June 17, 2004
NASA Data Offers a Safari into Vast
African Topography
Newly released topographic data sets from
NASA and the National Geospatial-Intelligence
Agency (NGA) provide twenty first century
explorers new ways to traverse the wonders of
Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and Madagascar.
Courtesy of the Shuttle Radar Topography
Mission (SRTM), African topography can be studied
and understood as never before. SRTM is a
cooperative project of NASA, NGA, the German and
Italian space agencies.
The exotic and often harsh terrain portrayed
in movies like “Out of Africa,”
“The African Queen,” and
“Lawrence of Arabia,” is shrouded in
mystery to many Westerners. The vast, often
inaccessible territory has some of Earth’s
most diverse, extreme and breathtaking
topography, much of it hidden behind a veil of
persistent cloud cover.
Dr. Michael Kobrick, SRTM project scientist at
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL),
Pasadena, Calif., said the new data are a hot
commodity. “The demand for Africa and
Arabia digital elevation data is brisk. The data
are being used for varied applications such as
studies of earthquakes, volcanism and erosion
patterns,” he said.
To embark on a safari of 12 new compelling
images and a new fly-around animation, visit:
http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/africa.htm
The new data represents about one-fourth of
the total from the mission. The SRTM radar system
mapped Earth’s topography between 56
degrees south and 60 degrees north of the equator
in February 2000. The resolution of the data is
three arc- seconds, which is 1/1,200 of a degree
of latitude and longitude, or about 90 meters
(295 feet). While that’s not quite good
enough to spot a snake in the Serengeti or corral
a Saharan camel, it’s more than enough to
capture our imaginations, and pique the interests
of scientists.
“The shape of Earth’s surface
affects nearly every natural process and human
endeavor,” said Dr. John LaBrecque,
manager, Solid Earth and Natural Hazards Program,
NASA Headquarters, Washington. “One
interesting African application is Mount
Kilimanjaro. Its glaciers are rapidly shrinking
and expected to disappear soon, if the rates
continue. By combining satellite imagery with
elevation data, scientists can better monitor and
understand environmental changes,” he
said.
Africa’s topography is diverse. The
northern continent consists of plateaus and
basins, many of which filled with sand and gravel
to create the Sahara. The converging African and
Eurasian tectonic plates created the Atlas
Mountains. Africa’s central latitudes are
dominated by the Great Rift Valley, a geological
fault system. To the west lies the vast, shallow
Congo Basin. Most of southern Africa rests on a
plateau comprising the Kalahari basin and a
mountainous fringe, skirted by a coastal plain
that widens out in Mozambique.
The Arabian Peninsula, the southwest part of
Asia, split from Africa about 30 million years
ago. Abrupt cliffs along the Red Sea and Gulf of
Aden provide evidence of this massive rip in
Earth’s crust. The peninsula’s
northeastward migration is also evident in
topography. It collides with the rest of Asia to
form mountains in Iran, and it slides past the
Mediterranean region to create the Dead Sea
fault. At the Dead Sea some stretching
accompanied the sliding, which created
Earth’s lowest land elevation.
Previous SRTM releases covered Eurasia, North
and South America. The final release this summer
will include Australia, New Zealand and various
islands. Together, these data constitute the
world’s first high-resolution, near- global
elevation model.
The NGA one arc-second (30 meters or 98.4
feet) data products for the United States and
territorial islands are also available on the
Internet, at:
http://edc.usgs.gov/
NASA processed input into research-quality
digital elevation data. The NGA provides
additional processing to develop mapping
products. The U.S. Geological Survey Earth
Resources Observation Systems Data Center
provides final archiving and data product
distribution. For information about SRTM on the
Internet, visit:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm
Contacts:
###
Contacts:
Gretchen Cook-Anderson
Headquarters, Washington
Phone: 202/358-0836
Alan Buis
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Phone: 818/354-0474
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![PIA04965](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081012122648im_/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ReleaseImages/20040617/01_PIA04965m_tn.jpg)
PIA04965
Colored Height, Africa High-Resolution
Image
![PIA04964](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081012122648im_/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ReleaseImages/20040617/02_PIA04964m_tn.jpg)
PIA04964
SRTM 3-D, Anaglyph of Shaded Relief,
Africa High-Resolution
Image
![PIA04963](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081012122648im_/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ReleaseImages/20040617/03_PIA04963m_tn.jpg)
PIA04963
Richat Structure, Mauritania, Perspective View,
Landsat image over SRTM elevation High-Resolution
Image
![PIA04962](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081012122648im_/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ReleaseImages/20040617/04_PIA04962m_tn.jpg)
PIA04962
Richat Structure, Mauritania, Anaglyph, Landsat
image over SRTM elevation High-Resolution
Image
![PIA04961](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081012122648im_/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ReleaseImages/20040617/05_PIA04961m_tn.jpg)
PIA04961
Cape Town, South Africa, Perspective View,
Landsat image over SRTM elevation High-Resolution
Image
![PIA04960](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081012122648im_/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ReleaseImages/20040617/06_PIA04960m_tn.jpg)
PIA04960
Cape Town, South Africa, Anaglyph, Landsat
image over SRTM elevation High-Resolution
Image
![PIA04959](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081012122648im_/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ReleaseImages/20040617/07_PIA04959m_tn.jpg)
PIA04959
Olduvai, Gorge, Shaded Relief and Colored
Height High-Resolution
Image
![PIA04958](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081012122648im_/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ReleaseImages/20040617/08_PIA04958m_tn.jpg)
PIA04958
Mt. Elgon, Africa , Shaded Relief and Colored
Height High-Resolution
Image
![PIA04957](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081012122648im_/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ReleaseImages/20040617/09_PIA04957m_tn.jpg)
PIA04957
Sinai Peninsula, Shaded Relief and Colored
Height High-Resolution
Image
![PIA04956](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081012122648im_/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ReleaseImages/20040617/10_PIA04956m_tn.jpg)
PIA04956
Zagros Mountains, Iran, SRTM Shaded
Relief High-Resolution
Image
![PIA04955](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081012122648im_/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ReleaseImages/20040617/11_PIA04955m_tn.jpg)
PIA04955
Zagros Mountains, Iran, SRTM Shaded Relief
Anaglyph High-Resolution
Image
![PIA04954](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081012122648im_/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/ReleaseImages/20040617/12_PIA04954m_tn.jpg)
PIA04954
Gotel Mtns, Nigeria & Cameroon, SRTM Shaded
Relief plus Height as Brightness High-Resolution
Image
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