SRTMGL3: Global 90-Meter Digital Elevation Model from NASA Shuttle Mission

February 2000 data from the 11-day STS-99 Space Shuttle Endeavour mission. This dataset provides a near-global digital elevation model (DEM) of Earth's landmass between 60° N and 56° S latitude, generated via radar interferometry by NASA and partner agencies. The Version 3 global 3 arc second (~90 meter) product was derived from higher-resolution data and has voids filled using supplementary topographic datasets.

Use Cases

• Terrain analysis and slope calculation based on the global 90-meter elevation grid.
• Hydrological modeling for watershed delineation based on the filled-void elevation data.
• Map creation and 3D visualization based on the near-global digital elevation model.
• Climate and environmental research based on the topography covering 80% of Earth's landmass.

Strengths

• Voids present in earlier versions were filled using ASTER GDEM, GMTED2010, and NED data.
• Covers approximately 80% of Earth's total landmass between 60° N and 56° S latitude.
• Data was collected from an altitude of 233 km, creating swaths ~225 km wide.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

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

Generated from radar interferometry data collected by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) on Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Time Range

Primary data collection occurred during the STS-99 mission, which launched on February 11, 2000.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:55:23.151843; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Near-global coverage of land between 60° N and 56° S latitude.