干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

In this paper the distribution of 3-second elevation error in the data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) over the whole of China and its associations with topographic and land cover factors were systematically evaluated. The landscape features extracted from different datasets at more than 500,000 sites were used to determine the variation pattern in the errors by the method of single factor analysis. The results showed that the topographic attributes derived from SRTM data could adequately represent the terrain of China. However, there were extended and observable areas with abnormalities in a small proportion of the data. Slope was the dominant factor affecting elevation error compared with other landscape features (aspect, vegetation, etc.). The mean errors in glaciers, deserts and wetlands were -1.05 m, -2.03 m and -2.43 m, and 1.05 m in built-up areas. In general the elevation errors in the SRTM data formed a complex pattern of variation across China.