Uncertainties in the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) Heights: Insights from the Indian Himalaya and Peninsula

• DOI: 10.1038/srep41672
• Publication Date: 2017-02-08T11:54:17Z
• Authors: Manas Mukul; Vinee Srivastava; Sridevi Jade; Malay Mukul
• Keywords: Elevation (ballistics); Root mean square

The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED) are used with the consensus view that it has a minimum vertical accuracy of 16 m absolute error at 90% confidence (Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) 9.73 m) world-wide. However, data decreases increase in slope and elevation due to presence large outliers voids. Therefore, studies using SRTM "as is", especially regions like Himalaya, not statistically meaningful. New from ~200 high-precision static Global Position System (GPS) Independent Check Points (ICPs) Himalaya Peninsular India indicate only 1-arc X-Band usable is" as height 9.18 (RMSE). In contrast, recently released (2014-2015) "as-is" widely 3-arc C-Band have RMSE 23.53 47.24 need be corrected before use. Outlier void filtering improves 8 m, 10.14 14.38 for X respectively. Our study indicates 90 30 DEMs well-aligned without any significant horizontal offset implying area length computations both datasets identical values.