Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

U.S. Releases Enhanced Shuttle Land Elevation Data On September 23, 2014, the White House announced that the highest-resolution topographic data generated from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) in 2000 was to be released globally by late 2015. The announcement was made at the United Nations Heads of State Climate Summit in New York. See the full JPL Release 2014-321. Previously, SRTM data for regions outside the United States were sampled for public release at 3 arc-seconds, which is 1/1200th of a degree of latitude and longitude, or about 90 meters (295 feet). See an index map of the newly available full-resolution data. The new data are available for download from the USGS EROS Data Center - see Public Data Distribution for details. See the Africa image above and its caption at the PIA04965. These additional fly around videos further illustrate SRTM elevation data: India and the Himalaya Mountains, with Landsat satellite images draped over SRTM elevation data.

XDash Weblog Future Challenges Future Challenges Whilst nothing is certain, some things that may lie ahead are now very, very probable indeed. If taking a short-term horizon of a year or even a decade they can perhaps be ignored. Peak Oil We are fast approaching the situation of "Peak Oil" where there is less oil left in the ground than we've taken out. Peak Water Over the next couple of decades many nations will hit a situation of "Peak Water" where demand for fresh water starts to outstrip supply. Climate Change According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC), increases in average global air and ocean temperatures, a widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising sea levels, all signal that our climate is changing. Food Shortages In the face of the "perfect storm" of peak oil, peak water, climate change and population ageing and rising global industrialization, it is unlikely that the human race will be able to feed itself in the decades ahead unless radical action is taken. Resource Depletion