data distributionservice. The results of this study can be summarized as follows:

(1) The blue ice areas in the Grove Mountains area attractedscientists’ attention as a likely site for meteorite concentration,which led to field expeditions and successful meteorite recovery.Satellite images are indispensable for the interpretation of theblue ice areas and moraines, providing important clues formeteorite searches and also serving as an indispensible datasource in the database.

(2) Furthermore, moraines are one kind of meteorite concentra-tion sites in the Grove Mountains area. In addition, highresolution remote sensing images and high precision digitalelevation models are prerequisites for a thorough analysis.A satellite image with higher resolution could be adopted torealize the auto-extraction of the moraines in the future.

(3) Meteorite concentration is an interesting topic and needs furtherstudy by combining other variables, such as ice flow velocity,katabatic winds, ablation rates for the analysis of concentrationmechanisms, and meteorite collection in the Grove Mountains aswell as other areas near the Chinese Zhongshan Station.

Fig. 13. Example for meteorite query from ArcIMS web viewer.

Fig. 14. Map view of the Grove Mountains area based on the ArcIMS WMS connector

(Landsat image overlaid with the expedition route and meteorite collection sites).



(4) Based on the meteorite data, desktop software GISPanda basedon ArcObjects and web software based on ArcIMS are integratedand developed for the display, query, analysis, visualization, andnetwork sharing of the meteorite and correlative data. Thisarchitecture is also valuable for further analysis of the meteoriteconcentration mechanisms and authentic concentration sites inthe Grove Mountains. To some extent, the meteorite concentra-tion sites validate the theories of meteorite concentrationmechanisms, as evaluated effectively in the GIS system. Specialfunctions of the system can also be developed according todifferent requirements.

(5) The data/map service architecture provides an example of ageospatial cyberinfrastructure for polar studies and furtherfunctionalities will also be added for supporting the meteoritestudies and integrated with other polar research platformsand activities (Li et al., this issue-b; Parent et al., this issue).

Acknowledgments

This research is funded by the Chinese 863 program (No.2 009AA12Z133, PI: Dr. Zhou Chunxia), National Nature ScienceFoundation of China (NSFC) (No. 40606002, No. 41076126/D0611,PI: Dr. Zhou Chunxia), National Basic Research Program of China(No. 2011CB707101, PI: Dr. Chen Nengcheng), and the eleventh-five Basic Surveying and Mapping of the State Bureau of Surveyingand Mapping (No. 1469990711109-1, PI: Prof. E Dongchen).We sincerely thank Zhang Jie, Polar Research Institute of China,for providing the meteorite data, and Dr. David A. Tait, forproofreading the manuscript. The authors thank the editors andanonymous reviewers for their valuable comments andinsightful ideas.

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author's personal copy - wuhan universityswe.whu.edu.cn/cnc_web/paper/10.pdf · 2011-10-22 ·...

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