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Full catalog/SRTMSWBD
SRTMSWBD·v003·dataset

Map of where water bodies are (radar terrain mission)

NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Water Body Data Shapefiles & Raster Files V003
land NASA LPCLOUD Level 3 Binary
In plain English

What it measures. A map showing where water bodies are, at about 30 meter resolution, provided as both vector coastline outlines and rasterized files. It is the water mask used while editing the shuttle radar elevation data.

How it's made. Produced from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission flown on Space Shuttle Endeavour, with coastlines vectorized by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

How & where you'd use it. Used to separate water from land when working with the elevation data and for mapping coastlines and water boundaries.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › RADAR › RADAR IMAGERYLAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATIONLAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATION › TOPOGRAPHICAL RELIEF MAPSLAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATION › DIGITAL ELEVATION/TERRAIN MODEL (DEM)

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 Water Body Data Shapefiles and Raster Files (~30 m) product. Version 3.0 contains the vectorized coastline masks used by National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) in the editing, called the SRTM Waterbody Data (SWBD), in shapefile and rasterized formats. The NASA SRTM data sets result from a collaborative effort by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the 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

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SRTMSWBD",
    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.