Working With NGIA, NASA Completes Most Extensive Topographical
Map Ever
Culminating more than four years of processing data, NASA and
the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency have completed Earth's
most extensive global topographic map.
The data, extensive enough to fill the US Library of Congress,
were gathered during the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which
flew in February 2000 on the Space Shuttle Endeavour.
The digital elevation maps encompass 80 percent of Earth's
landmass. They reveal for the first time large, detailed swaths of
Earth's topography previously obscured by persistent cloudiness.
The data will benefit scientists, engineers, government agencies
and the public with an ever-growing array of uses.
"This is among the most significant science missions the Shuttle
has ever performed, and it's probably the most significant mapping
mission of any single type ever," said Dr. Michael Kobrick, mission
project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
CA.
The final data release covers Australia and New Zealand in
unprecedented uniform detail. It also covers more than 1,000
islands comprising much of Polynesia and Melanesia in the South
Pacific, as well as islands in the South Indian and Atlantic
oceans.
"Many of these islands have never had their topography mapped,"
Kobrick said. "Their low topography makes them vulnerable to tidal
effects, storm surges and long-term sea level rise. Knowing exactly
where rising waters will go is vital to mitigating the effects of
future disasters such as the Indian Ocean tsunami."
Data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission are being used
for applications ranging from land use planning to "virtual" Earth
exploration. "Future missions using similar technology could
monitor changes in Earth's topography over time, and even map the
topography of other planets," said Dr. John LaBrecque, manager of
NASA's Solid Earth and Natural Hazards Program, NASA Headquarters,
Washington, D.C.
The mission’s radar system mapped Earth from 56 degrees
south to 60 degrees north of the equator. The resolution of the
publicly available data is three arc-seconds (1/1,200th of a degree
of latitude and longitude, about 295 feet, at Earth's equator). The
mission is a collaboration among NASA, the National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and the German and Italian space
agencies. The mission’s role in space history was honored
with a display of the mission's canister and mast antenna at the
Smithsonian Institution's Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, VA.