SRTM30 Michigan

Sustainability science and earth information products.

SRTM30 Michigan

(691 pixels x 786 pixels)

Source: This image was generated using TerraViva! Global Data Viewer from ISciences.

The Mission

NASA collected elevation data for much of the world using a radar instrument aboard the space shuttle that orbited the earth from the 11th through the 22nd of February 2000. This mission resulted in 12 terabytes of raw data which have been processed over the past three years. NASA has now released a global elevation dataset called SRTM30, referring to the name of the mission and the resolution of the data, which is 30 arc-seconds, or approximately 1 km² per data sample near the equator.

The SRTM30 data set is NASA's latest achievement in improving the quality of digital elevation data available for public use. The data cover a range from 60 degrees south latitude to 60 degrees north latitude, or from the southern tip of South America to the northern tip of Great Britain.

Two pairs of images on the right illustrate the consistency that SRTM30 data offer over previous best sources (GLOBE) of global elevation data at the scale of 30 arc seconds (approximately one kilometer square at the equator). The first pair is of Manaus, Brazil where the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimões join to make the Amazon River. The image at the top was constructed using best available data at that time resulting in a checker-board like pattern. Note that the confluence of the two rivers is very well depicted by the SRTM30 image below, but not apparent in the prior data. The two images of west-central Australia illustrate how the SRTM30 image at the bottom seems to bring detail into focus.

The Map

ISciences, the producer of TerraViva! software, has merged the SRTM30 data with our previous elevation data from outside of this latitude range, and with global depth data for the oceans (from ETOPO2) to produce a seamless world Elevation and Depth map. This new map is available in TerraViva! GeoPack - World Environment.

The Images

All of the images on this page have been produced by ISciences staff using TerraViva! Global Data Viewer. Click on any of the images at right to view and compare more detailed versions.

Figure 5: Both GLOBE and SRTM30 provide high resolution data for many parts of the earth, such as Michigan. The elevation shown on the Michigan image ranges from 133m to 517m.

Figure 1: A portion of the Amazon River showing the variable data quality of GLOBE (above).

Figure 2: A portion of the Amazon River showing the uniform data quality of SRTM30 (above).

Figure 3: Western central Australia shows smoothed low resolution data from GLOBE (above).

Figure 4: Western central Australia shows high resolution data from SRTM30 (above).

*References

SRTM30. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA.
GLOBE. National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA.
ETOPO2. National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA.
GTOPO30. Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center, NASA.

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