5/11/2003: Shenandoah topography

Undertoad · 05-11-2003, 11:23 AM

The Earth Sci pic of the day yields this nice one of Virginia's Shenandoah national park by Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data.

Now here's the odd part: no camera was used to create this image.

They recorded the various elevations in detail, via radar on the shuttle. Then they created this image from that data: one pass to create the shading (which areas are light and which dark) and one to create the color (different heights of the land get different colors).

xoxoxoBruce · 05-11-2003, 01:20 PM

I can see how they can assign colors to elevations but I don't understand the shading part.

Undertoad · 05-11-2003, 01:34 PM

I think they go North to South, and when there is drop in elevation they add darkness (with more darkness for a larger drop) so you get a shadowing effect. Or something.

wolf · 05-11-2003, 04:54 PM

I'd love to see images like this next to a topographic map of the same area ... I'm guessing that between that pink ridgy thing and the pink hilly thing is a river ... and those squiggles up toward the top also look like a watercourse. (of course it could be a highway of extreme width and constant declination from the landsurface, but ...

NEAT stuff UT!

xoxoxoBruce · 05-11-2003, 07:01 PM

About 20% of the way down the mountain ridge on the right it cleaves. I think that's the junction of the Skyline Drive and Blueridge Parkway. I remember one summer night at a scenic pulloff near there, on the hood of a black Thunderbird, with a full moon.....

Griff · 05-11-2003, 07:22 PM

with a full moon to guide him Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson once again repulsed the Yankee invader.

05-11-2003, 11:23 AM	#1
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	5/11/2003: Shenandoah topography The Earth Sci pic of the day yields this nice one of Virginia's Shenandoah national park by Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data. Now here's the odd part: no camera was used to create this image. They recorded the various elevations in detail, via radar on the shuttle. Then they created this image from that data: one pass to create the shading (which areas are light and which dark) and one to create the color (different heights of the land get different colors).

05-11-2003, 01:20 PM	#2
xoxoxoBruce The future is unwritten Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 71,105	I can see how they can assign colors to elevations but I don't understand the shading part. __________________ The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.

05-11-2003, 04:54 PM	#4
wolf lobber of scimitars Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Phila Burbs Posts: 20,774	I'd love to see images like this next to a topographic map of the same area ... I'm guessing that between that pink ridgy thing and the pink hilly thing is a river ... and those squiggles up toward the top also look like a watercourse. (of course it could be a highway of extreme width and constant declination from the landsurface, but ... NEAT stuff UT! __________________ wolf eht htiw og "Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis

05-11-2003, 07:01 PM	#5
xoxoxoBruce The future is unwritten Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 71,105	About 20% of the way down the mountain ridge on the right it cleaves. I think that's the junction of the Skyline Drive and Blueridge Parkway. I remember one summer night at a scenic pulloff near there, on the hood of a black Thunderbird, with a full moon..... __________________ The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.

05-11-2003, 07:22 PM	#6
Griff still says videotape Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 26,813	one sentance story? with a full moon to guide him Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson once again repulsed the Yankee invader. __________________ If you would only recognize that life is hard, things would be so much easier for you. - Louis D. Brandeis

05-11-2003, 01:34 PM	#3
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	I think they go North to South, and when there is drop in elevation they add darkness (with more darkness for a larger drop) so you get a shadowing effect. Or something.

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