http://edc.usgs.gov/
amazing!!
and
NASA Goes 'Down Under' for Shuttle Mapping Mission Finale
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 U.S. 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, Calif.
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.
To view a selection of new images from the Shuttle Radar Topography
Mission's latest data set on the Internet, visit
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/SRTM .
To view a new fly-over animation of New Zealand on the Internet, visit
http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/ .
To learn more about this mission, visit
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm .
For an interactive multimedia geography quiz using data from the
mission, visit
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/srtm/ .
For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov .
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