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Most Complete Topographical Map of Earth Complete

An anonymous reader writes "Kudos to NASA and the Japanese trade ministry for mapping 99% of the Earth's surface, surpassing their previous effort, with which the new data will be amalgamated. Apparently, the data will be free to download and use."

3 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. The other %1? by basementman · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Anyone know last 1% isn't mapped? Is it just hard to access or is it part of a top secret organization?

    1. Re:The other %1? by Daimanta · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "or is it part of a top secret organization?"

      My guess, most unmapped terrain is not secret. WHy? Because 1% of the surface of the earth is absolutely huge. THe surface area of earth is 510.072.000 km. 1% would be 5.100.720 km, which is 2258x2258 km. Such a large area can't be secret in its entirety.

      --
      Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
    2. Re:The other %1? by MadCow42 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If you simply look at the image, it seems like a few random streaks in the image file. I'd guess systems issues / data corruption, or other collection faults before I'd guess super-secret military bases.

      Ideally they would combine this with previous data (relatively adjusted to this baseline) to fill in the gaps.

      MadCow.

      --
      I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.