The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Abstract

The SRTM mission will generate consistent, comprehensive topographic data and radar images to model the terrain and map the land of most of the inhabited surface of the Earth. The instrument used is a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), which images the Earth's surface using microwave illumination and which is, hence, independent of the sun's position (time of day), weather and the surface contrast. The SAR technique allows the microwave reflectivity to be mapped with high resolution. The special configuration of X-SAR/SRTM (see Fig. 1) with secondary receiving antennas mounted on a 60 metre long mast to facilitate an interferometric measurement mode, provides a measurement of terrain height to derive the surface topography in addition to surface imaging.