Shuttle radar topography mission produces a wealth of data

TLDR

The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) was a NASA/NIMA cooperative effort that flew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in February 2000, producing the highest‑resolution digital topographic map of Earth to date. Its goal was to generate a global digital elevation model of Earth's land surface between 60° N and 56° S using a single‑pass radar interferometer. The mission employed over 300 high‑density tapes and a single‑pass radar interferometer to capture elevation data, producing a DEM and ortho‑rectified image mosaics from ascending and descending passes. The resulting DEM will feature 30‑m horizontal pixel spacing and approximately 15‑m vertical accuracy.

Abstract

On February 22, 2000, the Space Shuttle Endeavour landed at Kennedy Space Center, completing the highly successful 11‐day flight of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Onboard were over 300 high‐density tapes containing data for the highest resolution digital topographic map of Earth ever made. SRTM is a cooperative project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) of the U.S. Department of Defense. The mission was designed to use a single‐pass radar interferometer to produce a digital elevation model (DEM) of the Earth's land surface between about 60 north and 56 south latitude. When completed, the DEM will have 30‐m pixel spacing and about 15‐m vertical accuracy. Two ortho‐rectified image mosaics, one from the ascending passes with illumination from the southeast, and one from descending passes with illumination from the southwest, will also be produced (Figure 1).