Analytics for the Internet of Things (IoT)

SRTM elevation

In February 2000, the U.S. Space Shuttle Endeavor was launched specially equipped with two radar antennas on a mission to map the topography of most of the globe. As depicted in the following image, one of the radar antennas was inside the shuttle bay and the other was at the end of a 200 foot (60 meter) mast. The mast was extended once the shuttle was in the orbit. The combined radar swept the earth as the shuttle orbited in a pattern over the globe.

The artist rendering of SRTM in operation. Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

The mission was called the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and in its 10 days of operation, it collected ...