Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- A map of Antarctica, produced by satellite technology, has images 10 times clearer than previously achieved and will aid scientists studying global warming on the continent, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.

NASA used about 1,100 images from its Landsat 7 satellite recorded between 1999 and 2001, the administration said on its Web site. As a result, features half the size of a basketball court can be seen on the map known as the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica, it said.

``It will open new windows of opportunity for scientific research as well as enable the public to become more familiar with Antarctica,'' said Robert Bindschadler, who led NASA's team for the project. The images ``provide a time-lapse historical record of how Antarctica has changed and will enable us to continue to watch changes unfold.''

Snow melted across an area of western Antarctica the size of California in 2005 as a result of warmer temperatures, NASA said in May, citing data recorded by satellite. The continent is facing a catastrophe, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon said earlier this month when he traveled to a research base. He was the first UN top official to visit Antarctica.

The map from a ``nearly cloudless satellite view'' will allow scientists to better plan expeditions, help interpret changes to the land and study rock formations, NASA said.

Bindschadler, the chief scientist of the Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, selected the images that make up the mosaic, NASA said. The U.S. Geological Survey, the National Science Foundation and the British Antarctic Survey were also part of the project.

Satellite Data

NASA said it has 14 satellites in orbit studying the Earth and providing information.

``The satellites have helped revolutionize the information that emergency officials have to respond to natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires,'' it said.

Antarctica's ice mass is the world's largest fresh water reservoir. The melting in 2005 was mapped by NASA's QuikScat craft and observed in areas as far as 560 miles (900 kilometers) inland and higher than 6,600 feet above sea level, where such a thaw was considered to be unlikely, NASA said in May. The data was processed from July 1999 to July 2005.

While no further melting has been detected, more monitoring is needed, Son Nghiem, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said at the time, according to the agency.

``Antarctica is on the verge of a catastrophe,'' Ban said during his visit. ``We see Antarctica's beauty and the danger global warming represents, and the urgency that we do something about it.''

Greenhouse gases that cause global warming can be kept in check by using available technologies and strategies, the UN said in May. Keeping concentrations of the gases in the air at current levels will cost less than 3 percent of world economic output by 2030, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in a May 4 report.

Rising temperatures will cause increased floods and droughts and extinctions of species, the panel said in an earlier report this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 27, 2007 22:41 EST