PIA03371: Perspective View, Mt. Etna, Italy
 Target Name:  Earth
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM)
Terra
 Spacecraft:  Space Shuttle Endeavour
Terra
 Instrument:  ASTER
C-Band Interferometric Radar 
 Product Size:  1152 x 870 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  JPL
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA03371.tif (2.617 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA03371.jpg (148.7 kB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

Italy's Mount Etna is the focus of this perspective view made from an Advanced Spaceborne Thermal and Emission Radiometer (ASTER) image from NASA's Terra spacecraft overlaid on Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) topography. The image is looking south with dark lava flows from the 1600's (center) to 1981 (long flow at lower right) visible in the foreground and the summit of Etna above. The city of Catania is barely visible behind Etna on the bay at the upper left. In late October 2002, Etna erupted again, sending lava flows down the north and south sides of the volcano. The north flows are near the center of this view, but the ASTER image is from before the eruption.

In addition to the terrestrial applications of these data for understanding active volcanoes and hazards associated with them such as lava flows and explosive eruptions, geologists studying Mars find these data useful as an analog to martian landforms and geologic processes. In late September 2002, a field conference with the theme of Terrestrial Analogs to Mars focused on Mount Etna, allowing Mars geologists to see in person the types of features they can only sample remotely.

Elevation data used in this image was acquired by SRTM aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on Feb. 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect 3-D measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter (approximately 200-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between NASA, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) of the U.S. Department of Defense and the German and Italian space agencies. It is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, Washington, D.C.

Size: Varies across scene
Location: 38 degrees North latitude, 15.5 degrees East longitude
Orientation: Looking south
Image Data: ASTER bands 2, 3, 1 as red, green, blue, respectively.
Original Data Resolution: SRTM 1 arc-second (30 meters or 98 feet)
Date Acquired: February 2000 (SRTM), July 29, 2001 (ASTER)

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL

Image Addition Date:
2002-11-01