Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/SRTMIMGR
SRTMIMGR·v003·dataset

Raw radar images used to map Earth's terrain (SRTM)

NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Swath Image Data V003
land NASA LPCLOUD Level 3 Binary
In plain English

What it measures. Raw radar image files holding brightness values from a shuttle radar, plus quality files about the viewing angle, at about 30 m resolution. Every image pixel the radar collected is included, even partial coverage.

How it's made. Captured during the Space Shuttle Endeavour's 11-day SRTM mission in 2000, which carried radar to image Earth's terrain; this is the earliest, unprocessed swath imagery from that flight.

How & where you'd use it. A raw building-block input used to create near-global elevation maps; most people use the finished elevation models rather than these raw radar images directly.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › RADAR › RADAR IMAGERYLAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATIONLAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATION › TOPOGRAPHICAL RELIEF MAPS

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2000-02-11 → 2000-02-21
  • Measured bySTS-99 (SRTM)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -56, 180, 60
  • FormatsBinary
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

The Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) is responsible for the archive and distribution of NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments ([MEaSUREs](https://earthdata.nasa.gov/about/competitive-programs/measures )) SRTM, which includes the global 1 arc second (~30 meter) swath (raw) image data product. (See User Guide Section 2.2.1) The SRTM swath image data set consists of radar image files containing brightness values, as well as quality assurance (incidence angle) files for each of four overlapping sub-swaths that passes through a 1 degree by 1 degree tile. Data from each sub-swath is included as a separate file. Some files may contain only partial data; however, every image pixel acquired by SRTM is included in this data set. The NASA SRTM data sets result from a collaborative effort by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA - previously known as the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, or NIMA), as well as the participation of the German and Italian space agencies. This collaboration aims to generate a near-global digital elevation model (DEM) of Earth using radar interferometry. SRTM was the primary (and virtually only) payload on the STS-99 mission of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which launched February 11, 2000 and flew for 11 days. The SRTM swaths extended from ~30 degrees off-nadir to ~58 degrees off-nadir from an altitude of 233 kilometers (km), creating swaths ~225 km wide, and consisted of all land between 60° N and 56° S latitude to account for 80% of Earth's total landmass. Known Issues * Known issues in the NASA SRTM are described in the following publication: * Rodriguez, E., C. S. Morris, and J. E. Belz (2006), A global assessment of the SRTM performance, Photogramm. Eng. Remote Sens., 72, 249–260. https://doi.org/10.14358/PERS.72.3.249

Get the data

srtmimgr_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SRTMIMGR",
    version="003",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from LPCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.