Ma io dico: quanto ci vorra' prima che anche i nostri enti facciano lo
stesso?
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> NEWS RELEASE: 2009-103
> June 29, 2009
>
> NASA, Japan Release Most Complete Topographic Map of Earth
>
> PASADENA, Calif. – NASA and Japan released a new digital topographic
> map of Earth Monday that covers more of our planet than ever before.
> The map was produced with detailed measurements from NASA's Terra
> spacecraft.
>
> The new global digital elevation model of Earth was created from
> nearly 1.3 million individual stereo-pair images collected by the
> Japanese Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection
> Radiometer, or Aster, instrument aboard Terra. NASA and Japan's
> Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, known as METI, developed
> the data set. It is available online to users everywhere at no cost.
>
> "This is the most complete, consistent global digital elevation data
> yet made available to the world," said Woody Turner, Aster program
> scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This unique global
> set of data will serve users and researchers from a wide array of
> disciplines that need elevation and terrain information."
>
> According to Mike Abrams, Aster science team leader at NASA's Jet
> Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., the new topographic
> information will be of value throughout the Earth sciences and has
> many practical applications. "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," Abrams said.
>
> Previously, the most complete topographic set of data publicly
> available was from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. That
> mission mapped 80 percent of Earth's landmass, between 60 degrees
> north latitude and 57 degrees south. The new Aster data expand
> coverage to 99 percent, from 83 degrees north latitude and 83
> degrees south. Each elevation measurement point in the new data is
> 30 meters (98 feet) apart.
>
> "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," said
> Michael Kobrick, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission project scientist
> at JPL. "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."
>
> NASA and METI are jointly contributing the Aster topographic data to
> the Group on Earth Observations, an international partnership
> headquartered at the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva,
> Switzerland, for use in its Global Earth Observation System of
> Systems. This "system of systems" is a collaborative, international
> effort to share and integrate Earth observation data from many
> different instruments and systems to help monitor and forecast
> global environmental changes.
>
> NASA, METI and the U.S. Geological Survey validated the data, with
> support from the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and
> other collaborators. The data will be distributed by NASA's Land
> Processes Distributed Active Archive Center at the U.S. Geological
> Survey's Earth Resources Observation and Science Data Center in
> Sioux Falls, S.D., and by METI's Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis
> Center in Tokyo.
>
> Aster is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched on Terra
> in December 1999. Aster acquires images from the visible to the
> thermal infrared wavelength region, with spatial resolutions ranging
> from about 15 to 90 meters (50 to 300 feet). A joint science team
> from the U.S. and Japan validates and calibrates the instrument and
> data products. The U.S. science team is located at JPL.
>
> For visualizations of the new Aster topographic data, visit:
> http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/20090629.html .
>
> Data users can download the Aster global digital elevation model at:
> https://wist.echo.nasa.gov/~wist/api/imswelcome and
> http://www.gdem.aster.ersdac.or.jp .
>
> For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov .
>
> JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in
> Pasadena.
--
Paolo Cavallini: http://www.faunalia.it/pc