Summary
This work reports the results of a careful regional analysis of the SRTM DEM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission – Digital Elevation Model) vertical accuracy as a function of both topography and Land-Use/Land Cover (LULC). Absolute vertical errors appear LULC-dependent, with some values greater than the stated accuracy of the SRTM dataset, mostly over forested areas. The results show that the structure of the errors is well modeled by a cosine power n of the local incidence angle (θloc). SRTM quality is further assessed using slope and topographical similarity indexes. The results show a lower relative accuracy on slope with a R2 = 0.5 and a moderate agreement (Kappa ≈ 0.4) between SRTM- and IGN-derived slopes. The application of a simple cosine squared correction on the 90 m SRTM dataset shows only a slight improvement of the relative accuracy despite a 7 m decrease of the mean absolute elevation error. The accuracy is strongly improved (R2 = 0.93 and Kappa = 0.75) for data resampled at a 150 m to 500 m horizontal resolution. These results support the idea that for regional application purposes the topographic correction as well as the spatial resampling of the SRTM dataset are needed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Berry PAM, Garlick JD, and Smith RG (2007) Near-global validation of the SRTM DEM using satellite radar altimetry. Remote Sensing Environment, 106:17–27.
Bourgine B and Baghdadi N (2005) Assessment of C-band SRTM DEM in dense equatorial forest zone. C. R. Geoscience, 337:1225–1234.
Castel T, Beaudoin A, Stach N, Souyris JC, and Le Toan T (1996) Sensitivity of polarimetric SIR-C SAR data to forest parameters over hilly terrain : a case study on Austrian pine. In PIERS 1996, page 208. Innsbruck, Autriche.
Castel T, Beaudoin A, Stach N, Stussi N, Le Toan T, and Durand P (2001) Sensitivity of spaceborne SAR data to forest parameters over sloping terrain. Theory and experiment. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 22(12):2351–2376.
Falorni G, Teles V, Vivoni ER, Bras RL, and Amaratunga KS (2005) Analysis and characterization of the vertical accuracy of digital elevation models from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Jounal of Geophysical Research, 110(F02005). Doi:10.1029/2003JF000113.
Gorokhovich Y and Voustianouk A (2006) Accuracy assessment of the processed SRTM-based elevation data by CGIAR using field data from USA and Thailand and its relation to the terrain characteristics. Remote Sensing of Environment, 104:409–415.
Jarvis A, Reuter HI, Nelson A, and Guevara E (2006) Hole-filled SRTM for the globe Version 3. CGIAR-CSI.
Landis JR and Koch GG (1977) The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33:159–174.
Molotch NP, Colee MT, Bales RC, and Dozier J (2005) Estimating the spatial distribution of snow water equivalent in an alpine basin using binary regression tree models: the impact of digital elevation data and independent variable selection. Hydrol. Process., 19:1459–1479.
Oettli P and Camberlin P (2005) Influence of topography on montly rainfall distribution over East Africa. Clim. Res., 28:199–212.
Oettli P and Camberlin P (2007) Development of a topographical similarity index to analyze spatial distribution of precipitation over Africa. Personal communication.
Rabus B, Eineder M, Roth A, and Bamler R (2003) The shuttle radar topography mission - a new class of digital elevation models acquired by spaceborne radar. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing, 57:241–262.
Racoviteanu AE, Manley WF, Arnaud Y, and Williams MW (2007) Evaluating digital elevation models for glaciologic applications: An example from Nevado Coropuna, Peruvian Andes. Global and Planetary Change, doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2006.11.036.
Rodriguez E, Morris CS, Belz JE, Chapin EC, Martin JM, Daffer W, and Hensley S (2005) An assessment of the SRTM topographic products. Technical Report D-31639, JPL/NASA. 143 pp.
Scott DJ and Haschenburger JK (2005) Using the hyperbolic distribution to estimate the precision of size distribution percentiles of fluvial gravels. Computers & Geosciences, 31(10):1224–1233.
Smith B and Sandwell D (2003) Accuracy and resolution of shuttle radar topography mission data. Geophysical Research Letters, 30(9):20.1–20.4. Doi:10.1029/2002GL016643.
Stehman SV (1997) Selecting and interpreting measures of thematic classification accuracy. Remote Sensing of Environment, 62:77–89.
Sun G, Ranson KJ, Kharuk VI, and Kovacs K (2003) Validation of surface height from shuttle radar topography mission using shuttle laser altimeter. Remote Sensing Environment, 88:401–411.
Ulander LMH (1996) Radiometric slope correction of synthetic-aperture radar images. I.E.E.E. Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 34(5):1115–1122.
van Zyl JJ (2001) The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM): a breakthrough in remote sensing of topography. Acta Astronautica, 48(5-12):559–565.
Verstraeten G (2006) Regional scale modelling of hillslope sediment delivery with SRTM elevation data. Geomorphology, 81:128–140.
Wegmüller U and Werner C (1995) SAR interferometric signatures of forest. I.E.E.E. Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 33(5):1153–1161.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Castel, T., Oettli, P. (2008). Sensitivity of the C-band SRTM DEM Vertical Accuracy to Terrain Characteristics and Spatial Resolution. In: Ruas, A., Gold, C. (eds) Headway in Spatial Data Handling. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68566-1_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68566-1_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-68565-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-68566-1
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)