Digital terrain analysis in the Falkland islands from SRTM X-SAR data

Abstract

Digital Elevation Models comprise a group of products for storing spatially-related elevation values, and are the main source of data for geomorphometric analysis. The release of SRTM data resulted in an expressive growth of this research area, since such product is freely available to users, with near-global coverage, was acquired in a short time span and using a unique method. Since December 2010, the German Space Agency (DLR) released SRTM X-SAR data, with 1-arcsec spatial resolution. This data has a limited ground coverage when compared to 3-arcsec C-band data, although in the Falkland Islands region the higher latitude allowed an overlap of the imaging swaths, and a near-complete coverage of the islands. This project proposes integration and processing of X-SAR SRTM data of the Falkland Islands in order to create a continuous model of the islands, which will be used in several research projects.(AU)