SRTM V003: Global 30-Meter Digital Elevation Model from Shuttle Radar

NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) generated a near-global digital elevation model (DEM) of Earth's landmass. The Version 3 global 1 arc second (~30 meter) product covers about 80% of Earth's land between 60° N and 56° S latitude, with data voids filled using supplemental topographic sources. The data was collected during the STS-99 mission in February 2000 by the Space Shuttle Endeavour and is distributed by the Land Processes DAAC.

Use Cases

• Modeling hydrological flow and watershed delineation based on elevation data.
• Creating terrain visualizations and relief maps for geographic analysis.
• Analyzing landform characteristics and topographic features for geological studies.
• Generating input layers for climate and environmental simulation models.
• Assessing terrain suitability for infrastructure planning and land use.

Strengths

• Provides near-global coverage of approximately 80% of Earth's landmass.
• Offers high spatial resolution of 1 arc second, which is approximately 30 meters.
• Version 3 specifically addresses data voids present in earlier versions by filling them with supplemental data from ASTER GDEM, GMTED2010, and NED.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in collaboration with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and German and Italian space agencies.

Collection Method

Collected via radar interferometry from the Space Shuttle Endeavour during its STS-99 mission in February 2000.

Time Range

Primary data collection occurred during the 11-day STS-99 mission in February 2000.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:28:28.864219; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global land coverage between 60° N and 56° S latitude.