NASA Releases Most Accurate Topographical Map of Earth

Using measurements and high-resolution pictures from its Terra spacecraft, the American space agency NASA and Japan recently released the most accurate topographic rendering of Earth's surface, which covers no less than 99 percent of all places in the world today. Created entirely out of 1.3 million stereo-paired images, the map features points located very close to one another, roughly 98 feet apart. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and NASA decided that the data was public, and therefore it was available to anyone, anywhere. You can get it here.

“This is the most complete, consistent global digital elevation data yet made available to the world. This unique global set of data will serve users and researchers from a wide array of disciplines that need elevation and terrain information,” Aster Program Scientist Woody Turner, from the American space agency's headquarters, in Washington DC, explains. Aster, short for Japanese Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, is the camera aboard Terra that took virtually all the pictures used for the new mosaic.

“The Aster data fill in many of the voids in the shuttle mission's data, such as in very steep terrains and in some deserts. NASA is working to combine the Aster data with that of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission and other sources to produce an even better global topographic map,” Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Project Scientist Michael Kobrick, from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, adds.

“Aster's accurate topographic data will be used for engineering, energy exploration, conserving natural resources, environmental management, public works design, firefighting, recreation, geology and city planning, to name just a few areas,” JPL Aster science team leader Mike Abrams explains. Previously, he pinpoints, the most complex topographical map of the planet belonged to the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which only captured images of 80 percent of the planet's surface, between 60 degrees North latitude and 57 degrees South. The new image spans between 83 degrees North latitude and 83 degrees South, the expert adds, quoted in a statement released by JPL and Caltech.

With a resolution of 15 to 90 meters (50 to 300 feet), Aster is only one of five instruments on Terra. It can observe the planet in the visible and thermal infrared wavelengths, and its images can be combined with others obtained by NASA satellites or computer models. This means that the agency will soon be able to create 3D images of just about every area of Earth you could think of, which it could then use for energy management, crop efficiency, and so on.