True, even such an image of Antarctica is incomplete. Landsat 7 was unable to capture the central area around the South Pole, making the map look like a donut with terra incognita in the center. However, the other territories that the satellite's cameras could reach are depicted with very high clarity (NASA's official press release states that details the size of half a basketball court, i.e., 14 m, can be discerned on the map). Robert Bindschadler, a geographer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, explaining the advantages of the new map over other satellite images of Antarctica, said that everything looks 'like watching high-definition television with live color compared to a grainy black-and-white picture.' It is claimed that such a high-resolution 'mosaic' will help scientists studying hard-to-reach areas of the continent, since even now it is almost impossible to reach many territories of Antarctica.
In recent years, Antarctica has become a topical and even fashionable subject, although at the end of the last century the icy continent somewhere far away at the pole was of little interest to anyone. Probably, first of all because the sixth continent was (and still remains) a territory without an economy. One can send scientific expeditions there, take tourists, and fishing is allowed in the Southern Ocean. The list of possible activities practically ends there: according to the Antarctic Treaty, one cannot own land or engage in any activity on the polar glaciers that is beneficial to one's own pocket.
As a result, there is a lack of detailed description of the internal territories of this continent. On ordinary physical maps, the surface of Antarctica is depicted schematically - the coastline, ice shelves (edges of continental ice that have slid into shallow water), the most noticeable ridges and peaks are drawn. Greater accuracy is not usually required, since even polar explorers rarely find themselves inside the continent (almost all scientific stations are located on the coast, where it is easier for a cargo ship to approach).