New Map : Our view of the world

The American space agency and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry have released a new digital topographic map of Earth that accurately portrays more of our planet than ever before.


The new map consists of 1.3 million images taken by NASA's Terra satellite that have been pieced together to form a unified picture of the planet. The images were taken by a Japanese imaging instrument called the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, or ASTER.


The map covers more than 99 percent of Earth's land mass from north of the Arctic Circle to south of the Antarctic Circle.


During February 2000, space shuttle Endeavour mapped about 80 percent of the planet's surface.


"NASA is working to combine" the new data with that from the shuttle and other sources "to produce an even better global topographic map."