NASA Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports

43
EARTH RESOURCES AND REMOTE SENSING
Includes remote sensing of earth features, phenomena and resources by aircraft, balloon, rocket, and spacecraft; analysis of remote
sensing data and imagery; development of remote sensing products; photogrammetry; and aerial photography. For related
instrumentation see 35 Instrumentation and Photography.
20040111275 Physics and Electronics Lab. TNO, The Hague, Netherlands
A Study of the Accuracy of SRTM Elevation Models and Map Updating Techniques
Dekker, R. J.; vandenBroek, A. C.; January 2004; 91 pp.; In English
Contract(s)/Grant(s): B01/KL/973; TNO Proj. 015.32062
Report No.(s): TD-2003-00078; FEL-02-A293; Copyright; Avail: Other Sources
The report describes work done for the image intelligence part of the Program ‘Inlichtingen’ supported by the Royal
Dutch Army. The work was focussed on two main topics: automatic land use updating algorithms and the accuracy of digital
elevations models. For the first topic land cover updating algorithms using multi-spectral image data (Landsat & SPOT 5) were
studied. The role segmentation and of texture information for land cover updating was taken into account. For the second topic
data from the Shuttle Topographical Mission (SRTM) were studied and compared with standard DTED level I data for three
test sites comprising small-scale, medium-scale and large-scale relief.
Author
Relief Maps; Accuracy; Earth Observations (From Space); Radar Imagery; Radar Geology; Remote Sensing; Digital
Elevation Models; Image Analysis; Image Processing; Mapping
20040111284 Colorado Univ., CO, USA
Global Land Ice Measurements from Space
Scharfen, Gregory R.; Troisi, Vincent J.; Barry, Roger G.; July 31, 2004; 5 pp.; In English
Contract(s)/Grant(s): NAG5-9722; Copyright; Avail: CASI; A01, Hardcopy
The NSIDC at the University of Colorado has successfully completed the tasks outlined in its proposal 0999.08.1216B,
the ‘Global Land Ice Measurements from Space’ grant funded by NASA under NAG5-9722. The Global Land Ice
Measurements from Space (GLIMS) grant reported on here is one of the first completed elements of the overall GLIMS project
that continues with separate funding from NASA, the USA Geological Survey (USGS), and internationally by many national
agencies and universities. The primary goals of GLIMS are to survey significant numbers of the world’s 160,000 glaciers with
data collected by the ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and reflection Radiometer) instrument aboard the EOS
Terra spacecraft, and Landsat ETM+ (Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus) and to make these data available to users in a common
and easily usable format. GLIMS participants include: NSIDC as developer of the GLIMS database, USGS Flagstaff as the
GLIMS Coordination Center, USGS EROS Data Center (EDC) as the archive for satellite imagery used in GLIMS analyses
(NASA funding for GLIMS also includes the Flagstaff group and EDC through the related ASTER Science Team and Land
Processes Distributed Active Archive Center [LP DAAC] activities), and approximately twenty two Regional Centers (RCs).
RCs are funded by the national agencies of participating countries to analyze satellite imagery for a specified set of
glaciological parameters and provide the results to NSIDC for archive and distribution to the public.
Author
Satellite Imagery; Glaciers
20040111537 Naval Observatory, Washington, DC
The Motion of Mars Pole I. Rigid Body Precession and Nutation
Hilton, James L.; Oct. 1991; 19 pp.; In English
Report No.(s): AD-A425552; No Copyright; Avail: CASI; A03, Hardcopy
Differences between the observed forced nutation component amplitudes of the Earth and predicted nutation amplitudes
for a rigid Earth are a result of differences between the theoretical rigid structure of the Earth used in older models and the
actual elastic Earth with a liquid core. However, except for the period of the Chandler wobble, the observations of the motion
of the Earth’s pole were not accurate enough to observe the effects of the elastic, liquid core Earth until the last 30 years. In
more recent works, such as those by Wahr (198la,b), the nutation resulting from an elastic, liquid core Earth are modeled as
perturbations of the rigid Earth model nutation. This is the approach adopted for the 1980 IAU Theory of Nutation to
determine the amplitude of the various nutational elements (Kaplan 1981). These perturbations result in modifications to the
nutation amplitudes for the Earth from about 1% to 0.01% of the theoretical rigid nutation amplitudes or about O".019
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