NASADEM_HGT v001

The Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) is responsible for the archive and distribution of the NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) Digital Elevation Model (DEM) version 1 (NASADEM_HGT) dataset, which provides global elevation data at 1 arc second spacing.

NASADEM data products were derived from original telemetry data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), a collaboration between NASA and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), as well as participation from the German and Italian space agencies. SRTM’s primary focus was to generate a near-global DEM of the Earth using radar interferometry. It was a primary component of the payload on space shuttle Endeavour during its STS-99 mission, which was launched on February 11, 2000, and flew for 11 days.

In addition to Terra Advanced Spaceborne Thermal and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) Version 2 data, NASADEM also relied on Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) ground control points of its lidar shots to improve surface elevation measurements that led to improved geolocation accuracy. Other reprocessing improvements include the conversion to geoid reference and the use of GDEMs and Advanced Land Observing Satellite Panchromatic Remote-sensing instrument for Stereo Mapping (PRISM) AW3D30 DEM, and interpolation for void filling.

NASADEM are distributed in 1 degree latitude by 1 degree longitude tiles and consist of all land between 60° N and 56° S latitude. This accounts for about 80% of Earth’s total landmass.

NASADEM_HGT data product layers include DEM, number of scenes (NUM), and an updated SRTM water body dataset (water mask). The NUM layer indicates the number of scenes that were processed for each pixel and the source of the data. A low-resolution browse image showing elevation is also available for each NASADEM_HGT granule.

The global 1 arc second NASADEM product is also available in NetCDF4 format as the NASADEM_NC dataset with the source of each elevation pixel in the corresponding NASADEM_NUMNC product.