Principles of Remote Sensing

Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

SRTM

Michiel Damen
Dept. Earth Systems Analysis

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND EARTH OBSERVATION

 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Contents
• Present problems with DEMs
• Advantage of SRTM
• Cell size
• Mission and system
• Radar Interferometry
• Downoad and import of SRTM data

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 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Present availability topographical maps

1:25.000 1:50.000 1:100.000 1:200.000

% % % %

Africa 3 41 22 89

Asia 15 84 66 100

Australia 18 24 54 100

Europe 87 96 87 91

N. America 45 78 38 99

S. America 7 33 58 84

Source: CNES, Paris/Toulouse, 1997 (From PowerPoint Ben Maathuis, ITC

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 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Present problems with DEMs

• Elevation derived from the interpolation of topographic
contours is not always accurate enough because of loss of
detail
• Electronic theodolites and GPS provide only point
measurements
• Integration of topographic data from different sources
may result in inhomogeneous data quality due to different
datums, map projections, formats, resolutions, etc.
(Maathuis, ITC)

Text after PowerPoint B. Maathuis, ITC

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 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Advantage of SRTM
• Homogeneity: SRTM DEM has not been mosaiced from data
derived from different sensors, formats and dates
• Resolution improvement: only spatial resolution of approx. 90 m.
and vertical accuracy of < 10 m.
• In US even 30 m !
• Freely available from the internet

Text after PowerPoint B. Maathuis, ITC

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND EARTH OBSERVATION

 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Cell size of DEM

Resolution: cell size of approx. 92 m and vertical accuracy of < 15 m.
Cell size in US even 30 m !

Text after PowerPoint

Maathuis, ITC
Figures: USGS SRTM
Website

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND EARTH OBSERVATION

 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Cell size of DEM

GLOBEDEM SRTM Global SRTM USA

1 km 90 m 30 m

Figures: USGS SRTM

Website

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND EARTH OBSERVATION

 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Mission and System…1

Space Shuttle flight of 11 days; launched 11 February 2000
Radar instrument: Spaceborne Interferometric SAR with a 60 m.
long mast and X-band (3.1 cm) and C-band (5.3 cm) antenna

Text after PowerPoint B. Maathuis, ITC Figures: USGS SRTM Website

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND EARTH OBSERVATION
 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Mission and System…2

Space Shuttle with 60 m. long SRTM mast

Pictures: USGS SRTM

Website

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 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Mission and System…3

• Radar beam swath width 225 km; orbit altitude 233 km.
• Day, night and all weather independent

Text after PowerPoint B.

Maathuis, ITC
Figure: USGS SRTM
Website

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 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Radar Interferometry…1
The technique to generate three-dimensional images from the Earth’s
surface by combining two sets of radar signals.
A transmit antenna “illuminates” the terrain with a radar beam which is
scattered by the surface.
Two receive antennas with a fixed separation between them (baseline)
record the backscattered radar echo from slightly different
positions.
Baseline Transmitted wave
Received wave

Text and figure: USGS SRTM Website

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 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Radar Interferometry…2
The baseline distance between the main antenna and the outboard
antenna were known very accurately and remained constant.
What did change is the distance to the Earth's surface in relation to
the two antennas. Within the reflected radar beam, the point
which represents where the reflection took place was slightly
different between the main and outboard antennas.
• Baseline Transmitted wave
Received wave

Text and figure: USGS SRTM Website

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 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Radar Interferometry…3
Using the information about the distance between the two antennas
and the differences in the reflected radar wave signals, accurate
elevation of the Earth's surface can be calculated.
When two interferometric radar data sets are combined the first
product made is called an interferogram.
This looks similar to those bands of color you see in a film of oil.

Text and figure from USGS SRTM

website

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 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Radar Interferometry…4

See also web slide

Text and figure from USGS SRTM

website
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 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Download of SRTM data

Text and figure from USGS SRTM

website

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 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Download of SRTM data

Freely available from the internet :
ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/version2/

Blocks of 1 x 1 degree

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 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Download of SRTM data ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/version2/

Text and figure from USGS SRTM

website
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND EARTH OBSERVATION
 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Download of SRTM data

ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/version2/

2. 1.

¾ Topographic

¾ Open Topographic
¾ SRTM DEM
¾ File
¾Save File As
¾Tiff/GeoTIFF

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND EARTH OBSERVATION

 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Download of SRTM data

Seamless http://seamless.usgs.gov/

1.
View and download
International data

Text and figure from

USGS SRTM website

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND EARTH OBSERVATION

 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Download of SRTM data

Seamless http://seamless.usgs.gov/

Downloads

Green selection OK
3
4 2
SRTM Finished
3 arc sec

Text and figure from

USGS SRTM website

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND EARTH OBSERVATION

 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Download of SRTM data

Seamless http://seamless.usgs.gov/

Modify Data Request

5

Text and figure from USGS SRTM website

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND EARTH OBSERVATION
 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Import SRTM data in ENVI

1. 2.

¾ File ¾ Topographic
¾ Open Image File ¾ Open Topographic
3. ¾ SRTM DEM
¾File
¾ Save File AS
¾Tiff/GeoTIFF

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 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Hillshaded SRTM DTM from Bali, Indonesia

Image processing: Ben Maathuis, ITC

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND EARTH OBSERVATION

 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Questions

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