Shuttle radar topography mission overview

Abstract

In 1995, the DoD Joint Staff and the Intelligence Community recognized the need for a common understanding of the operational environment and that a major inhibitor was the lack of availability of digital terrain elevation data (DTED); which is vital to successful mission planning, operations and readiness. Elevation data provides a key ingredient to the readiness of our customers. Elevation data is one of three components of Foundation Data - Elevation data, Feature data, and Imagery data. Numerous systems under the control of the United States Government will use this data. Traditional methods to produce elevation data are very expensive and time consuming and major cloud belts would never be completed with existing methods. The National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) with National Aeronautical and Space Agency (NASA) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) sponsored the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) to use an interferometric technique to collect elevation data. SRTM was selected as the best method to supply nearly global, accurate elevation data. From 11-22 February 2000, the SRTM payload flew aboard NASA's Space Shuttle and collected highly specialized data that will allow us to increase the United States Government's coverage of vital and detailed DTED level 2 from less than 5% to 80% of the Earth's landmass. This exceeds results from nearly 30 years of prior efforts with a variety of systems working against persistent cloud cover worldwide. This vital contribution significantly increases the release of 3 arc-second spaced digital elevation data worldwide. This presentation describes the shuttle mission and its deliverables.