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Topography Data File Products

Since topographic data can be very useful in a comprehensive analysis of climate data, the Scatterometer Climate Record Pathfinder project has produced topography files for each of its standard processing regions with resolutions matching each sensor image product. The topography data is stored in the same format and projection as the standard products to simplify its use. The polar projections are polar stereographic while non-polar regions are Lambert equal area projection.

The topography information is derived from the ETOPO2 gobal elevation dataset, a 2 minute pixel resolution data set available from NOAA. For each SIR pixel, the ETOPO2 resolution element closest to the center of the SIR pixel is assigned as the height (in meters) of that SIR pixel. While a good database, the ETOPO2 database is limited by the source used to generate it and has limited accuracy in some areas (notably at the poles).

 

Available Topography Image files
(in gzipped SIR format)
Region
ERS SSM/I
AMSR-E
SASS
NSCAT
QuikSCAT eggs
SeaWinds eggs
ASCAT
OSCAT eggs
QuikSCAT slices
SeaWinds slices
OSCAT slices
nominal resolution
(km/pixel)
8.9
4.45
2.225
Alaska (Ala)
Antarctic (Ant)
Arctic (Arc)
Australia (Aus)
Bering Sea (Ber)
Central America (CAm)
China/Japan (ChJ)
Europe (Eur)
Greenland (Grn)
Indonesia(Ind)
North Africa (NAf)
North America (NAm)
South Africa (SAf)
South Asia (SAs)
Siberia (Sib)

Also available directly from the Scatterometer Climate Record ftp site.

 
Topography data files are in the BYU .SIR file format. The files are gzipped to minimize storage and transfer requirements. Pixel values are in meters relative to nominal sea level with negative values indicating ocean depth.
World topography example