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Collection:
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NASA Planetary Photo Journal Collection
Collection
NASA Planetary Photo Journal Collection
Collection
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Title:
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SRTM Data Release for Africa, Colored Height
Title
SRTM Data Release for Africa, Colored Height
Title
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Original Caption Released with Image:
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This color shaded relief image shows the extent of digital elevation data for Africa recently released by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). This release includes data for all of the continent, plus the island of Madagascar and the Arabian Peninsula. SRTM flew on board the Space Shuttle Endeavour in February 2000 and used an interferometric radar system to map the topography of Earth's landmass between latitudes 56 degrees south and 60 degrees north.
The data were processed into geographic "tiles," each of which represents one by one degree of latitude and longitude. A degree of latitude measures 111 kilometers (69 miles) north-south, and a degree of longitude measures 111 kilometers or less east-west, decreasing away from the equator. The data are being released to the public on a continent-by-contine nt basis. This Africa segment includes 3256 tiles, almost a quarter of the total data set. Previous releases covered North America, South America and Eurasia. Forthcoming releases will include Australia plus an "Islands" release for those islands not included in the continental releases. Together these data releases constitute the world's first high-resolution, near-global elevation model. The resolution of the publicly released data is three arcseconds (1/1,200 of a degree of latitude and longitude), which is about 90 meters (295 feet).
Coverage in the current data release extends from 35 degrees north latitude at the southern edge of the Mediterranean to the very tip of South Africa, encompassing a great diversity of landforms. The northern part of the continent consists of a system of basins and plateaus, with several volcanic uplands whose uplift has been matched by subsidence in the large surrounding basins. Many of these basins have been infilled with sand and gravel, creating the vast Saharan lands. The Atlas Mountains in the northwest were created by convergence of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates.
The geography of the central latitudes of Africa is dominated by the Great Rift Valley, extending from Lake Nyasa to the Red Sea, and splitting into two arms to enclose an interior plateau and the nearly circular Lake Victoria, visible in the right center of the image. To the west lies the Congo Basin, a vast, shallow depression which rises to form an almost circular rim of highlands.
Most of the southern part of the continent rests on a concave plateau comprising the Kalahari basin and a mountainous fringe, skirted by a coastal plain which widens out in Mozambique in the southeast.
Many of these regions were previously very poorly mapped due to persistent cloud cover or the inaccessibility of the terrain. Digital elevation data, such as provided by SRTM, are particularly in high demand by scientists studying earthquakes, volcanism, and erosion patterns for use in mapping and modeling hazards to human habitation. But the shape of Earth's surface affects nearly every natural process and human endeavor that occurs there,
Original_Caption_Rel eased_with_Image
This color shaded relief image shows the extent of digital elevation data for Africa recently released by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). This release includes data for all of the continent, plus the island of Madagascar and the Arabian Peninsula. SRTM flew on board the Space Shuttle Endeavour in February 2000 and used an interferometric radar system to map the topography of Earth's landmass between latitudes 56 degrees south and 60 degrees north.
The data were processed into geographic "tiles," each of which represents one by one degree of latitude and longitude. A degree of latitude measures 111 kilometers (69 miles) north-south, and a degree of longitude measures 111 kilometers or less east-west, decreasing away from the equator. The data are being released to the public on a continent-by-contine nt basis. This Africa segment includes 3256 tiles, almost a quarter of the total data set. Previous releases covered North America, South America and Eurasia. Forthcoming releases will include Australia plus an "Islands" release for those islands not included in the continental releases. Together these data releases constitute the world's first high-resolution, near-global elevation model. The resolution of the publicly released data is three arcseconds (1/1,200 of a degree of latitude and longitude), which is about 90 meters (295 feet).
Coverage in the current data release extends from 35 degrees north latitude at the southern edge of the Mediterranean to the very tip of South Africa, encompassing a great diversity of landforms. The northern part of the continent consists of a system of basins and plateaus, with several volcanic uplands whose uplift has been matched by subsidence in the large surrounding basins. Many of these basins have been infilled with sand and gravel, creating the vast Saharan lands. The Atlas Mountains in the northwest were created by convergence of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates.
The geography of the central latitudes of Africa is dominated by the Great Rift Valley, extending from Lake Nyasa to the Red Sea, and splitting into two arms to enclose an interior plateau and the nearly circular Lake Victoria, visible in the right center of the image. To the west lies the Congo Basin, a vast, shallow depression which rises to form an almost circular rim of highlands.
Most of the southern part of the continent rests on a concave plateau comprising the Kalahari basin and a mountainous fringe, skirted by a coastal plain which widens out in Mozambique in the southeast.
Many of these regions were previously very poorly mapped due to persistent cloud cover or the inaccessibility of the terrain. Digital elevation data, such as provided by SRTM, are particularly in high demand by scientists studying earthquakes, volcanism, and erosion patterns for use in mapping and modeling hazards to human habitation. But the shape of Earth's surface affects nearly every natural process and human endeavor that occurs there,
Original Caption Released with Image
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Original Caption Released with Image:
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so elevation data are used in a wide range of applications.
In this index map color-coding is directly related to topographic height, with brown and yellow at the lower elevations, rising through green, to white at the highest elevations. Blue areas on the map represent water within the mapped tiles, each of which includes shorelines or islands.
Elevation data used in this image were acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on February 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect three-dimensional measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter-long (200-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Geospatial-Intellige nce Agency (NGA) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and the German and Italian space agencies. It is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, Washington, DC.
Orientation: North toward the top, Mercator projection
Image Data: Colored SRTM elevation model
Date Acquired: February 2000
Original_Caption_Rel eased_with_Image
so elevation data are used in a wide range of applications.
In this index map color-coding is directly related to topographic height, with brown and yellow at the lower elevations, rising through green, to white at the highest elevations. Blue areas on the map represent water within the mapped tiles, each of which includes shorelines or islands.
Elevation data used in this image were acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on February 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect three-dimensional measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter-long (200-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Geospatial-Intellige nce Agency (NGA) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and the German and Italian space agencies. It is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, Washington, DC.
Orientation: North toward the top, Mercator projection
Image Data: Colored SRTM elevation model
Date Acquired: February 2000
Original Caption Released with Image
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Image Credit:
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NASA/JPL/NIMA
Image_Credit
NASA/JPL/NIMA
Image Credit
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Produced By:
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JPL
Produced_By
JPL
Produced By
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Mission:
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Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM)
Mission
Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM)
Mission
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Spacecraft:
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Space Shuttle Endeavour
Spacecraft
Space Shuttle Endeavour
Spacecraft
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Target Name:
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Earth
Target_Name
Earth
Target Name
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Is a satellite of:
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Sol (our sun)
Is_a_satellite_of
Sol (our sun)
Is a satellite of
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Instrument:
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C-Band Interferometric Radar
Instrument
C-Band Interferometric Radar
Instrument
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Instrument:
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X-Band Radar
Instrument
X-Band Radar
Instrument
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Product Size:
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9600 samples x 10500 lines
Product_Size
9600 samples x 10500 lines
Product Size
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facet_what:
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Sun
facet_what
Sun
facet_what
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facet_what:
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Atlas
facet_what
Atlas
facet_what
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facet_what:
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Earth
facet_what
Earth
facet_what
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facet_what:
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Radar System
facet_what
Radar System
facet_what
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facet_what:
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C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar
facet_what
C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar
facet_what
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facet_what:
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Spaceborne Imaging Radar
facet_what
Spaceborne Imaging Radar
facet_what
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facet_what:
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Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar
facet_what
Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar
facet_what
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facet_what:
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Space Shuttle Endeavour
facet_what
Space Shuttle Endeavour
facet_what
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facet_what:
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Shuttle Radar Topography Mission
facet_what
Shuttle Radar Topography Mission
facet_what
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facet_what:
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SRTM
facet_what
SRTM
facet_what
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facet_what:
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C-Band Interferometric Radar
facet_what
C-Band Interferometric Radar
facet_what
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facet_what:
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X-Band Radar
facet_what
X-Band Radar
facet_what
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facet_what:
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Space Shuttle Orbiter
facet_what
Space Shuttle Orbiter
facet_what
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facet_what:
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Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM)
facet_what
Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM)
facet_what
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facet_where:
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Jet Propulsion Laboratory
facet_where
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
facet_where
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facet_where:
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Australia
facet_where
Australia
facet_where
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facet_where:
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Red Sea
facet_where
Red Sea
facet_where
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facet_where:
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Washington
facet_where
Washington
facet_where
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facet_where:
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South Africa
facet_where
South Africa
facet_where
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facet_where:
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Victoria
facet_where
Victoria
facet_where
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facet_where:
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Madagascar
facet_where
Madagascar
facet_where
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facet_where:
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Mozambique
facet_where
Mozambique
facet_where
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facet_where:
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Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
facet_where
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
facet_where
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facet_when:
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1994
facet_when
1994
facet_when
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facet_when:
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February 2000
facet_when
February 2000
facet_when
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facet_when:
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February 11, 2000
facet_when
February 11, 2000
facet_when
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facet_when_year:
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1994
facet_when_year
1994
facet_when_year
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facet_when_year:
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2000
facet_when_year
2000
facet_when_year
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Image #:
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PIA04965
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UID:
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SPD-PHOTJ-PIA04965
UID
SPD-PHOTJ-PIA04965
UID
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orignial url:
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orignial_url
orignial url
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