The SRTM data flight occurred Feb. 11-22, 2000 on STS-99 and
successfully fulfilled all mission objectives. Following a lengthy
calibration and validation phase the 9 terabytes of raw data were
processed continent by continent into digital topographic maps, and the
last data set was delivered to NGA in January, 2003.
NGA, through its contractors, is currently editing and verifying the
SRTM data to bring them into conformance with National Map Accuracy
Standards and to format them to their Digital Terrain Elevation Data
(DTED) specifications. These "finished" data will then be returned to
NASA for distribution to the public through the United States Geological
Survey, by the end of 2005.
At the same time, NASA has begun public release of the unedited SRTM
data on a continent by continent basis. So far, North and South America,
Eurasia and Africa have been released and are available via ftp at:
ftp://e0dps01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/ or
the USGS Seamless Server at: http://seamless.usgs.gov/.
The current public release schedule calls for the remaining data, covering
Australia, New Zealand numerous Island groups to be released by July, 2004.
The NASA-NGA agreement on data distribution calls for 3 arc-sec (~90 m)
resolution data to be released to the public for areas outside the
United States. For the US, full resolution 1 arc-sec (~30 m) have been
released. NASA is also processing the C-band radar image data and plans
to make the data available to the public around the end of 2004.
A full calibration and data quality report will be published soon and
other papers relevant to SRTM data and it applications are listed in the
SRTM Bibliography.
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