The Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) is responsible for the archive and distribution of NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) SRTM, which includes the global 30 arc second (~1,000 meter) product.
The NASA SRTM product with sample spacing of 3 arc second (~90 meter) generated by a 3 X 3 averaging of the 1 arc second data are then 10 X 10 averaged to produce thirty 30 arc second (~1,000 meter) data to correspond with Global 30 Arc Second Elevation (GTOPO30). (See the User Guide Section 2.1.4)
The NASA SRTM data sets result from a collaborative effort by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA - previously known as the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, or NIMA), as well as the participation of the German and Italian space agencies. This collaboration aims to generate a near-global digital elevation model (DEM) of Earth using radar interferometry. SRTM was the primary (and virtually only) payload on the STS-99 mission of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which launched February 11, 2000 and flew for 11 days.
The SRTM swaths extended from ~30 degrees off-nadir to ~58 degrees off-nadir from an altitude of 233 kilometers (km), creating swaths ~225 km wide, and consisted of all land between 60° N and 56° S latitude to account for 80% of Earth's total landmass.
Known Issues
* SRTMGL30 is Version 2.1 and has not been updated for the NASA SRTM V3.0 release as described in the User Guide.
* Known issues in the NASA SRTM are described in the following publication:
* Rodriguez, E., C. S. Morris, and J. E. Belz (2006), A global assessment of the SRTM performance, Photogramm. Eng. Remote Sens., 72, 249–260. https://doi.org/10.14358/PERS.72.3.249