5.A.i.c. Extracts from Prototype National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (formerly the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) Documentation of DTED Level 0

The following text is from NIMA's provisional description of DTED Level 0 (from NIMA's Web site) at the time of release of DTED Level 0:

"In support of military applications, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) has developed a standard digital dataset (Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED) Level 0) which may be of value to scientific, technical, and other communities. This DTED product is a uniform matrix of terrain elevation values which provides basic quantitative data for systems and applications that require terrain elevation, slope, and/or surface roughness information. DTED Level 0 elevation post spacing is 30 arc-second (nominally one kilometer). In addition to this discrete elevation file, a separate binary file provides the minimum, maximum, and mean elevation values computed in 30 arc-second square areas (organized by one degree cell). Finally, DTED Level 0 contains the NIMA Digital Mean Elevation Data . . . providing minimum, maximum, and mean elevation values and standard deviation for each 15 minute by 15 minute area in a one degree cell. This initial prototype release is a "thinned" data file extracted from the NIMA DTED Level 1 holdings in combination with other publicly releasable data. As such, this version of DTED Level 0 is a step toward a worldwide digital terrain dataset. Efforts to fully populate a worldwide DTED Level 0 dataset continue . . . The current DTED Level 0 and subsequent releases will be updated consistent with established NIMA production maintenance procedures.

Support from select international mapping organizations was instrumental in the generation of the Level 0 dataset. The following nations have contributed data to this effort: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and the United Kingdom. In many cases, higher resolution terrain data of the above listed nations is available for public sale. If you are interested in obtaining such data over any of the above listed countries, please contact the civil mapping authorities of the individual nation directly.

This data set may be freely copied, manipulated, adapted or combined with other geospatial information as desired by the user. It allows a gross representation of the Earth's surface for general modeling and assessment activities. Such reduced resolution data is not intended and should not be used for automated flight guidance or other precision activity involving the safety of the public.

The data contained in DTED Level 0 is a derivative set only, and does not represent the entire Department of Defense (DOD) archive of terrain data. In making this data available to the general public, the NIMA in no way alters the controlled status of the remaining archives. Technical support or general assistance with respect to DTED Level 0 is available only to U.S. Government users. The NIMA requests that products developed using DTED Level 0 credit the source with the following statement, 'This product was developed using DTED Level 0, a product of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency.'"